On my way to the Museum of Modern Art the other day, I turned the corner at 53^rd and Park and was met with a colossal dose of eye candy. Lever House, one of the city's landmark Modernist buildings, has been consumed at street level by the riotously colorful art of Richard Woods.

Photograph courtesy Perry Rubenstein Gallery

The British artist, known for installations that mix historical references with eye-popping hand printed graphics done with wood blocks, has combined his own personal narrative with the company's branding history. Woods had his first encounter with art as a child growing up near a museum that housed the art collection of William Lever, one of the founders of Lever Brothers. It was located in Port Sunlight, a model village built in mock-Tudor style during the 1880s to house the company's employees. On visits there with his family, whose home was just a few miles away, Woods discovered the decorative art of William Morris, which he has adapted and combined with Tudor-style motifs for the Lever House installation, which is called Port Sunlight.

Woods used the most basic materials - plywood, fiberboard, sheet aluminum, and paint - to create the nine decorative patterns that encase Lever House's 40 structural columns. In addition, he produced two enormous aluminum "palace carpets" for the lobby as well as sheathing for the eight Noguchi marble benches at ground level. As well as drawing attention to the two stylistic opposites of high Victoriana and Modernism, Port Sunlight also draws parallels with the Modernist design of Lever House and the high Victorian collecting style of its founder.

The installation, which was commissioned by the Lever House Art Collection, is up through the end of January 2010. Lever House is located at 390 Park Avenue at 53^rd Street, New York, NY. For information about the Lever House Art Collection, please visit the website. For information about Richard Woods, please visit his website and the Perry Rubenstein Gallery website.

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