Chryssa (American, born Greece, 1933–2014). <em>Cents Sign Travelling from Broadway to Africa via Guadeloupe</em>, 1968. Neon tubing, Plexiglas, 43 x 35 x 28 1/2 in. (109.2 x 88.9 x 72.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Sidney Singer, 85.290. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 85.290_overall_PS11.jpg)

Chryssa (American, born Greece, 1933–2014). Cents Sign Travelling from Broadway to Africa via Guadeloupe, 1968. Neon tubing, Plexiglas, 43 x 35 x 28 1/2 in. (109.2 x 88.9 x 72.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Sidney Singer, 85.290. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 85.290_overall_PS11.jpg)

DOWNLOAD

Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

Can you please explain this work?

Chryssa is known for works in the neon like this. She was inspired by seeing Times Square on her first trip to New York in 1955. She is interested in the styles of communication that humans have created, beyond the simple writing of language and how language is depicted.

The title of this work, "Cents Sign Travelling from Broadway to Africa via Guadeloupe," and the use of a monetary symbol speak to the rapid globalization that was taking place in the mid-20th century.

Cents Sign Travelling from Broadway to Africa via Guadeloupe

Chryssa

Contemporary Art

Settling in New York in 1955, Chryssa (born Chryssa Vardea-Mavromichali) was drawn to the creative energy of America’s ever-changing postwar cities. The Athens-born artist gained art-world acclaim with work that utilized innovative materials taken from urban environments. During the 1960s, she produced vibrant paintings, prints, and pioneered the use of neon tubing, Plexiglas, and aluminum in a fine-art context. Evoking Chryssa’s fascination with Times Square and celebrating the giant blinking, pulsing signs of the city, Cents Sign Travelling from Broadway to Africa via Guadeloupe acknowledges the interconnected world at a moment of global economic and technological growth.

ARTIST Chryssa, American, born Greece, 1933–2014

MEDIUM Neon tubing, Plexiglas

DATES 1968

DIMENSIONS 43 x 35 x 28 1/2 in. (109.2 x 88.9 x 72.4 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Contemporary Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 85.290

CREDIT LINE Gift of Sidney Singer

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

CAPTION Chryssa (American, born Greece, 1933–2014). Cents Sign Travelling from Broadway to Africa via Guadeloupe, 1968. Neon tubing, Plexiglas, 43 x 35 x 28 1/2 in. (109.2 x 88.9 x 72.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Sidney Singer, 85.290. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 85.290_overall_PS11.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 85.290_overall_PS11.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2022

"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.

The Brooklyn Museum holds a non-exclusive license to reproduce images of this work of art from the rights holder named here. The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org. If you wish to contact the rights holder for this work, please email copyright@brooklynmuseum.org and we will assist if we can.

RECORD COMPLETENESS

Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.

Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

Can you please explain this work?