Is Rico Lebrun Hiding in the Post Office?

Posted by baad lamb

“As for the subject matter: they are ‘flood’ figures, ‘hell’ figures, ‘Roman” figures – but no, in reality they are apparitions of my own being to myself, because I would like to be double, or many, upside down and right-side up, masculine and feminine, carnal and remote, seen and unseen; these obsessive shapes keep popping up and now they keep me company – a company I have always wanted, now they do, they come, they stay, they mirror me.”

              -Rico Lebrun from a personal letter (to whom?), May 1961

It’s the end of an epic walk on a sunny day in March 2008, and I’m photographing the matching verdigris light fixtures projecting off the long and repetitious north façade of the Farley Post Office. The iconic 8th Ave main building is full of immediately recognizable features, its block-long stairs rising monumentally to the equally long series of entry doors, with enough room across the architrave to spell out the entire well-known phrase “Neither snow nor rain etc.”. But here, on 33rd much closer to 9th Ave, these lights are the major protrusion on the utilitarian section known as the Western Annex, and they mark an equally utilitarian entrance.

A few more pictures and it occurs to me that I have never been inside this Charles McKim landmark, built across the avenue from his undisputed masterwork Pennsylvania Station (RIP). And now, right here a door was presenting itself, and it was unlocked. Rather than go around to the front, I went in.


Who was Rico and what did he do? Pictures and more after the jump...