United Nations Security Council mural
Mural displayed in the UN
Untitled (Mural for Peace), commonly known as the United Nations Security Council mural, is an oil painting by Norwegian artist Per Krohg exhibited at the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York City since August 22, 1952. The mural, an 18' x 29' canvas located on the UN Security Council chamber's east wall, features a central image of a rising phoenix surrounded by images of war and disharmony, near the mural's bottom, and more tranquil images at the top.
The mural accompanied renovations to the Security Council by Norwegian architect Arnstein Arneberg, and was first publicly displayed on April 4, 1952. It was commissioned by the Norwegian government as a gift from Norway to the United Nations.
In 2013, Norway's Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, stated that Krohg's ambition "was to give the United Nations a chamber that could inspire those working in it to carry out the core of the United Nations mandate".
Krohg's mural has been met with controversy. Some, such as the Los Angeles Times, called it "imaginative", while a correspondent for the BBC described it as "the world's worst mural, at which I have sat and gazed for many bewildering hours".
Artist background
Per Krohg, also known as Per Lasson Krohg, was born June 18, 1889, in Oslo Norway and died March 3, 1965, in Oslo aged 75. As the son of painter Christian Krohg, Per Krohg studied under his father at the Academie Colarossie art school in Paris between 1903 and 1907. Between 1907 and 1909 Krohg was a pupil of French painter Henri Matisse.
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