On view
American, 1923–1997
Mermaid, 1994
Painted carbon fiber and epoxy over aluminum honeycomb core
8 x 77 x 14 ft. (243.8 cm x 23.5 m x 426.7 cm)
Major Funding Provided by: Ford Motor Company Fund, Ralph E. Ogden Foundation, The Young America Foundation;
Additional Generous Support Was Provided By: Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Bass, Mr. C. Thomas Clagett, Jr., The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas H. Gosnell, Mr. Bernard H. Gustin, The Charlotte and Walter Kohler Charitable Trust, Ann & John Marshall, Margaret T. Morris Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. James X. Mullen, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas L. Stark, Mr. Robert G. Stone, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Weg
Additional Generous Support Was Provided By: Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Bass, Mr. C. Thomas Clagett, Jr., The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas H. Gosnell, Mr. Bernard H. Gustin, The Charlotte and Walter Kohler Charitable Trust, Ann & John Marshall, Margaret T. Morris Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. James X. Mullen, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas L. Stark, Mr. Robert G. Stone, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Weg
Photo by Jeffrey Jenkins
Roy Lichtenstein, whose bold, stylized paintings derived from comic strips became some of the best-known works of Pop art in the 1960s, designed a painting of a mermaid to grace the side of a functioning sailboat. Following Lichtenstein’s plan, students from the Rhode Island School of Design painted the boat, Young America, which then raced in the 1995 America’s Cup. The late J. Carter Brown, former director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and a longtime Storm King board member, was an enthusiastic sailor and facilitated the donation of the vessel to Storm King after it was retired from competition. The mound on which the boat rests, in the middle of the North Pond, was enhanced for the purpose of this display. The original spinnaker sail, designed by Lichtenstein, depicted the sun’s rays beaming down onto ocean waves.