Hancock Tower mural artist makes Louvre Pyramid disappear in optical illusion
PARIS (AP) — French street artist JR has made the famous Louvre Pyramid in Paris disappear in an optical illusion.
The artist covered the huge glass pyramid with a trompe l’oeil installation that makes it seem as if the monument at the heart of the courtyard has disappeared.
Tourists jostled each other Wednesday to take the historic selfie of the Louvre without the visible glass structure for the first time in the digital age.
The black and white installation depicting the east side of the Napoleon courtyard features on the front of the once-controversial pyramid designed by Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei in 1989.
JR says he loves “people being destabilized and trying to find the point” that scales with the background.
A mural by JR was the talk of Boston when it was installed on the side of the Hancock Tower (now known as 200 Clarendon) in September 2015. Like the Louvre Pyramid, the Hancock has a connection to I.M. Pei; the tower was designed by Boston-born Henry N. Cobb, a founding partner of the Pei Cobb Freed & Partners architectural firm. The Hancock mural came down in April.
