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The sculpture at Kendall/MIT Station, known as the Kendall Band, enabled commuters on both sides of the track to create musical sounds.
This Matisse seeks a patron
With an eye on the future, artist, 74, wants caretaker for Red Line's musical sculpture
By Mac Daniel, Globe Staff | June 18, 2007
CAMBRIDGE -- His grandfather, renowned French artist Henri Matisse, lives on through his works. But Paul Matisse, 74, realizes he will not be around forever to care for his own needy masterpiece.
Matisse, of Groton, is searching for a patron to help maintain one of his favorite and more popular installations: an interactive musical sculpture that has straddled the inbound and outbound tracks at Kendall/MIT Station on the Red Line for 20 years.
The sculpture, known as the Kendall Band, features six handles on the station walls that commuters on both sides of the track can pull to create musical sounds from 16 hanging tubes, an aluminum ring, and a sheet of stainless steel that makes a thunderous metallic sound.
But the installation has fallen into disrepair, and now, four of the six handles have been removed. Only the metal thunder functions properly.
Since the piece was installed in 1987, Matisse has painstakingly maintained its complicated workings, personally repairing cables and bearings. Driving to Cambridge from his home in Groton late at night after the trains have stopped running, he has made the fixes at his own expense because of his love for the piece and his knowledge of its unique inner workings.
Now, he realizes that he can no longer do the upkeep by himself.
"If I were to die tomorrow or something like that, it would be awkward and it shouldn't be because it's given a great deal of pleasure to a lot of people," Matisse said. "I think that if the piece were to be taken out for lack of repair, maybe somebody would wake up to it."
Matisse wants the sculpture to be a legacy, something the MBTA has been unable to provide as it deals with mounting debt and infrastructure problems.
Matisse said he is not exactly sure what the Kendall Band needs, but said a small foundation funded by local companies in the area would probably keep Kendall/MIT clanging.
When the sculpture is working properly, it is a daily occurrence to see someone on the inbound side playing the instrument with someone on the outbound side, usually complete strangers, connecting in the middle via music, before the roar of a train overwhelms it.
"The piece has given me a great deal of satisfaction," Matisse said. "It humanizes things, and God knows we need every bit of humanity we can elicit from our mechanisms."
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority spokesman Joe Pesaturo acknowledges that the artwork is not a high priority for the cash-strapped agency.
He said the T does not have the expertise to repair the art work, which officially became the MBTA's property after it was installed as part of the first program in the nation to put works of art in public transportation systems.
The T found $10,000 for recent repairs to the sculpture, but told Matisse it cannot pay to fix anything else.
"I think the MBTA can't maintain them the way they should be maintained," said Jason Weeks , executive director of the Cambridge Arts Council, which commissioned the Kendall Band in 1982.
"But Paul Matisse has absolutely been extraordinary and gone well beyond the call of duty to care for this piece of artwork."
Over the years, the sculpture has struck a chord with commuters.
"I have very fond memories of playing with these," said Ted Power , 22, of Belmont, who just graduated from Bowdoin College and was trying to explain the missing handles and instruments to some students visiting from Finland. "I always thought they were great."
Matisse also remembers a note from a man in Germany who had lost his way in a snowstorm in Cambridge, and stumbled upon the underground sound.
"The whole station turned into a work of art for him," he said.