Early Exit, 2017

Early Exit, 2017

spray-paint and acrylics on canvas

61 x 78.7 inches. Private collection

The State Armory was at Second Avenue and 21st Street, and thus a coveted target of insurgent New Yorkers. Already a superior number of 10.000 people were celebrating the successful capture of the Armory building after they had rammed the gates with logs. 8.000 carbines and ammunition were captured. 

However, no sooner did some of the conquerors feel so confident of victory that they barricaded themselves in the building than the tide of battle turned. Faced with a growing police presence outside the Armory, panicked insurgents had set fire to the building, unaware that their fellow soldiers were still inside. Panic broke out inside and some perished in the flames.

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