The Face Behind The Bars

Earlier this year, you may remember, I went a bit nuts trying to vainly pinpoint a bit of arcane graffiti from the mid-80's, as seen depicted on a SoHo edifice in the late Spalding Gray's "Swimming to Cambodia." It was a bit of stencil I remember seeing all over the place at the time. I was fortunate enough to find another representation of it some months later (which you can see on this post). I still don't know the backstory, but I was relieved to find other documentation of it. Street art of this variety is incredibly elusive. Under normal circumstances, once it's gone, it's gone for good. But, there is the internet!

About a year ago, though I was walking east on 4th Street, and passed by a tiny, storefront photography gallery just off the Bowery. It was closed at the time, but behind the glass I spied a print of a graffiti tableaux that I vividly remembered. The most striking aspect about it was the depiction of an anguished face, painted behind bars. I KNEW I'd remembered that from years earlier, but couldn't place it. I went back to the gallery some weeks later, but the print was gone.

This morning, whilst looking for a suitable image to put atop this last post about SoHoZat on West Broadway, I happened upon the photo below via Tumblr and gasped. There, again, was the anguished face behind the bars. There was precious little info with it, other than it was taken on West Broadway in 1993.

I'm trying to remember where on W. Broadway this might have been. Does anyone else recognize it? Weigh in.