Fiduciary Trust Company International Donates 'Looking South' Painting to 9/11 Memorial Museum

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Aug 3, 2016) - Fiduciary Trust Company International, a leading global investment manager and wholly-owned subsidiary of Franklin Templeton Investments, and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum (9/11 Memorial Museum), announced today the installation of Looking South. The large-scale painting, donated by Fiduciary Trust, recaptures the views from the South Tower of the World Trade Center which, until 9:59 a.m. on September 11, 2001, had long been occupied by Fiduciary Trust, which lost 97 colleagues and business partners.

The oil-on-canvas painting, created by Daniel Kohn in 2003, avoids direct reference to the tragic event while encouraging viewers to take solace in a tranquil visual interpretation of loss. The artist conveys an encompassing awareness of the 9/11 tragedy while provoking a reverie more peaceful than sorrowful in mood, allowing viewers to slowly remember and transform what happened that day.

Inspired by Kohn's previous explorations of the vistas of the World Trade Center following his stay there as part of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's World Views residency and Seen From Above, his 2002 Grand Central Terminal commission by the MTA, Fiduciary Trust commissioned him to create a memorial focal point for the firm's post-9/11 headquarters. This unique tribute artwork is now exhibited at the 9/11 Memorial Museum at the threshold of the Tribute Walk gallery near the South Tower footprint at bedrock, complementing Spencer Finch's installation, Trying To Remember the Color of the Sky on That September Morning.

"Looking South is so deeply meaningful to our firm and employees, and for more than a decade it has served as a fitting tribute to the colleagues we lost. We are very pleased to be able to make this gift to the 9/11 Memorial Museum -- the right permanent home for the painting," said Larry Sternkopf, president and chief operating officer of Fiduciary Trust Company International. "We are grateful for the support and vision of the Museum staff and curators who have made this transfer possible."

"Daniel Kohn's monumental work, Looking South, is a testament to the power of remembrance and the potential of art to provide an indelible act of testimony both to views and to lives that are no more," 9/11 Memorial Museum Director Alice M. Greenwald said. "We are humbled and privileged today to formally accept this stunning work into the Museum's permanent collection and to make it available for millions of people to experience in proximity to the footprint of the very place that inspired it."

"So many of us have forever etched in our minds the memory of what the Twin Towers looked like in the New York City skyline," 9/11 Memorial President Joe Daniels added. "The absolute breathtaking specialness of Looking South is that it captures such a unique view and one that is no longer with us -- the view looking out from inside the South Tower. It is a tremendous honor to be entrusted with this beautiful piece by Fiduciary Trust."

About Fiduciary Trust

Fiduciary Trust Company International, a global investment management firm, has served individuals, families, endowments and foundations since 1931. With over $75 billion in assets under administration and management as of June 30, 2016, the firm specializes in strategic wealth planning, investment management and trust and estate services, as well as tax and custody services. The firm and its subsidiaries maintain offices in New York City, Coral Gables, FL, Boca Raton, FL, St. Petersburg, FL, Los Angeles, San Mateo, CA, Washington, D.C., Wilmington, DE, and London. For more information please visit fiduciarytrust.com.

About Franklin Resources

Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE: BEN) is a global investment management organization operating as Franklin Templeton Investments. Franklin Templeton Investments provides global and domestic investment management to retail, institutional and sovereign wealth clients in over 180 countries. Through specialized teams, the company has expertise across all asset classes -- including equity, fixed income, alternative and custom solutions. The company's more than 600 investment professionals are supported by its integrated, worldwide team of risk management professionals and global trading desk network. With offices in 35 countries, the California-based company has more than 65 years of investment experience and over $732 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2016. For more information, please visit franklintempleton.com.

About the National September 11 Memorial and Museum

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum is the nonprofit organization that oversees operations for the 9/11 Memorial and 9/11 Memorial Museum. Located on eight of the 16 acres of the World Trade Center site, the Memorial and Museum remember and honor the 2,983 people who were killed in the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993. The Memorial plaza design consists of two reflecting pools formed in the footprints of the original Twin Towers surrounded by white oak trees. The Museum displays more than 10,000 personal and monumental objects linked to the events of 9/11, while presenting intimate stories of loss, compassion, reckoning and recovery that are central to telling the story of the attacks and aftermath. It also explores the global impact of 9/11 and its continuing significance through education programs, public programs, live talks and film features that cover contemporary topics for diverse audiences. For more information or to reserve a ticket to the 9/11 Memorial Museum, please visit www.911memorial.org.

About the Artist

Born in 1964 in Ahmedabad, India to French and American parents, Daniel Kohn was raised in France. When he moved from Paris to New York in 1996, he was working on a series of interiors of a house in the center of France (called Changy), which sought to document the relation between art and the places of its making. Following his 1998 participation in World Views, a residency in the World Trade Center, Kohn's focus shifted to abstract landscapes that seek to explore the viewer's sense of pace. He has participated in numerous personal and collective exhibitions in the United States, Europe and Latin America. Additionally he has an extensive list of site-specific works, including public and private commissions and partnerships with dance, music and theater organizations. Notable among these installations are Seen From Above. Commissioned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York City and installed in Grand Central Terminal in September 2002, and the private commission, Looking South, for Fiduciary Trust Company International, a four story painting of the view looking south from the World Trade Center.

From 2003 to 2013 he was involved with the Broad Institute for Genomic Research, where he investigated the crossovers between art and science. He is their Founding Artist in Residence and founder of the Viz Group. Kohn recently completed Instance of a Dataset, a seven floor commission for Broad's headquarters.

In 2013 and 2014, Daniel was Artist in Residence at the Center for Epigenomics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, NY. He is now Art/Science Research Director at Ligo Project, a new organization dedicated to enabling research across Art and Science, and pursues his Artistic research in Brooklyn where he has his studio.

Kohn is currently represented by Cynthia Reeves Gallery in New York and New Hampshire. 

For more information or to reserve a ticket to the 9/11 Memorial Museum, please visit 911memorial.org.

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