Knar Bedian Paola de la Calle’s “Entre Azul y Azul” at 596 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge’s Central Square as it was painted in 2020.
For five years the windows of a vacant storefront in Central Square exhibited hand-lettered compositions containing a powerful indictment of injustices such as police killings and displacement caused by high rents, barriers to immigration and forced settlement of Native Americans. One panel began: “Wish You Were Here. You who was forced out of this city. You who come back and do not recognize this city …” Another said: “Abolish Ice.”
No organization claimed ownership. A curious reporter wondered why the building, a mattress store before it closed, broadcast these opinions rather than the usual “For lease.” The president of the real estate company that ow