“Hotel Paradise Cafe”, 1987. Peter Milton (born 1930). Resist-ground etching and engraving. Gift of John & Sabina Szoke.
Standing before Peter Milton’s “Hotel Paradise Café”, you can easily find yourself lost in the best possible way. At first glance, Milton’s 1987 work presents what appears to be a simple, representation of a hotel lobby; however quickly you will find yourself tracking the labyrinthine interior where mirrors reflect mirrors and realities bend. Its disorienting, mesmerizing imagery is the perfect catalyst for teaching in Associate Professor and former SU Art Museum Faculty Fellow Lyndsay Gratch’s digital performance course in the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies.
Peter Milton (born 1930) is renowned for his incredibly detailed prints that blend memory, dream, and reality. This resist-ground etching and engraving, donated to the SU Art Museum in 2023 by John and Sabina Szoke, is more than just a stunning display of technique. It is one of the jumping off points for students to examine perspective and experience in Gratch’s course, CST 314: Performance Studies: Digital Performance in Everyday Lives.
“We routinely welcome classes into the galleries and our Study Room, creating opportunities for students to study artworks firsthand,” says Melissa Yuen, curator. “To encourage teaching innovation, we also developed a Faculty Fellows program, which is now in its fourth year.”
“[Milton’s use of mirrors and reflections invites] a critical analysis of the viewer’s own perspectives and positionalities, in addition to recognizing that knowledge is not objective or neutral,” Gratch explains. ‘Thus, reflexibility calls for a deeper level of self-awareness and critical thinking about historical contexts, contemporary and historical power structures, and personal biases.”
Just as Milton’s mirrors force viewers to question what exactly they are looking at, Gratch asks students to question their own viewing position. In an age of social media, misinformation, and AI-generated content, understanding how we construct and consume images has never been more important.
Want to see this artwork for yourself?
“Interiors IV: Hotel Paradise Café” will be featured in “New In: Recent Acquisitions at the SU Art Museum,” opening February 9, 2026 at the Bernard and Louise Palitz Gallery in New York City.