Photo by Larry M. Levine.

Those who travel into the Takoma Metro station will now have a monumental new piece of artwork to look at as they shuffle their feet to a Red Line train — WMATA unveiled a new Sam Gilliam mural, From a Model to a Rainbow, at the underpass of the station’s entrance yesterday.

The mural, which was commissioned by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the Metro Art in Transit Program, and hangs on the southern abutment wall along Cedar Street, is 14 feet high and 39 feet wide, and features a 400 square feet of multi-colored ceramic and glass tiles mounted on aluminum panels.

Gilliam, a Washington Color School artist who is considered one of the foremost members of the color field movement, was selected from a group of 132 artists to produce the work early in 2010.