Philadelphia

Split Button

Posted by Cindy on June 19, 2019

Jun 192019

University of Pennsylvania
Front of the Van Pelt Library

Split Button by Claes Oldenburg cost $100,000 with $37,500 coming from the University, $375,000 from NEA and the remaining raised through contributions. It is made of reinforced aluminum, weighs 5000 pounds and meashures 16 feet in diameter.

A legend exists, mainly circulated by students at the University of Pennsylvania, that attributes The Button to the university’s founder, Benjamin Franklin. A monument of a seated Franklin stands near the sculpture; legend has it that when this man of considerable girth sat down, his vest button popped off and rolled across the University’s Locust Walk. It eventually came to a stop and split into two—hence becoming today’s sculpture.

Oldenburg, however, presents an alternative view. He once said “The Split represents the Schuylkill. It divides the button into four parts—for William Penn’s original Philadelphia squares.

Paint Torch

Posted by Cindy on June 1, 2019

Jun 012019

Pittsburgh, PA Lenfest Plaza Installed in August 2011 at a daring 60-degree diagonal position, the 51-feet high Paint Torch sculpture by Claes Oldenburg in Lenfest Plaza honors the act of painting—from the classical masters in PAFA’s museum to the students in PAFA’s School of Fine Arts. Paint Torch, commissioned by PAFA, stands on the point of its handle in a gravity-defying gesture. Nearby on the plaza floor is a six-foot high “glob” of paint, part of which the brush has lifted into the sky in a depiction of the act of painting a picture. The “glob” and “blip” at the tip of the brush Continue Reading

Covenant by Alex Liberman

Posted by Cindy on May 30, 2019

May 302019

University of Pennsylvania Locust Walk Weighing over 25 tons, Covenant, the creation of Alexander Liberman (1912-1999) was commissioned as part of the university’s fulfillment of the Redevelopment Authority’s Percent for Art requirement. Alexander Liberman’s sculpture has been described as so “wildly asymmetrical” that every change in the viewer’s angle of perception alters the apparent axes. During his long career, his sculpture became increasingly monumental, and he characterized his larger works as a kind of “free architecture” that should have the impact of a temple or cathedral. In Covenant Liberman specifically intended to convey a feeling of unity and spiritual participation. The installation Continue Reading

Grumman Greenhouse

Posted by Cindy on May 26, 2019

May 262019

Grumman Greenhouse Lenfest Plaza This crashed and artfully crumpled full-size airplane is titled “Grumman Greenhouse,”. The creation of 27-year-old Jordan Griska was installed in 2011. The plane is a U.S. Navy Grumman Tracker S-2E, built in 1962. It flew from aircraft carriers. Mothballed in the 1980s, it had a second career helping to fight forest fires in California. Jordan bought it on eBay for about the same price as a cheap used car. Inspired by origami, Jordan folded the Grumman to look like it had nose-dived into the ground. He then replaced its cockpit innards with a working greenhouse, lit Continue Reading

Aero Memorial

Posted by Cindy on March 4, 2018

Mar 042018

Philadelphia has the largest collections of Public Art in the United States and much of it can be viewed with an audio tour I was particularly drawn to this bronze sphere which sits opposite the main entrance of the Franklin Institute and is dedicated to aviators who died in World War I. Inscribed with the Latin names of constellations and planets, this Paul Manship sculpture Aero Memorial illustrates the signs of the zodiac in a style that recalls both classicism and Art Deco. The idea for Aero Memorial was conceived by the Aero Club of Pennsylvania, which donated modest funds for Continue Reading

Lichtenstein in Philadelphia

Posted by Cindy on March 4, 2018

Mar 042018

United Plaza South 20th Street Philadelphia, PA Philadelphia has a wonderful program called Museum Without Walls, and this is part of that program. Roy Lichtenstein’s Brushstroke Group, was brought to Philadelphia in August 2005 courtesy of Duane Morris L.L.P, one of the city’s largest law firms, which occupies the adjacent building. In an unusual arrangement, the sculpture is on loan to Duane Morris from the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation. The Fairmount Park Art Association and the Philadelphia Museum of Art worked with the law firm and the Foundation to bring the sculpture to the city. It is part of the Brushstrokes Continue Reading

Wanamaker, An Organ, and An Eagle

Posted by Cindy on March 3, 2018

Mar 032018

1300 Market Street Philadelphia, PA Designed by renowned organ architect and Scotsman, George Ashdown Audsley, and built by the Los Angeles Art Organ Company for the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, the Wanamaker Organ originally incorporated more than 10,000 pipes. The cost of construction ($105,000) actually bankrupted the builder. Fortunately, the Organ found a new home with John Wanamaker, the Philadelphia merchant who founded the groundbreaking Wanamaker’s department store. A firm believer in music’s capacity to benefit civic life, he purchased the organ in 1909 and had it installed over a two-year period in the seven-story atrium of his Philadelphia Continue Reading

Swann Memorial Fountain

Posted by Cindy on February 28, 2018

Feb 282018

Logan Square Philadelphia, PA The Swann Memorial Fountain (also known as the Fountain of the Three Rivers) is by Alexander Stirling Calder (who has shown up on these pages before) and designed with architect Wilson Eyre. The fountain memorializes Dr. Wilson Cary Swann, founder of the Philadelphia Fountain Society. Calder created large Native American figures to symbolize the area’s major streams, the Delaware, the Schuylkill, and the Wissahickon. Sculpted frogs and turtles spout water toward the 50-foot geyser in the center, though typically the geyser only spouts 25 ft. The use of swans is an obvious pun on Dr. Swann’s name. Continue Reading

Dendroids by Roxy Paine

Posted by Cindy on February 21, 2018

Feb 212018

Philadelphia – February 2018 Benjamin Franklin Parkway 24th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue This piece, titled Symbiosis by Roxy Paine, was installed in 2014. It is stainless steel and part of Paine’s “Dendroid” series of stainless steel treelike structures. “Dendroids”is a greek word that combines Dendron meaning tree and oid a suffix meaning form. The piece is 34 feet tall and is hand-fabricated from thousands of pieces of pipe, plate and rods, welded and polished to create these two forms that weigh and buttress each other. Roxy Paine was born in New York City in 1966. He was educated at both Continue Reading

Pennsylvania – Bucks County

Posted by Cindy on June 26, 2011

Jun 262011

Outside Philadelphia – This is the Mercer Museum in Doylestown, (Bucks County) Pennsylvania. Henry Mercer inherited his money from a maiden aunt and with this money he started collecting objects of everyday life, convinced that the history of Bucks County was the history of the world. At first he did all the collecting himself, but over the years he developed quite a network of people that would bring him items from far and wide. His first collection burned down, thus creating the desire to house the entire new collection in a fireproof, concrete building. So in 1916, Mercer erected a Continue Reading

Posted by Cindy on June 25, 2011

Jun 252011

Philadelphia – Claes Oldenburg

Posted by Cindy on June 24, 2011

Jun 242011

In Front of the City Center building downtown Philadelphia. I am a huge fan of Claes Oldenburg. Born in Stockholm, Sweden, the son of a Swedish diplomat stationed in New York. In 1936 his father was transferred to Chicago where Oldenburg grew up, attending the Latin School of Chicago. He studied at Yale University from 1946 to 1950, then returned to Chicago where he took classes at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Many of Oldenburg’s large-scale sculptures of mundane objects elicited public ridicule before being embraced as whimsical, insightful, and fun additions to public outdoor art. Continue Reading

Philadelphia – Following your spirit

Posted by Cindy on June 23, 2011

Jun 232011

My favorite artists are ones that find their passion and pursue it, with no thought to commercialism, or the sale. The thing that is shunned by the neighbors, until they realize you aren’t a crazy old coot, you have a vision and it is just different. Well I found one of those in Philadelphia. His name is Isaiah Zargar. His work looks like that of an educated artist, and he is, having graduated from Pratt Institute in NYC. While a young 19 year old he discovered the folk art of Clarence Schmidt which definitely inspired his work. In 1994, Zagar Continue Reading

Philadelphia – Playing Games

Posted by Cindy on June 22, 2011

Jun 222011

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – 1417 JFK Boulevard This installation is entitled “Your Move” by Daniel Martinez, Renee Petropoulis and Roger White, it was installed in 1979. While difficult to discern on the ground, the tiles appear to be some sort of game board, not checkers, or chess, but orderly like a game board. The tops of the blue rounds have Bingo Number/Letter combinations on them, and there are also Checker’s pieces with crowns on top. This is best seen from the observation deck of the Municipal Services Building where they are located. Since I did not go up, I appreciated them Continue Reading

Philadelphia – Eastern State Penitentiary

Posted by Cindy on June 21, 2011

Jun 212011

Philadelphia - Eastern State Penitentiary

I am in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. My habit in any town is to seek the odd ball. After an entire morning spent at the Philadelphia Art Museum, I headed out to an odd ball spot. Before explaining that however, I must say, that if you have the opportunity to visit the Philadelphia Art Museum, please do. Plan on exhausting yourself. It has one of the most vast collections in the United States, and all of it is absolutely first rate. I have never seen so many great old masters on display in one location, to say nothing of their Asian Art Continue Reading

Philadelphia – Public Art As Playgrounds

Posted by Cindy on June 20, 2011

Jun 202011

Philadelphia - Public Art As Playgrounds

This is entitled “White Water” by Robinson Frendenthal. It was installed in 1978, and the plaque reads “Installed as a Fine Arts Commitment as required by the Redevelopment Authority of Philadelphia.” So sad, sounds like the really didn’t want it. Robinson Frendenthal graduated from Penn with a degree in architecture and turned to sculpture almost immediately. His work can be seen all over Philadelphia. He died at 69 in 2009. I don’t find anything outstanding enough about this sculpture to include it as a post in most normal circumstances, but what captured my attention immediately was the group of Continue Reading

Philadelphia – Government of the People

Posted by Cindy on June 19, 2011

Jun 192011

“Government of the People” is located in front of the Municipal Services Building in Philadelphia. A piece by Jacques Lipchitz it was dedicated in 1976. It seeks to portray the artist’s ideas regarding the struggle for freedom and the push to ensure democracy Lipchitz (1891-1973) was a Lithuanian. In 1909 he moved to Paris to study at the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian and fell into the art scene there with such notables as Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, and Juan Gris He was recognized as the most significant ‘Cubist’ sculptor of his time. His work was widely viewed as more Continue Reading

Philadelphia – Maxfield Parish meets Tiffany

Posted by Cindy on June 18, 2011

Jun 182011

Philadelphia - Maxfield Parish meets Tiffany

Dream Garden is an enormous glass mosaic designed by artist Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966), and executed by Louis Comfort Tiffany and Tiffany Studios, for the lobby of the Curtis Publishing Building in Philadelphia — home of The Ladies’ Home Journal and The Saturday Evening Post. The work was commissioned by Edward Bok, Senior Editor of the Curtis Publishing Company. Over a one-month period, prior to being installed in the Curtis Building, the work was exhibited at Tiffany Studios in New York City, attracting more than 7,000 viewers. The Dream Garden took six months to install in Philadelphia. Maxfield Parrish was known Continue Reading

Philadelphia – Feeling the Love

Posted by Cindy on June 17, 2011

Jun 172011

Okay, you knew this was coming. I am in Philadelphia, City of Brotherly Love. City of Brotherly Love isn’t actually a nickname. It is merely a translation of the Greek phrase “brotherly love” from philos “love” and adelphos “brother”. William Penn was an English Quaker, a Latin and Greek scholar who was educated at Oxford. He chose the name when he established a peaceful and friendly city in the colony in the New World so that his fellow religionists could escape the persecution they were suffering in their native land. In 1976 the Robert Indiana sculpture was installed in John F. Continue Reading

Philadelphia – June 16, 2011

Posted by Cindy on June 16, 2011

Jun 162011

I am in Philadelphia and I hate doing the classic tourist stuff, so sorry, you won’t see a picture of the Liberty Bell, but this is pretty touristy as things go. This is Christ Church Burial Ground. I love cemeteries, they are so full of history, even if you don’t know anything about the people buried there, they have history for the people that knew them and the towns they are buried in. This particular cemetery has history for all of us. Benjamin Franklin is buried here, as well as four other signers of the Declaration of Independence. Commodore William Bainbridge, Commodore Continue Reading