Description
This beautifully illustrated city guide attests to Philadelphia's long-standing commitment to public art. Complete with color photos, introductory essays, and fun facts, this book is a must-have for any modern-day flaneur and art lover in the City of Brotherly Love.
The idea behind A Guide to Philadelphia’s Public Art, which is organized geographically, is that you can pick an area in the city to explore, and then take a self-guided walking tour with the book in hand and learn something about all the existing sculptures in our environment. A lot of public art can feel like neighbors that we only really know by sight. The book is filled with fun nuggets of information that have a nice way of strengthening the connection between reader and artwork.
For example, do you know that giant winged sculpture at 30th Street Station? Titled Angel of the Resurrection, the piece was made in 1952 by one of the original “Monuments Men” of World War II. Sculptor Walker Hancock was a professor of sculpture at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and also served in the army during the war to recover art and cultural artifacts stolen by the Nazis. Or maybe you’ve heard cyclists in town talk about “meeting at the dog” for a group ride. That dog, at 25th Street and Fairmount Avenue, is more formally known as Gamekeeper’s Night Dog by Victoria Davila. And that magnet for tourists, the Rocky statue at the foot of the Art Museum, is actually a gift to the city from actor Sylvester Stallone. The statue, made in 1980 by A. Thomas Schomberg, was a movie prop for Rocky III.
- Paperback
- 228 pages
- 4" x 5 1/2" x 1/4"
- Publisher: Creative Philadelphia, 2015
