Writer Amy Freeman shares with Phillyist readers the details behind our new Museum Without Walls: AUDIO program for Philadelphia’s outdoor sculpture: “Museum Without Walls attempts to explain the thought behind the art, through three minute audio segments that provide background information on both the artist and the artwork.
The segments are narrated by somewhat famous people who somehow connect to the art or by the artists themselves, as in the case of Iroquois, that giant red thing on the Parkway. The entire tour covers 51 different statues along the Parkway, starting at the Love statue and continuing up along Kelly Drive to the statue of John B. Kelly.”
Benjamin Franklin Parkway at Eakins Oval and Spring Garden Street (Iroquois Park)
Mark di Suvero’s monumental Iroquois has a robust energy and physical presence. The abstract sculpture is formed from painted steel I-beams, which are emblematic of the artist’s use of industrial materials.
For the bicentennial celebration in 1976, artist Robert Indiana lent the city a large aluminum sculpture of his “love” image. Indiana first produced this design as a painting in 1964.