Lose Some Public Art, Win Some Public Art

Philadelphia lost Calder's Eagle and Ordinary. It almost lost Eakins' Gross Clinic, but now, thanks to a generous anonymous donor, it will win its first Mark di Suvero outdoor sculpture. As Stephan Salisbury reports in today's Inquirer (Sorry, the story isn't on-line. You'll just have to buy the paper!) , the unnamed donor gave the 40-foot high Iroquois to the Fairmount Park Art Association, which intends to place it on the grassy island between Eakins Oval and the Philadelphian. The photo illustration above is meant to show how it will look. Notice that the association has the good sense and good taste not to show the piece walled off with fences and baffles, as Duane Morris did to poor Lichtenstein's Brushstrokes on 17th Street.

Di Suvero, who tinkered with Iroquois for 16 years before calling it done in 1999, is one of the great American sculptors of the post-war period. He was among the first to incorporate scrap metal and other cast-offs into his work. The art association predicts that the striking Iroquois could become the Clothespin of the parkway.