Lighting the way for art

Swedish sculptor Claes Oldenburg has brought another of his fantastic sculptures to the City of Brotherly Love. His fifty-one foot high sculpture, Paint Torch, has been erected at the Philadelphia Academy of the Fine Arts much to the applause of school officials, students and visitors. 

The sculpture, Paint Torch, is actually in two parts, the large paintbrush, erected at a sixty degree angle and the "smaller" six foot tall blob of paint below. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the nation’s oldest school of fine arts, has placed the sculpture in Lenfest Plaza, a central location of the campus that is also seeing new renovations.

Inspiration:

Paintbrush

Claes Oldenburg

Pencil, colored crayon

2010

Collection Claes Oldenburg,

Photo courtesy the Oldenburg van Bruggen Foundation

Copyright 2010 Claes Oldenburg

For the school, the sculpture represents how far fine art has grown and developed over the years and links that development with students at the school, the surrounding city and the international community. The Torch also serves to identify PafA as the first school for studying and practicing art and further solidifies Oldenburg's connection with the city of Philadelphia.