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The Spirit of Lipchitz 1 Walking Enterprise Prometheus

With its rich tradition of public art, K

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Philadelphia has long been a landmark D

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Lipchitz e u y

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(1891–1973). Works from all periods t v

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its art, and its architecture. S y

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A Jewish immigrant from Lithuania, t o

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d of his generation. The artist’s ties to Station Suburban

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Philadelphia began in 1922, when renowned t American collector Dr. Albert C. Barnes 16th St the exhibition Jacques Lipchitz and Philadelphia, on view at the

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The exhibition is made possible by grants from

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him to create seven relief carvings for the i V V Broad St

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Barnes Foundation building in Merion, S

t t Pennsylvania. After arriving in the United Center Convention 13th St

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States as a war refugee in 1941, Lipchitz 6

7 6 visited Philadelphia frequently. He was Market EastStation 11th St twice honored by the Pennsylvania Academy 10th St of the Fine Arts, selected a critically 9th St 1953 54 1960 acclaimed retrospective exhibition at the N The Spirit of Enterprise, – , cast , 8th St by Jacques Lipchitz (Commissioned by the Fairmount Park Art Association Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1964, and and donated to the Fairmount Park Commission) th St received two major commissions for public 7 Prometheus Strangling the Vulture, begun 1944, cast 1952–53, 1952 6th St by Jacques Lipchitz (Purchased with the Lisa Norris Elkins Fund, ) monuments —The Spirit of Enterprise in Total distance of suggested walking tour route, beginning at The Spirit of Enterprise and ending at Government of the People, 1967–70, cast 1976, Government of the People, is approximately 2 miles. 1950 and Government of the People in 1967. 5th St by Jacques Lipchitz (Commissioned with private and public funds by the

PHLASH, Philadelphia’s visitor shuttle, provides direct Fairmount Park Art Association and donated to the City of Philadelphia) Lipchitz remains an artist of tremendous service between Penn’s Landing and the Museum 4th St every 10 to 15 minutes from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Photographs by Graydon Wood popular appeal, whose powerful work rede- For more information, visit www.gophila.com/phlash. 1944 3rd St Cover: Portrait of Jacques Lipchitz, c. , by Arnold Newman fined the possibilities of modern sculpture. (Gift of R. Sturgis Ingersoll, 1945) 2nd St

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Penn’s Landing The Spirit of Enterprise was Lipchitz’s first Prometheus Strangling the Vulture is based Government of the People follows an intri- major public commission in the United States. on the Greek myth of Prometheus, which cate, three-tiered structure: a family group of In 1950 Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park Art became the dominant theme in Lipchitz’s work father, mother, and child entwine at the base, Association asked the artist to create a large in the years leading up to World War II. As pun- while a man and a woman turn in a spiral bronze sculpture on the theme of “constructive ishment for stealing fire from the gods and giving motion at the center of the composition as they enterprise,” which would embody “the vigor, the it to humans, Zeus condemned Prometheus to hold aloft a cloudlike formation of reclining power of harnessed nature, or the strength of be chained to a rocky cliff, where a giant vulture nudes at the top. The work’s title suggests the The Spirit of Enterprise men harnessing nature and making it conform to plucked at his liver, which regenerated nightly. themes of civic pride and good government, Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial Sculpture Garden their uses and desires. The physical power of Eventually freed by Hercules, Prometheus was but the sculpture also embodies Lipchitz’s view Kelly Drive north of Boathouse Row men, their imaginative dreams, the surge of their hailed by the ancient Greeks as the father of of humanity’s struggle to make a better world material expansion, the skill of craftsmanship, the arts and sciences. For Lipchitz, Prometheus through mutual support and dedication. the power of labor.” represented the ideal of heroic spiritual suffering Government of the People was Lipchitz’s The theme of American enterprise inspired and the eventual triumph of good over evil. last—and most controversial—public commis- Lipchitz to propose a triumphant explorer of the Lipchitz made his first large-scale version of sion in the United States. In 1972, Philadelphia New World, who peers into the distance with Prometheus Strangling the Vulture for the 1937 Mayor Frank L. Rizzo abandoned funding one hand shading his forehead as if surveying World’s Fair in Paris. That work was destroyed for the work, saying that it looked “like some the land of opportunity ahead. In his left hand, by right-wing sympathizers, who correctly plasterer dropped a load of plaster.” R. Sturgis he carries a caduceus, the winged staff with assumed that Lipchitz had invoked the Greek Ingersoll, Lipchitz’s great friend and former entwined serpents that is the symbol of Mercury, myth as a political allegory in which Prometheus president of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Prometheus Strangling the Vulture the Roman god of commerce and transportation. represented the forces of democracy defeating immediately came to the artist’s defense, Philadelphia Museum of Art (East Entrance) A great eagle, perched on a stump, guides him in the vulture of Nazi Germany. Undaunted by calling Rizzo’s remarks “sickening.” Lipchitz Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 26th Street his quest, a reference to the westward journeys of this violent opposition, Lipchitz went on to was extremely surprised and disappointed by the pioneer settlers as they crossed the plains and exhibit a plaster Prometheus at the Pennsylvania the controversy. Fortunately, the Fairmount mountains in search of a new life. The Spirit of Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia in Park Art Association stepped in to ensure the Enterprise has a resolutely optimistic message. A 1952. When a fire gutted the artist’s New York sculpture would be installed for the nation’s symbol of unchained motivation and unfettered studio that same year, the Philadelphia Museum Bicentennial in 1976. In the end, Mayor Rizzo ideals, the sculpture stands in stark contrast to of Art moved swiftly to help Lipchitz by pur- changed his mind about the work, admitting, Lipchitz’s earlier portrayal of Prometheus locked chasing the plaster for $25,000 after the “The statue by Mr. Lipchitz is beginning to in combat with a ferocious vulture, reflecting the Academy exhibition closed. In 1953 the grateful grow on me. I like it. Even my driver, Tony, changing political situation and the artist’s grow- sculptor exchanged the plaster for the bronze is beginning to like it. You name it, we have ing identification with the patriotic values of his installed here, but he would never again return it in Philadelphia.” Government of the People adopted country, the United States of America. to the Prometheus theme.

Municipal Services Building Plaza (opposite City Hall) Broad Street and John F. Kennedy Boulevard