Artwork Details
- Title
- King Solomon
- Artist
- Alexander Archipenko (1887 – 1964)
- Year
- 1968; installed 1985
- Medium
- Bronze, on blue stone base
- Dimensions
- Height 14'6″, width 7', depth 5'7" (base height 3″, width 8'10 1/2", depth 7'7 1/2")
Artwork Description
The influential Cubist sculptor Alexander Archipenko did not normally work on a monumental scale. But shortly before his death in 1964 he completed a 4-foot King Solomon that was designed for enlargement. Instructions were left with his widow, who supervised the casting of a 14.5-foot, 1.5-ton version in 1968. In 1985 this majestic bronze came to the University of Pennsylvania campus on extended loan from Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Loria, the parents of a Penn student. Mixing hard angles with hollow curved spaces, King Solomon clearly recalls Archipenko’s Cubist origins. The sculpture suggests a figure of the Old Testament monarch dressed in a robe, posed in a forceful stance with one foot forward.
Content on this page was adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, 1992). Bach was the longtime Executive Director of the Association for Public Art, working with the organization from 1980 to 2022.
Artwork Credits
On loan to the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Loria