Artwork Details
- Title
- Brushstroke Group
- Artist
- Roy Lichtenstein (1923 – 1997)
- Year
- 1996; fabricated 2004; installed 2005; Edition: AP, 1996/2004-2005 © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein 2004
- Location
- United Plaza, 30 South 17th Street
- Medium
- Painted 1/2" aluminum plate
- Dimensions
- Height 29′
Artwork Description
Roy Lichtenstein’s Brushstroke Group was brought to United Plaza courtesy of Duane Morris LLP, one of the city’s largest law firms, which occupies the adjacent building. In an unusual arrangement, the sculpture was loaned to Duane Morris from the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation. In 2021, Brushstroke Group was gifted to the Philadelphia Art Museum by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, and remains on loan to Duane Morris LLP.
The Philadelphia Art Museum and the Association for Public Art worked with the law firm and the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation to bring the sculpture to the city. Lichtenstein was a pioneering pop artist whose work was influenced by popular advertising and comic book images. The brushstroke was one of his frequent motifs. The sculpture rises 29 feet high, and it is constructed of half-inch aluminum plate finished with a special durable paint used in the airline industry.
The Brushstroke Group is an exuberant addition to Philadelphia’s “museum without walls” and joins Center City’s other spirited pop-art icons – Robert Indiana’s LOVE and Claus Oldenburg’s Clothespin.
Artwork Credits
Initiated by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation and Duane Morris LLP
Owned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, 2021-37-1; on loan to Duane Morris LLP
Artwork Media
Museum Without Walls
Voices:
DOROTHY LICHTENSTEIN (1939-2024) was the widow of artist Roy Lichtenstein and President of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation. She had been active in the New York contemporary art scene since the early 1960s.
JACK COWART is the Executive Director of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation. Cowart is a widely published and recognized authority on Roy Lichtenstein and Henri Matisse, as well as other 20th-century modern and contemporary artists.
RUTH FINE serves on the Board of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation and is a former curator at the National Gallery of Art. She was the curator of the 1994 exhibition “The Prints of Roy Lichtenstein”, and produced the accompanying catalogue raisonné.
Producer: Jenny Lawton
This audio was kindly supported by Duane Morris LLP.