Philadelphia on a Half-Tank
Paul Santoleri
1999
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Penrose Ave. and Platt Bridge
This mural painted on the side of an oil tank at a refinery is one of the first things that a person entering Center City of Philly from the International Airport. Once it was probably an ugly, rusted tank that was nothing more than an eyesore. The NEA funded Santoleri probably in an effort to tidy and improve the looks of the city.
I think this piece is public art for several reasons. One, it is out in public (also probably on the private land of the oil refinery) and made to attract and interest the people. Secondly, its serves the city by, as I said before, making it look nicer, taking into the town's other elements and architecture while also showing its liveliness. People of Philadelphia may take some sort of pride in this representation of their city.
Another interesting fact is the name is a play on Early Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli's depiction of the birth of Venus called Venus on a Half-Shell.
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2 comments:
I think this is a really interesting way to make a city nicer to look at. You wouldn't normally think of an old oil tank as something that could be pretty, and this one is, so it makes you think about it, and like it.
I'm not really a fan of the artwork, but I'd like to see this type of stuff on the eyesores around Shreveport.
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