Thomas Jefferson, on the other hand, tended to qualify his positive view of the classical world with his belief that the American experiment was an experiment of the future, not one of the classical past he did not want to over-fixate on historical philosophies. In a 2021 speech for Greek Independence Day, Biden claimed that “What really binds together are values,” and Trump, in his own Independence Day speech, said, “All around us here in the United States we see the profound influence of Greek culture, art, and philosophy”. Modern politicians, including President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, still reference America’s connection to ancient Greece. For instance, John Adams explicitly refers to the “ancient republics” in A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America to support his argument for American democracy, and others, like Alexander Hamilton, used classical pseudonyms in writing. At least, this is how many past and present scholars, statesmen, and citizens have conceived of our relationship to the Greeks of antiquity. Western scholasticism and intellectual history, democracy and imperialist tendencies, and perhaps even the fixation on history’s “great men” have all arguably derived from our Greek predecessors. This assertion was based upon the many vestiges of Ancient Greece that America-and more broadly, the West-both benefit and suffer from. Once, in a University of Pennsylvania class on the history of Ancient Greece, my professor said something to this effect: “We are the Greeks”. What Is a Museum? A Memo to the Penn Community on the Penn Museum.The Need for a Monument to the Black Bottom: An Analysis of University City’s Troubled Past.Proposed Thank-you Monument to Food Truck Workers at Penn.Philadelphia’s Golden Block: El Centro de Oro.Penn’s Monument Landscape: Student Views.Penn Performing Arts in the Pandemic Project.Change of Direction: The Locust Walk Compass.All Dollars, No Sense: How Penn Profits from Katalin Karikó’s Research on Covid-19 Vaccines.Public Space Redesigned: Dilworth Park and LOVE Park.Philadelphia’s Linguistic Infrastructure.Philadelphia Energy Solutions Oil Refinery: An Unintentional Monument to Power.Kings of the Castle: How an Unintentional Monument Is a Testament to Penn’s Values.Eastern State Penitentiary’s Uneasy Transformation from Prison to Museum.Delaware, Um, Columbus Avenue: A Contentious Place-name in Philadelphia.“We Lost”: A War, a Monument, and a Campus Controversy.Sports Monuments in Philadelphia: A Guided Tour.Philadelphia’s Monument to Six Million Jewish Martyrs.Penn’s Fallen Founder: Reverend George Whitefield.Interactive and Irreverent Traditions at Penn’s Campus Monuments.(64.77 x 87.63 cm.) Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1876. Image above Frank Furness and George Wattson Hewitt, (1839-1912)/(1841-1916), 1873-76 Black ink, watercolor wash, and pencil on white paper on mount 25 1/2 x 34 1/2 in. While his sculptures are meticulously crafted and demand close viewing, Smith’s purposefully rough handling of worn materials goes beyond mere replication and demonstrates Smith’s inventive vision and the lasting influence of these buildings in the 21st century. He uses cardboard and foam core, as well as paint, tape, charcoal and gouache to replicate building details that architects like Furness and Hewitt so painstakingly invented. Smith is known for his sculptures made from found materials of famous Philadelphia buildings-many of which were built during this late 19th century heyday of Philadelphia architecture. When Louis Sullivan, later a founder of the Chicago School of Design, entered the Furness & Hewitt office in 1873 as PAFA was being constructed, he found Hewitt with his nose in books while Furness busily “made buildings out of his head.” For Sullivan, Furness’ method was the right strategy and would be passed on to Sullivan’s students, including Frank Lloyd Wright. In the 1870’s Philadelphia, more than any other city of the day was shaped by engineers and industrialists. This collections focus features the original drawings for the building grisaille paintings from 1879 that show its interior spaces as used by art students as well as a sculpture of the building made in 2019 by Philadelphia artist Kambel Smith (b. The Victorian hybrid details of the building façade communicated purpose and identity of the art school and museum, while the planning and new construction systems captured the energy of a factory for making art. Frank Furness and George Hewitt’s design for PAFA collided logistical planning learned from factory designs with cutting edge engineering and steel construction. Almost 150 years old, PAFA’s Historic Landmark Building continues to inspire.
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