You’d be hard-pressed to think of a piece of public art in Philadelphia that’s better known and more associated with the city than the iconic LOVE sculpture in Center City. (Sorry, Rocky statue!)
But the City of Brotherly Love’s LOVE sculpture isn’t the only one of its kind — and it wasn’t the first, either.
Robert Indiana, an American artist who was part of the pop art movement, came up with the all-caps, stacked “LOVE” design in the 1960s. It first gained fame when he included it in a set of Christmas cards he designed for the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Indiana’s “LOVE” design first appeared in sculpture form in 1970. (That version is currently located inside the Indianapolis Museum of Art.)
In 1973, the popular design was even featured on a stamp, and the first-day-of-issue ceremony was held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
“LOVE” first came to Philly in aluminum sculpture form in 1976. The artist lent the brightly-colored piece to the city for temporary display at John F. Kennedy Plaza (15th & Arch Streets) to celebrate the nation’s bicentennial.
When it was moved to New York to be shown to a potential buyer after two years on display, there was public outcry. The uproar led Fitz Eugene Dixon Jr., the Philadelphia Art Commission chair and owner of the 76ers at the time, to buy the art and donate it to the city. He paid $35,000 for it.
Indiana, who passed away six years ago, continued to make other variations of the sculpture over the following decades. Today, you can find dozens of versions of the art around the world, including one at Penn and a Spanish-language version installed along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Despite the wide proliferation of the design, the sculpture near City Hall has remained an iconic Philly landmark visited by tourists, replicated on souvenirs and T-shirts (not always without incident), and used as a backdrop for marriage proposals. You can even have your wedding there on a Wednesday for $200!
🎧❤️ Hear more about Philly’s LOVE sculpture and what it means to Philadelphians on this episode of City Cast Philly.
