''Clothespin'' is a

weathering steel Weathering steel, often referred to by the genericised trademark COR-TEN steel and sometimes written without the hyphen as corten steel, is a group of steel alloys that form a stable external layer of rust that eliminates the need for painting ...

sculpture by

Claes Oldenburg Claes Oldenburg (January 28, 1929 – July 18, 2022) was a Swedish-born American sculptor best known for his public art installations, typically featuring large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions ...

, located at Centre Square, 1500 Market Street,

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. It is designed to appear as a monumental black

clothespin A clothespin (US English) or clothes peg (UK English), also spelled "clothes pin" is a fastener used to hang up clothes for drying, usually on a clothes line. Clothespins come in many different designs. Design During the 1700s laundry was ...

. Oldenburg is noted for his attempts to democratize art with large stylized sculptures of everyday objects, and the location of ''Clothespin'', above Philadelphia's 15th Street/City Hall station, allows thousands of commuters to view it on a daily basis.Bach, Penny Balkin. ''Public Art in Philadelphia''. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992. p. 241. It was commissioned in May 1974 by developer Jack Wolgin as part of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority's

percent for art The term percent for art refers to a program, often a city ordinance, where a fee, usually some percentage of the project cost, is placed on large scale development projects in order to fund and install public art. The details of such programs va ...

program, and was dedicated June 25, 1976. Made of Cor-Ten steel, ''Clothespin'' is praised by art critics for its velvety texture and weathered, warm reddish-brown color. The silvery steel "spring" part of the two-textured work resembles the numerals "76", apt for the

United States Bicentennial The United States Bicentennial was a series of celebrations and observances during the mid-1970s that paid tribute to historical events leading up to the creation of the United States as an independent republic. It was a central event in the memo ...

year. Tying in Philadelphia's colonial heritage with its difficult present, ''Clothespin'' addresses the city's civic issues and tries to bridge gaps across income levels through its universally recognized form. The design has been likened to the "embracing couple" in

Constantin Brâncuși Constantin Brâncuși (; February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957) was a Romanian sculptor, painter, and photographer who made his career in France. Considered one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th century and a pioneer of modernism ...

's sculpture '' The Kiss'' in the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...

. There are at least two small-scale models of the sculpture. The first normally stays in the Oldenburg gallery at the

Denver Art Museum The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With an encyclopedic collection of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums betwe ...

: ''Clothespin – 4 Foot Version'', completed in 1974. The second, a 10-foot version completed in 1975, is located and occasionally displayed in the Contemporary Art department of the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

See also

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