ABOVE: left, detail from Claes Oldenburg’s Clothespin (1976), the most notable piece of Philadelphia public art. Roy Lichtenstein’s Brushstroke Group (detail of maquette, right) is being installed a few blocks away.

Public sculpture so often has all the aesthetic impact of a large pile of damp drywall, hulking on desolate public squares, only interesting enough to sustain the attention of the pigeons long enough to crap on it, ignored by all others. Philadelphia already had two exceptions to the rule: Claes Oldenburg’s Clothespin, a 45-foot-tall clothespin, and LOVE, Robert Indiana’s iconic sculpture composed of the letters L-O-V-E. They’re a literal bunch in Philly, we hear.

Now the Sixth Borough is getting a third, resolutely un-dull public sculpture courtesy of the Roy Lichtenstein foundation and mega law firm Duane Morris LLP. Brushstroke Group is based on a maquette of a sculpture that the pop-art posterboy Lichtenstein made in 1996, shortly before his death. The actual sculpture was made years afterward, by a company called “Amaral Custom Fabrications,” so it’s not like Licthenstein himself got out his blowtorch in his mid-70s and forged the thing himself. But still, it’s a cheerful piece, even if it is partially hidden behind a wall and access-controlled by a clutch of snooty lawyers.

LINK: The Philadelphia Inquirer > Another brush with pop art in the city