Split Button

Title: Split Button

Artist: Claes Oldenberg

Location: Blanche Levy Park, in front of Van Pelt Library

Installed: June 18, 1981

Total cost: $100,000 including transportation and installation

($37,500 from University, $37,500 from NEA, and $25,000 in contributions raised by Mrs. H. Gates Lloyd, chair of the Visual Environment Committee that chose the piece.)

Other:

weighs 5000 lbs.

cast in reinforced aluminum

16 ft. in diameter

Oldenberg's 2nd major outdoor work in Phila. (1st was The Clothespin, 1976)

Oldenberg said, "The Split represents the Schuylkill. It divides the button into four parts--for William Penns original Philadelphia squares."

-Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/9/81

Criticism/Press Coverage:

Article in the Daily Pennsylvanian, December 3, 1982. (spelling errors and typos included!)

Letters by people who didn't like "Split Button" when it first appeared on campus:

Almanac, July 14, 1981

Pennsylvania Gazette, May, 1981

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