Still Revolutionary – Part 1 — Real Philly History with Jim Murphy

Philly started the U.S.’s first Percent for Art program in 1959

I saw this unique public art just the other day at the 1200 block of Cuthbert Street. Called CONTRAFUERTE by Miquel Antonio Horn, it shows two groups of entangled bodies trying to raise up a bridge. It certainly caught my attention. Photo by Jim Murphy, author of Real Philly History, Real Fast.

When The Philadelphian … that huge condo …

across from the Art Museum asked me to do a program on public art and sculpture in 2022, I immediately started doing some research.

My Big Surprise

I have a weird mind. First, I wanted to know who started our Percent for Art program in Philly back in 1959.

Turns out it was Michael Von Moschzisker, a man whose op-ed pieces I used to read in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin.

Von Moschzisker, an attorney and head of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, was asked by famous Philly architect Louis Kahn and Ray Speiser, a city district attorney, to propose a percent for art program similar to one Austria’s city of Vienna had established.

No takers earlier

Speiser had been unable to sell the idea before. “I was in a position to do something about it, and I did,” Von Moschzisker recalls in an oral history at Temple Digital Collections, Temple University Libraries.

Surprisingly, the Redevelopment Authority quickly passed its “percent for art” rule in March, 1959. Philly’s City Council approved a similar act in December, applying it to municipal buildings.

Clothespin by Claes Oldenburg is at Center Square Plaza, 15th and Market Street. The work was commissioned by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority’s Percent for Art Program. Some see two people kissing, others a 76, denoting the year it was purchased for the Bicentennial. Photo by Jim Murphy.

Getting builders to agree

While choosing competing builders for the reconstruction of the Society Hill area, Von Moschzisker suggested a new approach to his four other board members:

“Maybe we could let it be known that we would look with favor on bidders who offered to spend 1% of construction costs on frescoes, murals, bas-reliefs, mosaics, stained-glass windows, and fountains with statuary in or around them.”

The contractors did, the program flourished and soon spread to other U.S. cities.

Two famous Philly fun spots

***The Eagle at Macy’s (originally at Wanamaker’s) was purchased by the store from the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. It still is a popular meeting place. Photo by Jim Murphy.***

“Meet me at the Eagle”

Von Moschzisker summed up the importance of Philadelphia’s public art to Time Magazine in 1962: “The most famous meeting place in Philadelphia is the statue of the eagle in Wanamaker’s, and the most memorable outdoor object to whole generations growing up in center city has been the goat in Rittenhouse Square.”

Children love to rub the head and horns of Rittenhouse Square’s Billy Goat … maybe too much. They actually wore him down. The first Billy was sent out to pasture. This is Billy Goat 2. Photo by Jim Murphy

Since that time, One Percent for Art has been responsible for over 650 public art pieces, including the two at the top of this page.

Interesting Oddities:

Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo hated “Government of the People,” a statue Jacques Lipchitz created for the Municipal Services Building under the city’s fine arts requirement. Rizzo said, “It looks like some plasterer dropped a load of plaster” and refused to approve city funds for it. The Association for Public Art took over the project to have the sculpture ready for 1976 and the Nation’s Bicentennial.
Ironically, a controversial 9-foot-high statue of Rizzo, a decisive and divisive mayor, was paid for by his friends and supporters and placed right next to Lipchitz’s creation at the Municipal Services Building. So Rizzo’s statue had to see it every day, all day, a cruel fate for Frank.
On June 3, 2020, Rizzo’s statue was placed in storage after Black Lives Matter protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of police. It remains there today, out of sight and out of mind.

Only one developer — The DePaul Group that built The Residences at Dockside — pushed back against the percent for art requirement. Eventually, the group satisfied the requirement with “ Open Air Aquarium” by Magdalena Abakanowicz in 2003. She created 30 abstract brushed stainless steel fish mounted on 12-foot-high stainless steel poles.

Jacques Lipchitz’s “Government of the People” still stands near the Municipal Services Building in Philadelphia. Former Mayor Frank Rizzo hated it. Later, his statue was placed close by. Photo by Jim Murphy.

Fast Facts:

Revolutionary Percent for Art Program: Passed by the Philadelphia Revelopment Authority in March 1959 and by Philadelphia City Council in December.

Leader Who Pushed it Through: Chairman, Michael Von Moschzisker

Number of Pieces Produced So Far: Over 650

A Great Public Art Website: https://www.associationforpublicart.org