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I was in the Philadelphia train station last year, and saw a beautiful, dramatic relief sculpture occupying one entire wall of what was an otherwise empty empty passage room. The men were strapping and handsome, the women elegant and beautiful. Yet, it appeared totally ignored, forgotten, at the end of a hall, unobserved, poorly-lit. (This felt like a symbolic moment from Atlas Shrugged.)
According to John Leicmon, "The work ... is by Karl Bitter, the eminent sculptor of the late 19th century. One of his most famous works is the fountain in front of the Plaza Hotel in New York city. He did not have a chance to complete the fountain as he was killed by an auto while leaving the opera. His assistant Karl Gruppe, a noted sculptor in his own right, finished the work. The Spirit of Transportation was not originally designed for the hidden alcove at Penn Station but was brought there after it's original site was demolished. More information on Karl Bitter can be found in Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers.
copyright © 2007 Linda Mann, all rights reserved, 9/2/2007 4:49:30 PM, Bitter
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