''Capitalism'' is a 1991 outdoor marble and concrete sculpture and fountain by Larry Kirkland, located in northeast

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, United States.

Description

Larry Kirkland's ''Capitalism'' (1991) is an outdoor marble and concrete sculpture and fountain installed at the corner of Northeast 9th Avenue and Northeast Multnomah Street by the

Lloyd Center Lloyd Center is a shopping mall in the Lloyd District, Portland, Oregon, Lloyd District of Portland, Oregon, United States, just northeast of Downtown Portland, downtown. It is owned by Arrow Retail of Dallas. The mall features three floors of ...

. It was chosen in a regional art competition during Lloyd Center's renovation. The sculpture depicts fifty coins stacked on an Ionic column and is set in the center of a circular fountain basin with four water jets. Half of the coins have serious or humorous inscriptions on their edges relating to capitalism and commerce. The

allegorical sculpture Allegorical sculpture are sculptures of personifications of abstract ideas as in allegory. Common in the western world, for example, are statues of Lady Justice representing justice, traditionally holding scales and a sword, and the statues of ...

measures tall and the basin's diameter is approximately . It was surveyed and considered "treatment needed" by the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

's "

Save Outdoor Sculpture! Save Outdoor Sculpture! (SOS!) was a community-based effort to identify, document, and conserve outdoor sculpture in the United States. The program was initiated in 1989 and ended in 1999. History Save Outdoor Sculpture! was initiated by Herit ...

" program in July 1993. It has been included in published walking tours and public art guides, one of which called the sculpture "an appropriate reminder of the relationship of money to a marketplace".

References

{{Public art in Portland, Oregon 1991 establishments in Oregon 1991 sculptures Allegorical sculptures in Oregon Concrete sculptures in Oregon Fountains in Portland, Oregon Lloyd District, Portland, Oregon Marble sculptures in Oregon Northeast Portland, Oregon Outdoor sculptures in Portland, Oregon Works about capitalism

Description

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References