Artwork Detail

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Muse of Music, Dance, Drama

Artist: Stanley, George Maitland

Object Date: 1940

Medium: Lucerne granite on concrete

Imperial Dims: 180 x 120 in.

Department(s): Parks and Recreation

Supervisorial District: 5

About the Artwork:

This Art Deco style monument Muse of Music, Dance, Drama by George Maitland Stanley serves as the gateway to the Hollywood Bowl. It was constructed between1938 and 1940 as part of the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) and represents the largest of hundreds of WPA sculpture projects created in southern California. The monument is composed of a large fountain and multi-tiered sculptural base. The crowning feature of the fountain is the Muse of Music, a 15-foot-tall kneeling statue playing a harp. On either side of the fountain are two smaller 10-foot-tall statues set back in ziggurat-shaped niches; these figures represent the muses of dance and drama, respectively. The entire piece is built from concrete and covered with slabs of decorative granite. The monument was fully restored in 2006. Photo credit: Los Angeles Philharmonic Association

About the Artist:

The late Los Angeles sculptor George Stanley is credited with numerous sculptural and architectural commissions. Stanley, the sculptor of the Sir Isaac Newton statue at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, was also a co-creator of the Oscar statuette of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences.