As it appeared a few years ago
As it appears on 2016-02-26
Toynbee tiles began to appear in the streets of Philadelphia by the late 1980's. Over fifty tiles have been documented that mostly appeared in city's downtown area. In the United States, tiles have officially been sighted as far west as Kansas City, as far north as Boston and as far south as Washington D.C. It is believed that since 2002, very few tiles considered to be the work of the original artist have appeared outside of the immediate Philadelphia area.
This inspired presumed copycat artist and others to explore development of their own artistic expression with this art form.
Fishtown has two such tiles that I know about. The above photograph was taken at the corner (river side) of Marlborough St Street and Girard Avenue. (I originally (incorrectly) posted that the tile was at Palmer St. There is some other reporting that one once appeared there) Remnants of another can be found only blocks away at the corner of Hewson Street and Girard Avenue.
We'll just have to live with murals over and over and over again until a new form of street art emerges.
photo by roman blazic_all rights reserved
Philly had more than 300:
ReplyDeletetoynbeeidea.com