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Free Stamp

Name: Free Stamp
Address: East 9th Street, Cleveland, OH, US

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Timothy

June 21, 2019

The giant rubber stamper might be the most conspicuous piece of public art in the city. While its current location next to City Hall seems appropriate, the sideways stamp, created by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen, was originally intended for Public Square with its base — and the word “FREE” — flush against the ground, its handle extended skyward. But Standard Oil Co. had commissioned the art in the mid-1980s, just prior to its merger with British Petroleum Co., and the company’s new executives weren’t crazy about the piece. They banished it to an Illinois warehouse before donating it to the city. When Willard Park was chosen as the Free Stamp’s home, the artists modified their design. The now-visible base of the stamp was purposely positioned toward the BP building. “It’s pointed on a diagonal to the 23rd floor, which were the corporate offices,” says Case Western Reserve University department of art history chair Edward Olszewski. “It leads the viewer back to the original site.”