Tampa Museum of Art
600 North Ashley Drive
Tampa, Florida 33602-4305
Phone: (813)274-8130

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The public is welcome to see this sculpture (and the rest of the Museum) free of charge every Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon, and on the third Thursday of each month from 5-8 p.m. Members are always admitted free.

Bella Apollonia, 2001
Patinated bronze with gold leaf
Artist: © Audrey Flack, 2001
Commissioned in 2001 and owned by the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners through its Public Art Program.
Currently on loan to The Tampa Museum of Art.

Bella Apollonia is a piece which honors the 10th Anniversary of the Hillsborough County Public Art Committee, and is dedicated to the memory of its Member of Distinction, Louise Kotler (1921- 1997)

Bella Apollonia, the Art Muse may appear to be a classical Greek goddess from antiquity, but in fact is a recent creation of contemporary artist, Audrey Flack. Perhaps best known for her early, photo-realist paintings, many of which are in prestigious public collections, Flack chose to turn to sculpture as her primary medium fifteen years ago. Named after Apollo, the Greek God of the Muses, this feminine version fittingly references the Greek and Roman antiquities on display in the Tampa Museum’s adjacent Classical World Gallery, as well as promotes the arts of painting, music, architecture, literature and poetry. Flack explains that “the artwork stands with one foot on a giant paint tube, her palette replete with brilliant dabs of colors. She holds brushes high in a triumphant position, as if to say ‘Art conquers all.’” Perhaps Art Historian Tony Jansen best describes Bella Apollonia when he states, “An avowed feminist, [Flack] has transformed the art, history, and mythology of the past through personal alchemy to invent the new ideal woman of the 21st century: powerful, but beautiful, filled with a magic force yet magnetic in its appeal.”