The House (Heart)

Renowned American pop artist Jim Dine’s The House (Heart), 1983 has found a new home at Discovery Green. This distinctive artwork was generously given to the park and dedicated September 25, 2013 in memory of Maconda Brown O’Connor (1930 – 2012) by her children, George, Toby and John O’Connor, and Nancy Abendshein. Maconda was instrumental in developing and implementing the vision of the park.

The custom-mounted bronze relief now resides in Maconda’s Grove at Discovery Green. Shaded by mature loblolly pines, this grove is located near the corner of the park closest to Lamar and Avenida De Las Americas. The House (Heart) is one of an edition of three bronze casts created by Dine, with cast two residing in the Tate Modern Museum in London. Associated with the development of Pop art in the early 1960s, Dine frequently affixed everyday objects to his canvases and artwork. The original clay model of The House (Heart) had embedded into it tools and objects like hammers, axes, a brick, a spanner and mallet. Dine stated in Jim Dine: Five Themes tools are “the link with our past, the human past, the hand.”

The motif of the heart began appearing in Dine’s work in the mid-60s and was meant to evoke childhood notions of romantic love, but also to have other connotations. Since it was installed in the park, it has become a favorite site for photographs.