page_title: Talos No. 2
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Talos No. 2 / Description
caption_attribution_description: Inscription on Talos No. 2
context_page_description: Talos No. 2 is an outdoor 1959–1977 bronze sculpture created by the American artist James Lee Hansen. It is located in the Transit Mall of downtown Portland, Oregon, in the United States.
context_section_description: James Lee Hansen's bronze sculpture Talos No. 2 is installed at the intersection of Southwest 6th Avenue and Stark Street on the Portland Transit Mall. The abstract statue depicts Talos, the giant man of bronze in Greek mythology who protected Crete from invaders. It is part of a series of works by Hansen called "Talos"; Talos, which is part of the Guardian series, was installed on Fulton Mall in downtown Fresno, California in 1961, and the bronze Talos No. 3 (1984) is part of the collection of the Seattle Art Museum.
  Talos is shown with three legs; other discernible body parts include a head, rib cage and hips. The piece is 7 feet (2.1 m) tall, or 66 inches (1.7 m) x 20 inches (0.51 m) x 20 inches (0.51 m), and weighs between 400 and 700 lbs. The work is administered by the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC), which has described the work as an "abstracted human figure on three legs with multiple short appendages on the torso and shoulders". Furthmore, the agency offers the following description of Talos and the sculpture he inspired:
  He had one vein running from his neck to his ankle which flowed with lead, a sacred fluid believed to be the blood of the gods. This sculpture transforms the mythic figure into an abstracted form. Rather than mimicking the monumentality of the character, Hansen invokes him though this vaguely human but altogether otherworldly creature that seems to take in its surroundings from three directions at once, acting as a guardian to those who pass by.
  RACC's public art collection manager has said Talos No. 2 is an "excellent" example of abstract sculpture from the 1970s.
caption: Inscription on the sculpture
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