Philip Pavia, 94; N.Y. Sculptor Known for Large-Scale Works

Philip Pavia, 94, an avant-garde sculptor best known for a large bronze assemblage called “The Ides of March,” which was displayed in prominent public spaces in New York City for more than three decades, died Wednesday of complications from a stroke at New York University Medical Center.

A Bridgeport, Conn., native, Pavia was the son of a stonecutter and attended Yale before dropping out to study at the Art Students League of New York.

In the 1940s, he helped found the Club, a group of artists, writers and intellectuals in New York, and organized most of its panel discussions.

In the 1950s, he founded It Is magazine, which embodied the same spirit of intellectual debate as the Club.

His style varied from figurative to abstract and tended toward large-scale works. “The Ides of March,” a four-piece sculpture, stood for years outside the New York Hilton and later the Hippodrome building.

Despite a recent mishap that resulted in three of the four pieces winding up with a scrap metal dealer, the work was preserved and will be permanently displayed at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.