By Doug MacCash, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
"Standing Vase with Five Flowers" by James Surls on Poydras Street near St. Charles Avenue (Doug MacCash)
Six new sculptures appeared along Poydras Street in early 2013, adding a modern art flourish to the center line of the downtown business corridor. Another striking new sculpture sprung up on Convention Center Blvd. near North Diamond St. The suite of monumental artworks was provided by Sculpture for New Orleans, a volunteer public art project begun in 2008 by Texas sculptor and curator Michael Manjarris and Vermont sculptor and art installer Peter Lundberg.
Manjarris and Lundberg envisioned the endeavor as a way to bring some beauty back to the Crescent City streetscape that had been blighted by the 2005 storm and flood. They’ve been installing sculpture from time to time over the past 5 years – 45 in all. That set of huge bronze figures by Deborah Masters at the entrance of Audubon Park is one of Sculpture for New Orleans gifts to the city. So is the pair of angular Alexander Calder abstractions in City Park, the big green James Surls sculpture at the Oden Museum of Southern art, the yellow construction by John Henry at Harrah’s casino, the glowing eyes at Lafayette Square by Louise Bourgeois (that were vandalized and removed) and the 108-ton concrete behemoth at UNO by Lundberg.
The Poydras Street sculpture was selected by Manjarris and Ogden Museum of Southern Art curators. The project was sponsored by the Helis Foundation New Orleans philanthropy. According to a January report on NOLA.com, the Poydras Street sculptures are centerpieces of the $756,000 landscaping project that was undertaken by the city’s Department of Parks and Parkways with Federal Community Block Grant money. Sculpture for New Orleans plans a total of 25 sculptures for the downtown area.
The Poydras Street and Convention Center Blvd. sculptures have lent a contemplative touch to New Orleans office building canyon. Though created in several media by sculptors form across the south, the selection achieves a certain moody harmony that is not quite blue but not nearly as buoyant as the colorful sculpture selection on Veterans Memorial Boulevard in Metairie.
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“Standing Vase with Five Flowers” by James Surls on Poydras Street near St. Charles Avenue
The Texas sculpture star’s surrealistic still-life design fits beautifully on the narrow Poydras Street median. Notice that Surls has provided each copper-green flower petal with an eye to watch the traffic crawl by. “Standing Vase with Five Flowers” is a whimsical companion for Surls’ somewhat more sinister sculpture “Me Life, Diamond and Flower,” a few blocks uptown on Camp Street outside of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.