Port Approves 1 Part of Kelly Artwork for Park

After months of controversy, the San Diego Unified Port District “opened the door” to national artists Tuesday and approved a monumental sculpture by renowned minimalist artist Ellsworth Kelly that is half of the two-part work Kelly originally submitted to the port.

Instead of the two-piece stainless steel blade and concrete prow-like design whose parts would have faced each other across twin spits of land in the bay, the commissioners voted 5-1 for the stainless steel blade alone. It was one of three designs by Kelly that were submitted to the commission by its arts advisory board: the original two-part design; the single, 65-foot-high stainless steel element from the original design, and a larger stainless steel totem, extending to a height of up to 100 feet.

Responding to a public outcry that the five-member board was too small to represent the population, the commission also ordered the board to discuss changing its size and composition to provide better representation.

It was the makeup of the advisory board and the selection process it used that had enraged some local artists and gallery owners. Commissioner Louis Wolfsheimer could not remember any Port District land use issue that had generated as much controversy or as much mail. Tuesday’s final round of the debate brought out a string of impassioned speakers: 20 citizens spoke against the Kelly sculpture or the selection process, another seven spoke in favor of the Kelly proposal.

Kelly, but more often the members of the art board, came in for abuse by citizens Tuesday, who called board members “inept” and “failures,” and the sculpture “a sterile shaft driven into the priceless green space.” Others termed a vote for the Kelly work a “vote for the quality of life we aspire to in San Diego.”

The choice of the single, slim stainless steel blade, reaching approximately 65 feet into the sky, left open the possibility that the other part--the prow-like concrete structure which drew criticism because it might attract transients who could sleep in its hollow interior--might eventually be built. Gerald Hirshberg, chairman of the advisory board, said that it was Kelly’s intention to donate to the Port District the plans for that design.

Reached at his home in New York, Kelly declined to comment on the Port Commission’s action.

“It was precisely this form (the stainless steel monolith) which inspired us to select Kelly in the first place,” Hirshberg said before the vote was taken. “We feel very strongly that it would be an elegant, magnificent gesture for this site and for the city. While the committee might prefer the original concept, the 65-foot piece alone would be a significant work of art, a dramatic addition to the visual meaning and impact of our harbor . . . a magnificent first step in opening the door to both local national and international artists to San Diego.”

The cost of the Kelly sculpture, which will be located in Embarcadero Park near Seaport Village, is estimated to be $325,000, approximately $125,000 less than Kelly’s two-part design.