HomeMy WebLinkAboutC33260 - BIDS for PS Art Museum PD ImprvmntsContract No. C33260
REQUEST:
CITY OF PALM DESERT
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
STAFF REPORT
RECEIVE AND FILE INFORMATIONAL REPORT OF PROPOSED NEW
SCULPTURES AND MOVEMENT OF EXISTING SCULPTURES AT THE
PALM SPRINGS ART MUSEUM -PALM DESERT AND AUTHORIZE THE
CITY CLERK TO ADVERTISE AND CALL FOR BIDS FOR
MISCELLANEOUS IMPROVEMENTS.
SUBMITTED BY: Deborah Schwartz, Management Analyst
DATE: January 23, 2014
CONTENTS: Sculpture Garden Site Plan
Artwork Images and Descriptions
Recommendation
By minute motion,
1. Receive and file the informational report; and
2. Authorize the City Clerk to advertise and call for bids for the construction of Palm Springs Art
Museum -Palm Desert improvements (Project No. 872-14).
Commission Review
At its regularly scheduled meeting of January 8, 2014, the Art in Public Places Commission received a
presentation on the relocation of the existing sculptures and the placement of the new sculptures from
Museum staff. Because these sculptures are not a part of the City's public art program, the
Commission took no action on the item, but was very supportive of the proposal.
Discussion
As part of the lease agreement between the City of Palm Desert and the Palm Springs Art Museum
(2010), the Museum has created a sculpture garden in the Faye Sarkowsky Memorial Gardens at the
Eric Johnson Memorial Gardens, which are adjacent to the Palm Springs Art Museum in Palm Desert.
The lease agreement requires that the City pay an honorarium, initiate lighting and art foundation
improvements, and reimburse installation costs for each sculpture (up to 20) installed within the
nonexclusive use area (i.e. Eric Johnson Memorial Garden and Multi -Sensory Garden adjacent to the
Henderson Building).
In 2013, the city completed work on a project to install lighting fixtures, poles, and pads for nine
sculptures. An additional four sculptures are requested to be installed this year and two existing ones
will be relocated, for a total of thirteen sculptures within the non-exclusive use area once the second
phase is completed. Upon this project's completion, the City would be responsible for the
aforementioned costs for an additional seven sculptures.
As noted, the Museum has already placed nine sculptures in the gardens, and would now like to move
two of them to new locations within the gardens, and add four additional sculptures. The sculptures
Contract No. C33260
Staff Report-PSAM in Palm Desert Sculptures
January 23, 2014
Page 2 of 2
that will be relocated are Steel Watercolor with Balls by Fletcher Benton and Morning by Yehiel Shemi.
Steel Watercolor will be moved to make room for a new sculpture to go in its current location, and
Morning will be relocated to a location that is more protected from skateboarders, as this piece has
suffered vandalism this past year.
The new sculptures that are scheduled to be installed are Maiz Goddess by Erwin Binder, Standing
Figure by John Buck, Zuni Water Gatherers by Doug Hyde, Big Skull and Horn in Two Parts IV by Jack
Zajac. One additional sculpture will be installed on the part of the property that is controlled by the
Museum and does not require City Council review, but the Museum wanted to bring it before the City
Council as a courtesy. Please note that the Hyde sculpture is a donation by Jim Houston and staff
does not anticipate any installation costs with this art piece, based on earlier discussions with Museum
staff.
Fiscal Analysis
As per the lease agreement, the City is responsible for costs associated with the transportation,
installation, and removal of the sculptures and any lighting or bases needed. The City is also required
to pay the Museum a onetime honorarium per sculpture. Staff has budgeted $50,000 in the FY 13/14
budget for such anticipated costs, which are outlined below. An additional appropriation of funds may
be needed, should construction costs be higher than anticipated.
ITEM
Honorarium @ $2,675 (x4)
Estimated Installation & Transportation Costs @ $3,500 (x3)
Construction of Pads/Lighting Estimate
TOTAL
Submitted by:
Deborah L. Schwartz, Management Analyst
Reviewed
V
ad,---9"
Paul S. Gibson, Director of Finance
Approval:
John M. hlmuth, City Manager
Department Head:
Lauri Aylaian, Director of Corn. Div.
ESTIMATE
$10, 700.00
$10,500.00
$28,800.00
$50,000.00
/� i• l'1
Step4n Y. Aryan, RiskuManager
CITY COUNCT!ON
APPROVED
RECEIVED
OTHER
MEET GD ���` `1Lf�4AYES: ) f )!kI.P, I 1i i(g/
NOES:
ABSENT:
ABSTAIN:
VERIFIED BY: PiX—%/YL�l4�1C'
Original on File with City 61 rk's Office
Proposed Site Plan
WAD
O
ocsb
a
Proposed Artwork for the Palm Springs Art Museum in Palm Desert
Erwin Binder, American, 1934-93
Maiz Goddess, 1977
Bronze, edition III -III, 66 x 471/2 x 201/2 inches
Collection of Palm Springs Art Museum, gift of
the artist
Binder spent much of his time in Mexico, where
he found both a mirror and an inspiration for his
life and art. His spare but voluptuous work is
allied closely with the modern Mexican School
due to the emotions of the figures as embedded
in simple forms. This corn goddess has a robust
and rounded body, with her hand held on her
lower torso, conveying fecundity and connection
to the earth.
John Buck, American, born 1946
Standing Figure
Bronze, edition 1/1, 97 x 41 x 35 inches
Collection of Palm Springs Art Museum, gift of
Steve Chase
A recurring theme in Buck's art is the solitary
figure that represents a universal human spirit.
Surrounded by symbols of contemporary
society, Standing Figure is anonymous, without
head, gender, or personality. The objects the
figure supports suggest the burdens each
person metaphorically carries on his/her
shoulders. Each sign has its own possible meaning. For example, the stacking forms
could allude to the modern urban environment while the spiral form may refer to a
continuously spreading and accelerating increase in the world population. Through his
art, Buck speaks to the precarious balance between man, nature and the survival of the
planet.
Proposed Artwork for the Palm Springs Art Museum in Palm Desert
Tahquitz and Indian Canyon Way.
Doug Hyde, American, Nez
Perce/Assinboine/Chippewa, born 1946
Zuni Water Gatherers, n.d. (ca. 1998)
Limestone, unique, 10 feet x 52 inches x
20 inches
Doug Hyde is known for his stone and
bronze sculptures of Native American
figures. His work is influenced by Indian
lore learned as a youth from his
grandfather and other elders. Zuni Water
Gatherers represents two Zuni women
with large olla pots balanced on their
heads in the traditional way water was
carried by women of Pueblo cultures.
Hyde attended the Institute of American
Indian Arts in Santa Fe where he studied
with his mentor, the late renowned
Apache sculptor Allan Houser. He has
done several monumental public works
including Aqua Caliente Women
commissioned by the City of Palm
Springs and currently installed on
Jack Zajac, American, born 1929
Big Skull and Horn in Two Parts IV,
1962-63
Bronze, edition of four, 30 x 81 x 20
inches
Collection of Palm Springs Art
Museum, gift of the Estate of Lionel
R. Bauman
In 1957, Zajac began working with a
ram's skull and horns to create a
series in plaster which possessed
bone -like textures. Later he cast
some of these, transferring the
textured surface of bone to bronze.
This sculpture resembles an
archeological find, with its fragmentation, but its scale also recalls the modernity of
Henry Moore's biomorphic human forms. Zajac transforms elements found in nature into
Proposed Artwork for the Palm Springs Art Museum in Palm Desert
elegantly monumental figures with a life of their own. He thus reworks found objects
from the past into symbols of man's connection to nature and place in the cosmos.
Already installed:
sky.
Fletcher Benton, American, born 1931
Steel Watercolor with Balls, 2000
Painted steel
Collection of Palm Springs Art Museum,
gift of Edith and George Nadler
Benton's interest in the illusory qualities
of abstract shapes began with his
explorations in kinetic sculpture. The
static steel works of later years, such as
this sculpture, retain this energy of
movement and hint at the influence of
early modern Constructivist abstraction
on the artist. Composed of relatively thin
bars of welded steel, the towering
sculpture maintains a tenuous balance
between scale and volume. The curved
and bulbous forms at top offset the
sculpture's vertical rigidity. Its
monumental size is striking in its delicacy
and precariously graceful in its
construction, and seems to mark a three-
dimensional crimson brushstroke in the
Yehiel Shemi, Israeli, 1922-2003
Morning, 1975-76
Enamel on steel
Collection of Palm Springs Art Museum,
purchase with funds provided by Lionel
R. Bauman in memory of Sylvia D.
Bauman
Shemi was known for his abstract metal
sculptures and was the first Israeli artist
to have his work purchased by the
Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Having worked in construction, the artist's
early sculptures were made from the
steel found in sunken ships in Haifa's
harbors. He continued to weld mass-produced iron and scrap metal to create forms of
irregular geometry, bold lines, and colorful gestures that confidently extend into space.
Proposed Artwork for the Palm Springs Art Museum in Palm Desert
A contemporary of David Smith, Shemi's monumental work has been described as
three-dimensional Constructivist calligraphy. Morning is a second version of the original
sculpture dated 1972. The artist made this version specifically for the museum.
Artwork to be installed on the Museum's Pad:
Christopher Georgesco, American,
born 1950
Triangulation, 2010
Stainless steel, 92 inches
Collection of Palm Springs Art
Museum, gift of Larry and Laurie
Weitz
Triangulation explores the notion of
activating space through an artistic
interpretation of geometry. This laser -
cut stainless steel sculpture is similar
to the concrete sculptures Georgesco
created in the 1970s before such
laser technology was available. The
artist feels that stainless steel is
reflective and "brilliant enough to
blend as a fragmentation of space."
The clean, slick surface is an
example of Finish Fetish practices
prevalent in Southern California in
the 1960s and 1970s.
1,0