‘Lemon’ Award Leaves Jurors With Sour Taste

Sam Hall Kaplan reported and appeared to support (May 4) the “lemon” award presented by the Downtown Breakfast Club to Eugene Sturman’s sculpture in the forecourt of the new International Tower at 9th and Figueroa streets.

As members of the professional jury impaneled by the Community Redevelopment Agency to recommend the selection of this public artwork, we deplore the lack of imagination and understanding demonstrated by the members of the club, and are especially disappointed by Kaplan’s failure to rise to the defense of this exciting and evocative addition to our urban landscape.

Sturman was not commissioned to create a piece of garden sculpture. He was charged with creating a major “gateway” to mark the entrance to South Park, the CRA’s newest downtown residential and street-level shopping community.

After carefully reviewing proposals from several other important artists, we recommended Sturman for this commission because we felt his was an outstanding work of art.

We deliberately sought to choose an artwork that would create interest and provoke conversation. We are very proud to be associated with this project, and we think that Eugene Sturman and the developers of the International Tower deserve the thanks and appreciation of our community.

JOHN S. GORDON

ALAN SIEROTY

AL NODAL

STEPHANIE BARRON

JULIA BROWN

Editor’s Note: Gordon is dean of fine arts, USC; Sieroty, president of L.A. Cultural Affairs Commission; Nodal, director of exhibitions, Center of Otis Art Institute/Parsons School of Design; Barron, curator of 20th-Century art, L.A. County Museum of Art, and Brown is curator of the inaugural exhibition of the Museum of Contemporary Art.