Man’s last wish is to give art to city

The late Lew Geiser’s main claim to fame in Laguna Beach was the fact that his Bluebird Canyon home was the only one red-tagged in both the 1978 and 2005 landslides.

But this quiet man’s wish to share his love of art is brewing up a small storm.

Geiser enjoyed a low-key life in Laguna, having retired from his criminal law practice at 49. It was a fortuitous decision: He lived only 10 more years, and spent them traveling and assembling an eclectic collection of modern art.

Paris was his favorite city — outside of Laguna — and he would spend months at a time there partaking of the city’s delights, including its many art galleries.

One of these galleries was located in the Place des Vosges, Paris’s oldest square and a popular tourist destination.

Early this year, as he was dying of colon cancer at home, he asked his sister Gay to see to it that one or two sculptures — called “Humanobiles” — from Paris be transported back to Laguna Beach for the public to enjoy.

“He had an eclectic art collection and no children. He wanted to leave something for the city to enjoy,” Gay Geiser Sandoval said.

Lew Geiser died April 1, and a bequest spells out precisely how this was to be accomplished. One or two life-sized metal sculptures by Vincent Magni, a French artist, would be selected and transported to Laguna Beach. He even earmarked funds to send his longtime friend, Katy Moss, to Paris next month to pick out the artwork.

Magni fashions whimsical, life-sized human figures out of metal bars. The “Humanobiles” vibrate and move when touched.

Doris Morrisey, who stayed with Geiser in Paris with her husband, John, said the sculptures are popular in the square.

“They’re coiled figures, and if you touch it, it moves like a person does,” Morrisey said.

The cost of the artwork and installation will be about $25,000, Sandoval said.

But Sandoval and Moss may not be able to carry out those last wishes. In August, the Laguna Beach Arts Commission declined the offer, citing questions about the durability and safety of the Magni sculptures.

Geiser’s friends and family are appalled and mystified that the offer was rejected.

“I am very disappointed,” Morrisey said. “It would bring a smile to the face of visitors and residents alike. No way is it a nuisance.”

Nancy Beverage, Arts Commission chairwoman, said the commission had no choice but to decline the offer. The commission determined that the artworks — which they had not seen in person — would deteriorate quickly in the salt air and could present a safety problem due to the very interactivity that Geiser admired.

“Most of the commissioners thought the pieces charming, amusing and delightful, and we understand and admire the family trying to carry out his [Geiser’s] wishes, but whether we like the piece or not is not the point; our job is to do due diligence for the City Council,” Beverage said.

“We have to ask how will it work as public art in an oceanfront town. We have learned the hard way that some metals and coatings will be successful and some will deteriorate badly, and the city has to repaint them.

“On the safety issue, these sculptures are particularly appealing to children, and, because they flex, would be fun to climb,” Beverage said. “They would be too enticing to children. They are not a well-chosen piece to be outside. It doesn’t make sense to put something in that would be a problem.”

Beverage said the commission pondered other locations for the sculptures, but could not come up with any suitable sites.

Beverage cites the “Sunbathers” sculpture at Nita Carmen Park as one of those problem artworks; it has been repainted three times since being installed in 1983.

At a Commission meeting in July, when the issues of corrosion and safety came up, Sandoval, her brother’s trustee, offered to create a special fund to repaint the sculptures, if necessary.

Then the Modus Gallery, which represents Magni, offered to replace them for free if they deteriorated.

The gallery owner sent an e-mail certifying that the sculptures had stood in the public square for 10 years without a problem — either from the standpoint of deterioration or safety.

The commission wasn’t moved.

On Aug. 11, a motion proposing to accept the donation died on the dais for lack of a second.

Sandoval, herself an attorney, decided to take the issue to the next level — an appeal to the City Council.

Apparently this is so rare that city officials weren’t sure how to handle it.

“They said there had never been an appeal of an Arts Commission decision [about a donation] before,” she said. “They weren’t sure what to charge me or what the deadline would be. And the form wasn’t the right one.”

Sandoval ended up paying $620 — the same fee charged for appeals of decisions from the Planning Commission and Design Review Board.

The Council will hear the appeal on Sept. 12.

Moss, who is president of the Laguna Beach Exchange Club, collected 350 signatures supporting the sculpture donation at the recent Labor Day Pancake Breakfast.

“Lew did not anticipate this,” Moss said. “There are no other contingencies. It was a generous gesture, not the Lew Geiser memorial.”

“Neither of us had any idea it would be a problem,” Sandoval said. “It’s so ironic that this would become a public issue, because my brother was such a private man.”

Sandoval is asking people to let her know if they would like the sculpture or not.

“Lew’s wish was for Laguna Beach to have it, but if people don’t want it, okay,” she said.

Sandoval’s e-mail address is GGSesq@gmail.com.