Some of my half-dozen readers surely remember the unusual sculpture that was once erected in the open space next to the Morgan Keegen (now Raymond James) Tower. And you may also remember its sad demise, when it crashed to the ground on May 30, 1990.
The Ascent of the Blues was a $250,000 sculpture that had been crafted by a French artist named Arman — yes, just Arman. It was an unusual, and — in my humble opinion — decidedly top-heavy assemblage of heavy bronze castings of musical instruments: horns, guitars, keyboards, and more, mounted on a concrete pedestal just southeast of the Morgan Keegan building.
This open space had originally been set aside for a "twin" tower that would match the Morgan Keegan Tower. Did you know that's what developers originally had in mind? When those plans fell through (I don't remember why), the land was sold to make way for the Sleep Inn, and the 30-foot sculpture had to be moved. An engineering professor from Christian Brothers University had already warned that the heavy sculpture was dangerous.
"It has no spine, no backbone, nothing to carry the load," he said. Similar complaints have been made about me.
Apparently the professor was right. As crews from the National Ornamental Metal Museum began to carefully cut and dismantle the piece, one instrument at a time, the whole thing snapped in half, tumbling to the ground and slightly injuring one of the workers. It's amazing no one was killed.
All the pieces were eventually scooped up and stored in a warehouse somewhere, but Metal Museum experts said it would cost almost $100,000 to repair it — essentially rebuild the whole thing — so the various pieces of Ascent of the Blues just gathered dust.
Years ago, I contacted the museum to see if they had it, or knew where it was. I got a "no" to both questions. "If we did, the piece would already have been installed somewhere," said Carissa Hussong, museum director. "I tried to find it when I was the director of the UrbanArt Commission. My guess is that the piece was scrapped by someone who had no idea what it was, or why it was in storage."
That was years ago. No trace of it has turned up since them.
