By SHERRY KOONCE
News-Journal
Wednesday, October 4, 2006

Four black metal sculptures from modern artist David Hayes are on display at the J.T. Smith Sculpture Garden in downtown Longview. The exhibit is a first for the city and for the state of Texas.

The outdoor sculpture display, which is expected to be in Longview for about a year, is a project of the Longview Museum of Fine Arts, 215 E. Tyler.

"That's the benefit of putting art out into the open. People can enjoy them on their own terms," said David M. Hayes, the sculptor's son.

Hayes described his 75-year-old father as one of the country's most famous living artists.

According to the sculptor's Web site, David Hayes lives in Connecticut and has had more than 300 exhibitions.

His works are included in more than 100 institutional collections including Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum, both in New York City.

Of the many places Hayes' sculptures are exhibited, David M. Hayes said his father really enjoys doing public outdoor shows.

Although other David Hayes pieces will soon be on display in Midland and El Paso, the Longview display is the artist's first in Texas.

His pieces, nearly always made of metal and inspired by some form of nature, often are not named, but instead are numbered.

The four pieces in Longview are part of the artist's screen sculptures — named so because they look like a screen.

Other than that brief description, each piece is entirely subject to the viewer's interpretation.

David Hayes' sculptures are made of metal and welded together before the artist applies a couple of coats of primer and then a layer or two of weather-resistant paint.

"Dad says it is whatever you want it to be," David M. Hayes said of his father's works.

Two of the Longview pieces, No. 48 and No. 89, recently survived hurricanes in Florida.

Museum director Renee Hawkins said she had been talking with the sculptor for about a year and was interested in bringing the exhibit to Longview, but did not have a place to put it until the museum received a gift of land.

Ann Lowman donated the property at the corner of Fredonia and Tyler streets in November. Lowman asked that the sculpture park be named after J.T. Smith, one of her ancestors who at one time was a county official.

The downtown space was perfect to display another gift — a large black metal sculpture donated by local businessman Clyde Teeter.

Displayed permanently in the center of the park, the large metal sculpture is the work of an unknown Japanese artist who sculpted the metal piece to be a World's Fair exhibit in the late '50s or '60s, Hawkins said.

Hawkins said museum officials saw David Hayes' works and thought the pieces would complement the existing sculpture and be a good choice for the park's first exhibit.

"So far there has been great interest in this project from so many people in the community. It is their efforts that made this happen," Hawkins said.


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