Art may come down

It’s sort of like taking a trip before the trip.

Glowing neon tubes —- rigid lines of an incomplete square, soft curves of an open circle —- greet passengers on their way to the concourses to catch flights at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Artist Stephen Antonakos wanted people to gaze upward as they descended by escalator into the bowels of the airport to catch the people mover. He wanted them to have a relaxing experience before boarding a plane.

So they have done for almost three decades.

“Four Walls for Atlanta Hartsfield Airport” was one of 14 public artworks commissioned by Mayor Maynard Jackson for the airport that now bears his name. Only four are still on display —- several pieces suffered irreparable damage from neglect and environmental wear and tear.

Now, Antonakos’ work could become the latest casualty.

Airport officials are considering taking down the installation, possibly to make room for advertising.

“We move art, we move advertising,” said General Manager Ben DeCosta in describing the airport’s “dynamic” environment.

“We do what we do to benefit customers,” he said. “Times change. People’s needs change. This is not a museum. Even in a museum, they change out the artwork.”

Antonakos and advocates of public art are outraged. “I consider it tragic that any work of public art should be considered expendable,” said the New York artist, who, ironically, was in Atlanta on Thursday to finalize plans for a solo show opening at ACA Galleries in December. “This work, which I consider very important, should certainly stay up forever.”

Antonakos said no one from the airport has contacted him but that he received an e-mail last week from Mark Westphal, owner of a local neon sign business.

Westphal said a manager of the airport’s art program called him to discuss the logistics of taking down a piece involving so much glass and electricity.

Westphal was shocked to hear that a piece of art that inspired his career in neon could be dismantled without the artist’s knowledge and contacted Antonakos.

Westphal said it would “kill his soul” to take down Antonakos’ work, but he would do it “out of respect.”

DeCosta said his staff is still mulling over the matter, but proposals have been made to dedicate that space to advertising that showcases the city or is in some way educational, such as ads that promote energy conservation.

“We are a commercial society, and I think our society is reflected on the walls of the airport,” DeCosta said.

Earlier this year, an advisory panel of Atlanta art enthusiasts recommended that “Four Walls” be left undisturbed.

“Atlanta is the most laissez-faire city in the most laissez-faire country,” said public art advocate Louise Shaw, who was director of Nexus Contemporary Art Center for 15 years and served on the airport panel.

“You can understand why they’re salivating for that spot,” Shaw said. “But this is one more way we are losing our individuality.”

Hartsfield-Jackson has about 275 artworks on display —- from large-scale commissioned pieces such as Joe Peragine’s ant sculptures titled “Brute Neighbors” to smaller-scale direct purchases.

DeCosta said the airport has multimillion-dollar plans for a mini-museum about Atlanta in the walkway between Concourses A and B and a rain forest display between Concourses B and C.

Architect David Hamilton, a partner at Praxis3 and chairman of Atlanta’s Metropolitan Public Art Coalition, lauded the airport for its dedication to public art. But he said the removal of the Antonakos piece would set a bad precedent. The spaces above the escalator down to the concourse train and the one that brings arriving passengers up to the main terminal are viewed by millions of people every year. The works placed on those walls, said Hamilton, are an essential contribution to the city’s image.

Hamilton said the idea of removing Antonakos’ piece was part of a “disturbing trend” in the city. He cited the effort to remove Diane Kempler’s “New Endings” from Walton Spring Park to make way for an Andrew Young monument and a bid to tear down the Buckhead Library for new development.

Antonakos, now 81, said it saddens him that a work of tranquility would now incite so much anxiety.

He said he didn’t know what airport managers intended to do with the neon, but taking it down would be tantamount to its destruction. It was a piece designed specifically for that space.

Antonakos said the integrity of “Four Walls” was already violated by the airport when many years ago it displayed advertising in the fourth panel. He had purposefully kept the last wall blank because he wanted passengers not to look upward anymore as they were about to get off the escalator.

“It’s very discouraging that they would take something down after an agreement was made that it would be permanent,” Antonakos said.

On Thursday, the artist got another look at “Four Walls” as he made his way through security to catch a flight home to New York. “Seeing it again was like seeing someone you love very much after a long time,” Antonakos said, realizing that it might have been his last look at his beloved work.

He gazed up at the incomplete geometric shapes, extending them in his mind beyond the airport’s ceilings and into the sky, creating a feeling of openness, he thought, appropriate for a traveler. Limitless.