Airport agrees to keep sculpture

“Four Walls for Atlanta Hartsfield Airport,” the neon sculpture that has greeted passengers on the escalator to the transportation mall for almost three decades, will not be removed after all.

Arts supporters mobilized to rally for the piece in late August when word broke in a story in the AJC that airport management was considering replacing Stephen Antonakos’s glowing murals with revenue-producing advertising.

“We were alarmed about the piece and the message it sent about the value of art in Atlanta,” says David Hamilton, co-chairman of the Metropolitan Public Art Coalition (MPAC).

MPAC wrote letters to Ben De Costa, general manager of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and posted his e-mail address on the widely read art news listserve.

According to David Vogt, who co-manages the Airport Art Program, an advisory committee of arts professionals and airport stakeholders met two weeks ago and unanimously recommended retaining the sculpture. De Costa took its advice.

“He said he respected the experts’ opinion, and he’d find a way to produce revenue elsewhere,” Vogt says.

De Costa was in transit and could not be reached.

Aside from its lively presence, the piece has historical significance. It is among the four artworks remaining from the original group of 14 that Mayor Maynard Jackson commissioned for the new airport in 1980. Many were damaged, some beyond repair, and four have disappeared.

That was before the establishment of the Airport Art Program in 1996, which sees to the care and commissioning of the airport’s collection. Since then, the collection has grown to 250 pieces. Some $13 million in commissions are in the works for the new terminal, and elsewhere. The program’s operating funds come from airport revenue funds.