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Two things about this sculpture behind a medical building on Wilshire Boulevard near Bixel, west of Downtown. One, I had always planned to use it as a quiz question to test Angelenos' knowledge of the city, but never did. And two, I never really liked it. Now Chris Nichols of Los Angeles magazine has the story behind its placement and its removal on Wednesday to storage. The property owner is offering the piece to any non-profit that wants it.
In 1965 Dutch sculptor Jacques Overhoff was commissioned to create a large concrete sculpture for a medical office on Wilshire Boulevard just west of Bixel Street....Yesterday a crane arrived to cart away the 31-ton behemoth, titled The Universal Vertebrae, and move it into a nearby storage facility.When it originally landed at the medical plaza the Los Angeles Times quoted onlookers who dubbed it “Slipped Disc” and “Sacroiliac’s Revenge.” When I drove by on Tuesday, a construction worker was dumbfounded when I pointed behind the fence. “You call dat art?”
Overhoff also created the concrete relief on the Mark Taper Forum at the Music Center, Nichols notes.
Photos: Los Angeles magazine