Famous Vietnam War Protest Artwork Will Be Re-Created in Weho

A legendary Vietnam-era artwork will be re-created on the Sunset Strip as part of a larger Los Angeles-wide art project, West Hollywood’s Arts & Cultural Affairs Commission learned at its monthly meeting held Thursday night.  

Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980 is an art project celebrating LA’s rich and diverse art history, City Hall Cultural Affairs Administrator Andrew Campbell told commissioners. Subsidized by the Getty Foundation, all the major museums in the area are participating in the project scheduled to kick off in October.

“It’s a very big initiative,” Campbell said. “I don’t think anything like this has been undertaken since the Olympics art project in 1984.”

West Hollywood’s part will see the re-creation of the famous Artists’ Tower of Protest, which stood on an empty lot on the Sunset Strip between February and May 1966.

The 58-foot steel tetrahedron tower was surrounded by a fence with 418 different 2-by-2 paintings by various artists. The “Peace Tower,” as it came to be known, created considerable controversy as Vietnam War protests were only just beginning to occur at that point in time. 

“All of the things discussed in the artwork then are still relevant today,” Campbell said. “War, immigration, civil rights.”

The Peace Tower stood where the Pink Dot is currently located. Campbell said organizers hope to re-create it in a nearby parking lot for a few weeks, then move it to the new library plaza at .

Commissioner Dallas Dishman asked why not start at the library rather than move there later. Campbell explained the idea is to re-create it as precisely as possible, including location. 

The commission also discussed a sculpture installation that will go up next week in the median on Santa Monica Boulevard near Doheny as one of the commission’s Art on the Outside exhibitions.

That yearlong installation will feature seven sculptures loaned by The Sculpture Foundation, a Santa Monica-based organization that has a traveling collection of contemporary sculptures valued at $50 million.

The commission discussed having a reception in the median with a live band some time in mid-July. The median is wide enough to host a reception, similar to what was held for the Peter Shire art display in 2008.

Newly appointed Commissioner Candice Illoulian suggested that some area bands might be willing to perform for free in exchange for the publicity.

Several commissioners pointed out there is money already budgeted for the reception. As an arts commission, it is important the panel support the arts by paying the band, they said.

“I’m looking at it from the charitable point of view," said Illoulian in response.

The commission also heard a proposal for creating an outreach brochure with facts and statistics about the arts, modeled after a similar brochure put out by the city of Baltimore. The hope is to raise awareness about the arts and the role it plays in the city.