A forgotten sculpture pitched as centerpiece for Soho park

as centerpiece for Soho park

A forgotten sculpture that has languished for years in a Soho basement could be the perfect centerpiece for a small park at Watts and Broome Sts., some think.

Aaron Rose, a W. Broadway property owner and photographer, is the owner of the sculpture, “Tree of Life,” the last major work by the late Soho artist Bob Bolles, whose sculptures once filled the traffic triangle until it was converted into a planted green park over two years ago after the Parks Department took the sculptures.

Lawrence White, a Soho arts activist, has been one of the leading advocates for returning Bolles’ sculptures to the park. Two years ago, Adrian Benepe, then Parks’ Manhattan Borough commissioner, said they might bring back some of Bolles’ better works on a rotating basis. But to date it hasn’t happened.

Although White and others would like to see as many of Bolles’ sculptures returned as possible, White and Rose think “Tree of Life” could definitely be a fitting focal point for what is now known as Sunflower Park, formerly known as Bob Bolles Park.

“It was Bolles’ Sistine Chapel,” White said of the sculpture.

Two years ago, White found out from Kenn Reisdorff at the Broome St. Bar that Rose had the piece in his basement. White took a look and suggested it should be returned to the park.

“Larry came down and said it rightfully belonged there,” Rose told The Villager. “As a matter of fact, [Bolles] made it for that intersection. But at that time, people were parking in that triangle and stealing his pieces at night. At that time, he needed some money, and we worked out something. I didn’t want to see the piece stolen. I told him if he ever wanted the piece back, I would give it back.”

Bolles completed the work sometime in the early 1970s, shortly before he became ill and stopped producing art. He died in 1980.

The “Tree of Life” is a nine-ft.-tall, 24-in.-diameter, 600-lb. water pipe. Given its column shape, Rose said, it would fit perfectly in the middle of the seating area in the new park.

“There’s a circular form in the park the way it is right now,” he said. “It’ll fit in and it’ll just weather very nice. It was meant to weather. It’s as if it was made for that spot.”

Rose said though he paid “a very, very, very fair price” for the sculpture, he’d gladly give it to the city no strings attached if it’s put back in the park. “No tax write-off, no nothing,” he said. “Just that the people who come to that park can sit down and enjoy the piece — that is what he wanted.”

Rose and others watched Bolles working in the triangle with his blowtorch and welder’s mask on, slowly cutting out the pipe’s intricate pattern.

“He was going very, very slow,” Rose recalled. “It’s five-eighths-in.-thick pipe. It took many, many months — and lots of beers,” he added with a laugh. “We never thought he was going to finish that piece.”

A Gypsy, Bolles was very spiritual, and the pipe includes scenes and creatures from the bible. Rose said everyone knew if they had an old piece of metal equipment or old boiler to give it to Bolles.

“At that time, there was no such thing as Soho artists,” Rose said. “He was just an artist living in Soho. He loved cutting metal and welding, especially cutting — He was drawing in hot steel.”

Photo by Lawrence White