Delray Beach, FL – Sculpture at Fla. Shopping Plaza Turns Heads

Delray Beach, FL – The bronze statue parked outside Addison Plaza shopping center west of Delray Beach is drawing the ire of parents of children who attend nearby Morikami Park Elementary School.

“My daughter has been joking about it,” said Jeffrey Cohen, whose 6-year-old daughter attends summer camp there. “She shouldn’t be talking to me about this.”

The anatomically correct figure is part of a sculpture by artist Itzik Asher titled Journey to the New, which represents the journey of Russian and Ethiopian Jews from their homes to Israel.

It depicts a family — a father, a mother holding an infant and an older child by the hand. The figures are larger than life and elongated. Their nudity is subtle.

“It’s a figurative piece, somewhat abstract,” said Richard Caster, who owns the shopping center and has other large sculptures peppering its front lawn. “It’s natural and beautiful.”

Caster said he’s received some complaints, but also praise. He said he rotates the sculptures throughout the shopping plaza.

Journey to the New previously has been on display at the Palm Beach International Airport, at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach and at Mizner Park in Boca Raton.

But Jamie Garroway, Morikami Park PTA president, said she found it distasteful and e-mailed parents Wednesday morning, asking them to file complaints with Caster and with Palm Beach County Code Enforcement.

“Everybody has a different idea of what art is,” said Garroway. “If this piece was at a museum I would not have a problem with it.”

Still, Terri Pavals, a teacher in the school’s summer program, said she has not heard any of the children talking about the piece.

“It’s the parents who have been talking about it,” she said. “The children don’t really make an issue of it.”

Asher, the creator of Journey to the New, could not be reached for comment despite attempts by phone. But it’s not the first time his sculptures have drawn public scrutiny. In 1995, the Boca Raton City Council made him cover the private parts of several of his sculptures with cardboard fig leaves until public outcry and national attention about the city’s position prompted a change of heart from city officials. He later removed the leaves.

In 2005, The Siren, a sculpture of a mermaid by Lake Worth-area artist Norman Gitzen and installed at the Wellington Community Center, generated complaints over the size of its breasts.

“It’s a shame that people respond to art in this way,” said Armand Bolling, director of the Karen Lynn Art Gallery in Boca Raton. “If they walked into the Vatican they would walk into a lot more radical stuff than that.”

Meanwhile, Cohen said he hopes the owner of the plaza removes the sculpture before school starts next month.

“There are 900 kids in the school that are going to be exposed to it,” he said.