Asteriskos - San Antonio, TX
Posted by: 
vhasler
N 29° 29.123 W 098° 27.394
14R E 552681 N 3261886
Located outdoors at the McNay Art Museum, this abstract geometric sculpture of black-painted steel looks like one of those slide puzzles assembled. Check out this waymark for a story about this art.
Waymark Code: WMM20A
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 07/05/2014
Views: 9
"Asteriskos" is a large black-painted steel geometric sculpture consisting of four roughly 6 ft by 4 ft x 2 ft wide boxes interlocked around and halfway up main 4 ft x 2 ft x 16 ft high box. Two of the interlocking boxes are on opposite side and horizonal, while the other two are vertical on opposite sides of the main support.
There is an idenfication plate which reads:
Tony Smith
American, 1912-1980
Asteriskos 1968
Painted steel
Gift of the Catto Foundation in honor of Pettus Hobby
1970.18
Asteriskos is part of the McNay Art Museum collection. The sculpture is located south of the old main museum and east of the ponds. The grounds are open to the public during DST 7am–7pm and CST 7am–6pm.
Researching for a waymark can be very interesting. In this case, the question is "How could a three ton sculpture go missing, disappearing from the 1968 World Fair's site?" A local DJ on his blog reveals the story of how city workers - not realizing that it was abstract art - cut up the piece to create tool boxes and ice chests for afterwork beer parties at the Zarzmora Public Works Yard. The The Catto family generously had a replica created and donated to the McNay Art Museum.
....Like the DJ's blog says... This is art to the rest of the world, while San Antonio considers it a party waiting to happen...