SCENE STEALER : T.O. PANEL SEEKS ADVICE ON ALTERING COPPER CURTAIN.

Byline: Enrique Rivero Daily News Staff Writer

Some people think it looks like an oversized air vent on the side of the building. Others claim to see an automobile grill, or perhaps the back of a refrigerator.

Yet there are some who can envision theater curtains - the image the copper sculpture was meant to evoke when it was commissioned for the outside wall of the city-owned Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

But there are so few people who actually like the Copper Curtain, the city's Arts Commission is under pressure to override the objections of artist Antoine Predock and alter the $150,000 sculpture.

The commission is now debating Predock's artistic right to preserve his artwork and the city's legal right to change it, and has asked the city attorney for a ruling.

``Even though you own it, do you have the right to alter it without (Predock's) permission?'' commission Chairwoman Karen La Fleur said. ``We're saying no one has the right to alter a work just because they don't like it without consulting the artist - think of the ramifications of that.''

Predock, who lives in New Mexico, did not return telephone calls Friday.

The sculpture has been controversial almost from the moment it was unveiled - a series of copper strips hanging in a rectangular frame on the wall facing northbound motorists on the Ventura Freeway.

The sculpture was designed to oxidize over the years, turning the shiny copper panels into varying shades of turquoise. Instead, the metal has turned a dull, dark brown. And the panels, originally intended to sway in a breeze, were pinned down to prevent them from banging against the walls and disrupting performances at the 1,800-seat theater.

Although he isn't scheduled to presented his opinion to the commission until next month, City Attorney Mark Sellers said Friday he believes the city can change the sculpture since it owns the artwork and the $64 million auditorium.

``I would say the city retains full right over its property to decide what's best - from the aesthetic point-of-view as well as the functional point-of-view,'' he said.

The Arts Commission has been weighing what to do about the sculpture since 1995, when the City Council set aside $10,000 for improvements to the Copper Curtain.

Commissioners subsequently asked Port Hueneme artist Paul Morris for suggestions. He submitted four designs which would require painting or treating the copper panels in different colors.

On Thursday, the commission also looked at a design by Thousand Oaks sign maker Scott Bailey, which would transform the curtain into an identification sign for the Civic Arts Plaza.

Since the mid-1980s, a growing number of American artists have clashed with arts panels and politicians over the right to display unpopular artworks that were commissioned for public places.

In 1987, minimalist sculptor Richard Serra sued the U.S. General Services Administration for $30 million, after a panel ordered his 120-foot-long metal sculpture ``Tilted Arc'' to be removed from Manhattan's Foley Square.

Another of Serra's massive amalgams of rusting steel slabs, ``Twain,'' caused an uproar in St. Louis when a city alderman called for its removal.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1--color) The Thousand Oaks Arts Commission has requested legal advice on changing the Copper Curtain which hangs on the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

(2--color) The piece by artist Antoine Predock at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza has been criticized by people who don't recognize the curtain in the work.

Jeremy Greene/Special to the Daily News