Americana: Eye of the Beholder

When Artist Eugene Kenney envisioned the eye, he did not expect it to be of a storm. What he had in mind was hanging a huge canvas eye of Horus, symbol of the all-seeing Egyptian deity, from the top of San Francisco's 853-ft. pyramid-shaped Transamerica Building. "An artistic idea that could be comprehended on many levels," contended Stephen Goldstine, president of the San Francisco Art Institute, and an insightful way to mark the museum's King Tut exhibit.

Kenney's proposal received some eyecatching endorsements. "Ingenious," said Roy Schmidt, senior vice president of the firm that designed the building. "Something that we can all...