Artist Bob “Daddy-O” Wade used petroleum pipelines to create a towering Texas landmark.
With more than 2.5 million miles of oil and natural gas pipelines crisscrossing the United States, an offbeat Texas sculptor in 1993 repurposed about 70 feet to create a work of art.
Most Texas travelers at some point have seen the monumental sculptures of Bob “Daddy-O” Wade, known for “keeping it weird” since making the Austin scene in 1961. The decades of artworks by “Daddy-O” have reflected his unusual Texas sense of scale, according to Texas A&M University Press.
Petroleum pipeline sections are part of the 1993 sculpture some call the largest (non-playable) saxophone in the world. Photo courtesy bobwade.com.
In February 1993 on Houston’s west side, Wade (1943-2019) completed his iconic 70-foot blue saxophone (including its steel pipe support) in front of a once popular blues club.
Wade and his crew of three transformed two 48-inch-wide sections of steel pipeline into a free-standing sculpture supported by a 25-foot-deep pylon for the opening of Billy Blues Bar & Grill.
The Fabulous Thunderbirds played at the the February 20, 1993, gala as the crowd admired Wade’s pipeline artwork. Onlookers from the oil patch may have noted it had the same four-foot width as the 800-mile Alaskan pipeline.
The bell of Wade’s towering saxophone incorporated most of an upside down Volkswagen. The keys, reed, octave key, and other parts were morphed from chrome hub caps, beer kegs, surfboard, a canoe and other incongruous pieces to make what soon became known around Houston as the “Smokesax.”
“Smokesax” Art or Bar Sign?
Following the gala at Billy Blues Bar & Grill, some debate began on whether the “Daddy-O” work was art — or just a big advertisement for the restaurant.
Although deemed by the Houston City Council to be a work of art and thus not subject to signage ordinances, it took First Amendment arguments to reach that decision. The “Smokesax” had been accused of violating Houston’s sign ordinance prohibiting advertising billboards taller than 40 feet.
“While embraced by the local art community, the Sax was targeted by the Houston Sign Administration as being in violation of the Houston Sign Code,” explained Richard Rothfelder in a 2018 column for a signage trade magazine.
Confronted with Houston’s art community support of the saxophone, “the court ruled unanimously in Billy Blues’ favor,” Rothfelder noted in Billboard Insider. “In fact, public and media support of the Smoke Sax was so overwhelming that the City was basically looking for a graceful way to save face and withdrew its opposition by the time of the hearing.”
Wade’s creative use of 48-inch-wide steel pipe was also noted by the Fort Worth Star Telegram, which described artist Wade as a “pioneer of Texas Funk and connoisseur of Southwestern kitsch.”
Even musician Willie Nelson opined, “Now that I understand art, I realize what a genius Daddy-O Wade really is.”
Bob “Daddy-O” Wade used two 48-inch steel sections of pipeline and a Volkswagen to create his work of art. Photo courtesy bobwade.com.
Other notable Wade artwork includes 40-foot-tall cowboy boots outside the North Star Mall in San Antonio, and a 12-foot-tall iguana at the Ft. Worth Zoo’s animal hospital.
When Billy Blues Bar & Grill moved from Richmond Avenue to a new site in 2001, the future was uncertain for Houston’s pipeline pop art, declared by some as the largest (non-playable) saxophone in the world, according to The Bassic Sax Blog.
After the club closed, the building stood empty for years, and the artwork was neglected (as well as vandalized). Partially restored in 2000, the sax left Richmond Avenue in February 2013 after Houston’s Orange Show Center for Visionary Art acquired it via the Orange Show Foundation, which planned to storing it prior to installation on Orange Show property.
Bob “Daddy-O” Wade’s blue, 70-foot, pipeline saxophone earned its place as another milestone of oil in art.
Oil and Gas Pipelines
Large and small pipelines (and pumping stations) have been part of the petroleum industry since the earliest U.S wells. A Venango County, Pennsylvania, pipeline constructed in February 1863 attempted to link oil wells to the Humboldt Refinery at Oil City about 2.5 miles away.
Inventor J.L. Hutchings of New Jersey used his newly patented rotary pumps to move oil through the two-inch diameter piping.
Although the rotary pumps were an important innovation, Hutchings’ cast-iron pipe proved impractical after its soldered joints leaked. In 1865, another inventor completed the world’s first successful oil pipeline.
Samuel Van Syckel, an oil trader who wanted to break the petroleum region’s teamsters monopoly, constructed a two-inch-wide, wrought iron pipeline that used threaded joints. The pipeline successfully transported 2,000 barrels a day to a railroad depot more than five miles away.
Another pipeline technology milestone came during World War II. The industry-government partnership “Big Inch” pipelines with diameters of 24 inches and 20 inches connected prolific Texas oilfields with Chicago and East Coast refineries.
More than 2.6 million miles of pipelines every year deliver trillions of cubic feet of natural gas (red) and and hundreds of billions of tons of liquid petroleum products (blue). Map courtesy U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Since starting operations in June 1977, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System has delivered more than 17.5 billion barrels of oil from North Slope and Prudhoe Bay oilfields (as of 2018). The pipeline’s maximum throughput was more than 2 million barrels of oil a day in 1988.
Giant storage tanks at Cushing, Oklahoma, in the late 2010s reached a capacity of 85 million barrels of oil, enhancing the town’s self-proclaimed status as “Pipeline Crossroads of the World.”
Since the 1990s, companies have used “in-line” tools to inspect for corrosion and other defects while the pipelines stay in use, according to the American Petroleum Institute.
An electronic “smart pig,” introduced in 1965, became a now generic name for sophisticated in-line inspection tools that target defects with greater accuracy, API noted in 2001.
With construction debated and often controversial, by 2018 about 2.5 million of miles of petroleum pipelines operated daily as part of U.S. energy infrastructure.
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Recommended Reading: Daddy-O’s Book of Big-Ass Art (2020); Oil: From Prospect to Pipeline
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The American Oil & Gas Historical Society (AOGHS) preserves U.S. petroleum history. Become an AOGHS annual supporting member and help maintain this energy education website and expand historical research. For more information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. Copyright © 2024 Bruce A. Wells. All rights reserved.
Citation Information – Article Title: “’Smokesax’ Art has Pipeline Heart.” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L. Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/petroleum-art/smokesax-art-has-pipeline-heart. Last Updated: February 13, 2024. Original Published Date: February 18, 2019.
