On a recent visit to La Jolla, my friend Penne took me through a part of the UCSD campus I hadn’t seen before. With six undergraduate colleges and five graduate schools spread over 1000 acres, it’s quite easy to miss something. There are nineteen pieces of commissioned art as a result of a partnership between the college and The Stuart Collection.* I’m highlighting three sculptures that I especially enjoyed.
We started our tour at Revelle College near the La Jolla Project (affectionately known as Stonehenge). Richard Fleischner completed this sculpture in 1984. Using a nearly flat lawn, Fleischner transformed the site to a space reminiscent of ancient ruins. His use of minimal lines encourage people to both linger and walk through. The seventy-one blocks needed were quarried in New England where the artist lives and works. For the best view, click on the photos.
A more whimsical sculpture is the “Bear” which was completed in 2005 by another American artist, Tim Hawkinson. It is a two-story 180 ton teddy bear made of eight hand-picked granite boulders (go head and count them). The slight tilt of its head makes it all the more endearing.
And if you love color, you can’t miss the Sun God sculpture. Completed by French artist Niki de Saint Phalle in 1983, it was the first commission of the Stuart Collection and the artist’s first outdoor commission in America. I didn’t realize it at the time, but she lived and worked in La Jolla from 1992 until her death in 2002. Many of her sculptures can be found throughout San Diego, and there is an entire park of them in Escondido called Queen Califia’s Magical Circle.
Once you’ve seen a Niki de Saint Phalle sculpture, you’ll be able to identify future ones. Her massive figures and use of bright colors are very recognizable and always make me smile. Students dress up the Sun God and have an annual festival each spring in its honor. If you look closely, I am posing in the archway under the Sun God. They say passing through the archway will bring you good luck. I think they mean on your exams.
*For more information on The Stuart Collection visit: stuartcollection.ucsd.edu
Editor’s note: It appears that bears are replacing my angel posts. Hmmm….
