The Stuart Collection

On April 22nd, the Palm Desert Art in Public Places Commission was regaled with a tour of the Stuart Collection on the UC San Diego campus. One of the most celebrated public art collections in the United States, the Stuart Collection features major works by some of the most important contemporary artists from the last three decades. The collection first started in the early 1980's with pieces by Robert Irwin and Niki De Saint Phalle, followed by artworks by Terry Allen, Nam June Paik, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Richard Fleischner, Bruce Nauman and Willam Wegman. All the pieces are site specific and reflect the pinnacle of sensitively of integrating public artworks into the environment by allowing each artist to visit the campus and select the site they would like to develop a proposal for.
Our docent guide, Susan, a retired lawyer, did a excellent job of explaining each piece and the process that was required to fabricate the artworks. We all were extremely thankful to her and the expert way she guided us through and around the campus for close to 2 hours.
We piled into the tour bus and headed to the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art for lunch at their wonderful restuarant. Everyone enjoyed their lunch and then shopped at the museum store. Unfortunately, the museum was closed on Wednesday and we missed seeing the Jasper Johns exhibition.

"Una Voce" by Phillip K. Smith, III

Una Voce - Indio Teen Center
Phillip just finished this piece for the Indio Teen Center and I wanted to see it first hand. There had been several newspaper articles and public art Google alerts on it, but I needed to see the actual piece. This video was taken with my cell phone, so I apologize for the quality and it's a little shaky, but you can see how impressive the piece is. I think it's a great marriage with the architecture and the materials of the building. The aluminum tubes have LED lighting strips mounted on the outside facing the red lettering that sequences through different colors at night. I'll have to go back to see it sometime soon. One of the electricians that were working on installing the halogen up lighting, mention he had seen it and really liked the effects.
As quoted from Phillip's website, www.theartoffice.com and piece was the first commissioned public art sculpture in the City of Indio. "Una Voce" seeks to give form to the voice, lives, and aspirations of teens. Designed in collaboration with the Youth Advisory Council for the new Indio Teen Center, the youth discussed their desire for a seemingly chaotic form that has a sense of tranquility within. Additionally, they wanted something abstract, spontaneous, and raw with a sense of surprise and discovery. To this end, the 20' high conical form is taken as a pure, geometrical, tranquil form into which graffiti-like words are carved, spelling out words of inspiration and activism, while creating an abstract container for ideas, light, shadow, and color.

The 2009/10 El Paseo Invitational Sculpture Exhibition

Well, finally here it is. The last piece was installed a couple of weeks ago, Michelle O'Michael's "Moon River" , so I was able to finish the video of the complete installation. Because the video has each artist's name and title of their piece, I'm not typing in all eighteen pieces, like I did for the 2007/08 exhibition's video. Maybe just a few highlights from the show, and hopefully, no one will feel slighted. The heaviest and tallest piece in this year's exhibition is by Dixie Jewett's piece "Salute to the Sun", weighing in at 3,000 lbs. and standing a proud 11.6'. Dominic Benhura's piece "Ostrich" came from Zimbabwe and was carved from a solid piece of stone. Dominic has a sculpture in Nelson Mendela's Foundation Center. Todi Kurtzman's "Monument in Right Feet Major" was cast in Thailand and shipped to America and then trucked to Palm Desert. LT Musardseed's "Dragonfly" is a smaller version of a 30' piece that was exhibited in the Coachella Music Festival, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History and LA Arts Festival. People are seen almost daily having their picture taken by the two pieces on El Paseo. Boaz Vaadia's "BA'al & Yizhaq" looks like chipped slate, but actually is cast bronze with a rare silver patina on it and if water gets on the piece; it'll turn white.
Mark Stephenson was the curator for this year's exhibition, which had a record 200+ entries from around the US, Canada and Australia.

Olympic Sculpture Garden - Seattle, WA

I had been waiting months to see the new Olympic Sculpture Garden in Seattle and finally was able to about six months after it opened. I'd been seeing articles in the national journals about it and was so impressed that Seattle and the Seattle Art Museum would take approximately 28 acres of run down post-industrial land and transform it into a jewel for large-scale public art composed of many of the blue chip contemporary artists. People just can't resist knocking on the Richard Serra "Wave" piece as they walk through it, even though, there are signs that say, "please don't touch the sculpture". The vistas are amazing, viewing the individual pieces with the backdrops of the Olympic mountain range to the west and Mt.Rainer to the south.
The video was shot with our long time friends of over 30 yrs., Rick and Maureen Irey, who live close to Seattle. One memorable comment told by Maureen was that younger people don't know what the Claes Oldenburg "Eraser" piece is. It's an icon of a by-gone era, but oh so recognizable to those of us, who used them in school and home.

Minneapolis Sculpture Garden

Minneapolis Sculpture Garden

I had the good fortune to spend three days last summer in Minneapolis with my wife, Jane. The number #1 thing on the "to do" list was to visit the Walker Art Center and adjacent Minneapolis Sculpture Garden that I have never seen and have wanted to for years. We were far from being disappointed. The Walker was exhibiting a major retrospective of Richard Prince's work that I had only seen a few of his pieces before. It was a stunner. Loved the canceled check pieces with text. The Sol Lewitt wall painting in the cafe was fantastic along with the Oldenburg eraser sculpture on the patio.
The video starts with the Roy Lichtenstein brushstroke sculpture at one end the Walker directly across from the entrance to the sculpture garden. The artwork in the garden was astounding and presented with the sensitivity that sculpture of this importance deserves. I highly recommend a visit to it, also the Minneapolis Art Institute and Frank Gehry designed museum on the University of Minnesota's campus.

The Coachella Watercolor Society's "Plein Air Painters"

The Public Art Department's offices are located in the Palm Desert Visitor's Center building, which is adjacent to the Eric Johnson Memorial Gardens. The gardens are representative of native desert plants and dedicated to Eric Johnson, noted as the first landscape designer to bring native desert plantings to Palm Desert. In addition, Mr. Johnson was the former editor for Sunset Magazine for many years.
Last week, we noticed several "Plein Air" painters in the gardens setting up their easels and starting to paint, which peaked my interest as we have been working on a sculpture tribute to the "Early California Plein Air Painters" that started coming to the Coachella Valley from around 1905 to the 1950's. It's estimated that over 200 artists came to this area to paint the desert, which is why the street in front of the Visitor's Center is named "Painters Path". Many very famous artists came to paint here and a few stayed to live including Maynard Dixon, Jimmy Swinnerton, Agnes Pelton, Fred Penny John Hilton, Orpha Klinker, Sally Ward, Fred Chrisnall, Bill Bender, Clyde Forsythe to name a few. The artistic legacy left by these painters is a milestone in the history of American art, a specific time and place that has been largely under-recognized in the mainsteam of landscape painting until recently when prices for their work has soared to astronomical heights. A recent article on the early desert painters by Ann Japenga can be viewed by following this link, http://www.bbhgallery.com/BBH_Gallery_Monthly.htm#PalmDesert
The "Plein Air Painters" of the Coachella Watercolor Society continue this tradition of painting the desert landscape. They travel to 30 various locations throughout the Coachella Valley from October to May, artistically rendering the natural desert landscape. Depending on the time of year, the group can vary from 15-40 artists. The hold demonstrations, lectures and exhibitions throughout the season for the enjoyment and education of the general public and art lovers.