JACARANDA TIME AT THE UCLA SCULPTURE GARDEN, Los Angeles, CA

Maja by Gerhard Marcks, Franklin Murphy Sculpture Garden, UCLA

My favorite time of year to visit the Franklin Murphy Sculpture Garden at UCLA in Los Angeles is in May, when the jacaranda trees are blooming. Clouds of blossoms hang from the branches, and at the height of the bloom, the petals begin to drop, carpeting the lawn and walkways with a layer of purple.

Jacaranda trees in bloom at the UCLA Sculpture Garden

During the week the campus is busy with students, but on the weekend, the garden is a quiet place for walking, pushing baby strollers, bird watching, or having an impromptu picnic on the grass. When my children were small, they loved to ride their bikes along the interconnected sidewalks--kid-sized freeways. On the morning of my recent visit, just a few people were there.

Oval Form (Trezion) by Barbara Hepworth

The sculpture garden is located at the north end of the UCLA campus, adjacent to the Young Research Library and the Broad Art Center Plaza. Scattered across more than five acres are over seventy sculptures by artists such as Hans Arp, Deborah Butterfield and Auguste Rodin. Small panels in front of each piece identify the title, artist and source of the gift to UCLA. Founded in 1967, the sculpture garden is managed by the Hammer Museum.

The Walking Man by Auguste Rodin, Broad Art Plaza

Signature of Auguste Rodin on the base of The Walking Man

During the forty plus years that I have lived in Los Angeles, I’ve been to the sculpture garden many times. You can read a report of a visit in 2020, UCLA SCULPTURE GARDEN: A Fresh Air Museum in the Middle of Los Angeles, on this blog HERE. Each time I go to the sculpture garden it is like visiting old friends. Here are a few of my favorite pieces from my most recent visit.

Automne, 1948 by Henri Laurens

  

Detail from Queen of Sheba by Alexander Archipenko

     

Cubi XX, 1964 by David Smith

 

 

For more information about the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture garden and a map of the area, click HERE.

Jacaranda trees (Jacaranda mimosifolia) are native to northwestern Argentina and southern Bolivia, but have been cultivated in almost every part of the world where there is no risk of frost. Jacarandas can be found throughout most of Southern California--including my front yard--where they were imported by the horticulturalist Kate Sessions. (A wonderful children’s book The Tree Lady by H. Joseph Hopkins, tells the story of Kate Sessions (1857-1940), the first female graduate of the University of California with a degree in science, and creator of parks and gardens in San Diego where she is known as the "Mother of Balboa Park".)

Jacaranda petals

LEGION OF HONOR ART MUSEUM, San Francisco, CA: Pompeii and Wangechi Mutu Exhibits

52 Places to Go: Week 39

Legion of Honor Art Museum, San Francisco, CA, modeled after the Palais de Legion de Honneur, Paris, France

The classical elegance of the Legion of Honor art museum in San Francisco sits high above the Pacific, offering a spectacular view of the Golden Gate headlands. (On the day we visited the coast was shrouded in fog, but the setting was still inspiring.) The huge permanent collection inside the museum focuses on ancient and European art, works on paper, and more, displayed in large, airy, elegant rooms.

Entrance to Last Supper in Pompeii exhibit.

In early May, my daughter and I and a friend did an excursion to the Legion of Honor to view two special exhibits--The Last Supper in Pompeii, focusing on food and drink as seen in frescoes, mosaics, artifacts and even a carbonized loaf of bread from the ruins of Pompeii; and I am Speaking, Are You Listening?, the sculptures and paintings of artist Wangechi Mutu, intriguingly placed in conjunction with Rodin sculptures and other traditional art of the museum’s permanent collection.

Rodin sculpture; sculpture and paintings by Wangechi Mutu.

The Pompeii exhibit is now closed but the Wangechi Mutu exhibit will be up until November 7, 2021. For an interview with Wangechi Mutu, click HERE. We also did a quick tour of the permanent collection, including a room full of Impressionist art. It was a great choice for my first public outing since the beginning of the pandemic. Timed entry tickets, masks and social distancing made us feel safe and allowed plenty of room to see the art both up close and at a distance. Tables in the museum cafe, where we had a delicious lunch, are also spaced apart.

A loaf of carbonized bread found in the ruins of Herculaneum. Another display showed carbonized dates, figs, pomegranates, wheat, olives, shellfish and other foodstuffs-- evidence of the wide variety of foods people at Pompeii ate.

We began our visit with the Pompeii exhibit on the ground floor of the museum. Each item was accompanied by a label with sometimes surprising explanatory information. A fresco depicting what looked like a baker at his bread stall in the market was revealed to be a Roman politician handing out free loaves of bread as he appealed for votes. 

Mosaic of sea creatures

Among my favorite items was a depiction of edible fish in a panel made of tiny mosaic tiles, “drawn” in such detail that they almost looked painted. I especially liked the octopus, having just seen the movie “My Octopus Teacher” an ode to the intelligence of this adaptable cephalopod.

Sculpture by Wangechi Mutu

Our first encounter with the Wangechi Mutu exhibit was in the museum's outer courtyard where we found large half-human/half-reptile figures flanking Rodin's Thinker. Inside the museum we found more of Wangechi Mutu's art installed side-by-side with the permanent exhibits in several of the galleries. (I had not previously appreciated the extent of the museum's Rodin collection that filled several rooms.) Using natural materials (mud, sticks, shells, stones) Wangechi Mutu's pieces seem to grow out of the earth. 

At the back of the room, behind Wangechi Mutu's figure, we see Rodin's Shades from the Gates of Hell.

Wangechi Mutu: An artist who calls both Nairobi and New York home, she moves voraciously between cultural traditions to challenge colonialist, racist, and sexist worldviews with her visionary projection of an alternate universe informed by Afrofuturism, post-humanism, and feminism. Mutu’s sprawling exhibition at the Legion of Honor, a museum built for the showcase of European art from antiquity through Impressionism presided over by Auguste Rodin's The Thinker, aims to spur “a purposeful examination of art histories, mythologies, and the techniques of archiving and remembering.” (from the museum website)

I am speaking. Are you listening?

The signature piece of the exhibit is a pair of figures facing one another, as if in conversation, I am speaking. Are you listening?  At the same time, the artist is in conversation with us, the viewers.

In this exhibit, while the contrast between old and new, traditional and experimental, is sometimes disconcerting, it makes us look at both with refreshed eyes. I didn't plan on seeing the Wangechi Mutu exhibit when i bought my Pompeii tickets, but I'm glad I did.

 

ASIA MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, Taichung, Taiwan: Triangles and Flowers

At Asia University, on the outskirts of Taichung, Taiwan, is the new Asia Museum of Modern Art, a striking steel and concrete building designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando. Basing his design on an equilateral triangle, every part of the building reflects the triangle shape. During our recent trip to Taiwan, I was treated to a special tour of the museum.

On the lawn outside the glass and steel structure, Rodin’s Thinker greets visitors.

Inside the building, a model of the building's unique design can be seen in the lobby.

Model. The building is formed of three triangular floor plates, stacked as to provide a sheltered external patio at ground floor level, where open-air cafés and other areas of congregation are formed

Throughout the building the geometry is repeated with V-columns supporting the structural steel frame.

Support beams

The museum features rotating temporary exhibits, and at the time of my visit last fall, it was the Language of Flowers, a theme chosen to coordinate with the 2018 World Flora Exposition held in Taichung.

Painting of flowers by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama with her signature polka dots.

The museum's goal is to display works from young Taiwanese artists and other artists from Asia, providing a global stage for contemporary works. For this exhibit, each room of the museum displayed diverse works of art that employ flowers as motifs.

Detail of painting made over a sheet of gold leaf, which can be seen peeking through the foliage

Works on display ranged from paintings and drawings to sculpture and jewelry. 

Hands holding a rose

One whole room was devoted to the glittering jewelry of Taiwanese jewelry artist Aka Chen who “fuses oriental philosophy and crafting technology to eternalize beauty of natural objects with precious stones and breathe life into their presentation.” Flowers and butterflies are among his most popular subjects.

The entry panel to the Aka Chen room is designed to allow visitors to strike a pose and become one of his butterflies.

In another room of the museum, paintings and other objects reflected the bright colors and floral designs of the indigenous cultures of Taiwan.

Woman in traditional dress wearing a floral headdress

The Language of Flowers exhibit was truly a garden of delights. My photos show just a tiny sample of the beautiful and creative pieces that were part of it.
For information about visiting the Asia Museum of Modern Art and other sites in the Taichung area, click HERE.

Paris Weekend, August 1998

Paris:  Rodin Museum with the Thinker

Woody Allen’s recent movie Midnight in Paris brought back memories of my one and only visit to Paris in August, 1998, when Art and I spent a long weekend there during our three month stay in London.  Here is the entry from my diary at the time:

    It was the August Bank Holiday Monday in England and rather than fight the crowds at London’s traditional West Indian Carnival (the equivalent of Mardi Gras and touted as Europe’s biggest street festival) we decided to spend the weekend in Paris.  We traveled via Eurostar, the high speed train that goes through the Chunnel. (The Chunnel part lasts about 20 minutes.)  It is a remarkably easy way to get from the heart of London to the heart of Paris in just under three hours.  Because we booked late we ended up going first class which cost more but meant that we were wined and dined both ways.

Toy boats for rent in the Tuileries Garden

We arrived midday on Saturday and after checking into our hotel (near the Place d’Italie on the Left Bank) we set out on foot to explore the city.  Half the fun is just wandering through the narrower streets past sidewalk cafés, open air markets, art galleries, etc.  Whenever we travel to Europe (which isn’t that often) we are on a perpetual search for a certain kind of leather key case Art likes and this gives us an excuse to go into shops.  Much to my surprise, I remembered more of my high school and college French than I would have thought, and we managed to communicate quite well.  (We never did find a key case.) 

Notre Dame Cathedral, Rose Window

Our stroll eventually brought us to the Seine and to Notre Dame Cathedral, a must-see despite the crowds.  We arrived as an afternoon service was just ending.  The combination of the organ music reverberating through the lofty  spaces, the waxy smell of hundreds of votive candles, and the brilliant stained glass rose windows makes one appreciate the power of the church.  We had dinner at a tiny family run restaurant where the food was delicious even though we weren’t completely sure of what we were eating.  (Menu items were not a staple of my high school French training.)  Paris is a relatively small city and one can walk or take the Metro almost anywhere. 

Eiffel Tower at Night

After dinner we walked to the Eiffel Tower which is brilliantly lit up at night.  Art doesn't like heights so we didn’t go to the very top, but compromised on the middle level—which is still hundreds of feet off the ground.  Needless to say, the view was impressive with the city and the river sparkling below.  One historical tidbit explained at the tower is that after it was finished in 1889, it was used to test the physical principles of falling objects.  Basically, they tossed things over the side and watched them fall!

Sacre Coeur

 Sunday in Paris was devoted to museums and a visit to Montmartre and Sacre Coeur, a church on top of a hill in one of the more arty, and quaint parts of Paris.  One climbs the steps to the church mainly for the view.  Stationed around the base were a number of street performers dressed like clowns, mummies, etc.  Each one stood motionless, like a statue, until a coin dropped into the hat; then the figure would change to a new position, a performance that especially entranced children.  The mummies, which looked like King Tut wrapped in gold stretch fabric, were particularly bizarre.

Viewing a Degas Dancer in the Musee D'Orsay

 Paris has too many museums to see anything but a sampling on a weekend visit.  On Sunday we decided to go to the Musee D’Orsay, a former railway station that has been remodeled  to display a large portion of the wonderful 19th Century and Impressionist paintings in the Louvre collection.  We also went to the Rodin museum which displays his works in a lovely 18th century house and garden.

Louvre with I.M. Pei designed Pyramid in front.

We saved our trip to the Louvre until Monday and spent most of the day there.  When we got tired of looking at art we walked in the Tuileries Gardens which stretch out in front of the museum and look toward the Arc de Triomphe.  At the end of the afternoon we returned to the train station, got onto the train, and zipped through the French countryside as the sun was casting golden shadows over the fields.  Altogether, it was a lovely weekend. 

Au Revoir!