Amid Rush of City Life, Parks With Art Provide Oases of Beauty

Most people ignore their New Year’s resolutions mainly because of the difficulties in living up to them. If you are in that category, rejoice. We offer you something that costs practically nothing, takes little energy and, best of all, will improve your attitude. What’s more, you can do it alone or accompanied by friends.

What we have in mind is a series of visits to nearby sculpture gardens, which might include such diverse items as twisted ribbons of stainless steel, talking trees, bronze-colored granite rock or a clock tower made of junk. These exhibits can be found at museums, universities, parks and shopping plazas.

When exploring such gardens, be sure to leave sufficient time to get the “feel” of them. Though the concepts underlying some of the sculptures are obvious to even the casual viewer, other pieces are wildly abstract and demand more time and attention. Fortunately, picnickers are welcome at many of the Southern California sculpture gardens in our sampler, so bring along some victuals to supplement the aesthetic nourishment you are bound to soak up.

Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden, a collection of the Wight Art Gallery, UCLA, Los Angeles, (213) 825-1461. The sculptures may be viewed anytime, and a brochure with map is available at Wight Art Gallery, 1100 Dickson Art Center. The gallery is open Tuesday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m.; Wednesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 1-5 p.m. A catalogue may be purchased at the gallery. Free tours can be arranged through (213) 825-3264.

Composed of 72 pieces and still growing, this collection of outdoor artworks was designed by Franklin D. Murphy and the late Ralph Cornell to blend aesthetically into its natural setting on more than five acres of parkland on the UCLA campus. From the Wight Art Gallery and the Theater Arts Building, flanking the University Research Library, it extends to the Social Sciences Building (Bunche Hall) and to the Graduate School of Management. Works by many of the greatest European and American sculptors of the late 19th and 20th centuries are included.

A few examples: “Button Flower,” 1959, by Alexander Calder; “Point as a Set, No. 25,” 1970, by Claire Falkenstein; “Dance Columns I and II,” 1978, by Robert Graham; “Bas Reliefs I-IV,” 1909-1930, by Henri Matisse; “Mere Ubu,” 1975, by Joan Miro; “Two-Piece Reclining Figure, No. 3,” 1961, by Henry Moore; “The Walking Man,” 1905, by Auguste Rodin; “Cubi XX,” 1964, by David Smith; and “Mother With Child at Her Hip,” 1979, by Francisco Zuniga.

Art in Public Places collection, City of Brea, (714) 990-7600. You can obtain a detailed booklet with a self-guided tour map of the first 59 pieces in the collection for $2 at Brea City Hall, or by mail for $2.50 (City of Brea, Number One Civic Center Circle, Brea 92621).

In 1975, the Brea City Council implemented a unique Art in Public Places program that has resulted in the installation of more than 60 sculptures throughout the city.

Subsidized through private contributions, the collection grows at the rate of about half a dozen pieces per year. Among the works are the following: “Twist and Slide,” stainless steel, by Daniel Miller, at Associated Road and Birch Street; “Water Tower,” by Gared N. Smith, at Associated and Country Hills roads; “Rock Wagon,” bronze, copper, stainless and corten steel, by Harold Pastorius, at Kraemer Boulevard and Edgemont Lane; “The Eagle,” bronze, 26 feet high with a wingspan of 16 feet, by Daniel Gluck, at Birch and Flower Hill streets; and many other unusual and dramatic pieces.

Art Center College of Design Sculpture Garden, 1700 Lida St., Pasadena, (818) 584-5000. The large-scale pieces in this ongoing, changing hillside sculpture garden may be viewed Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to dusk; the area is open later but is unlighted. (The college is now closed for the year-end holidays and will reopen Jan. 4. It also is closed on Sundays and most holidays.) Inquire at the Art Center receptionist desk for directions to the collection. Free guided tours are given Tuesday and Wednesday at 11 a.m.; call for reservations. School groups are welcome and special tours are available.

Included are works by Donald Judd, Bruce Nauman, Guy Dill, Mark di Suvero, George Rickey, Michael Heizer, Robert Therrien, Peter Voulkos, Michael Todd, Michel Gerard, Tom Wesselmann, Robert Lobe and Alan Saret. Pieces range in style from Di Suvero’s giant seesaw-like sculpture and Todd’s welded construction to Gerard’s six-part black metal sculpture arranged around an irregular metal ring on the ground. Four works by the 19th-Century French Romantic sculptor Auguste Rodin are also included.

Los Angeles Art Council’s Sculpture Walk, Century City. You may obtain descriptive brochures in Century City building lobbies or by calling the Los Angeles Art Council at (213) 552-3539.

Currently on view are 8 sculptures by the eminent Chicago sculptor Richard Hunt. The largest work, “Victory Reconstruction,” is 22 feet high, made of corten steel. It is at Northrup Plaza on the northeast corner of Little Santa Monica Boulevard and Century Park East. Three other sculptures can be seen in and around Northrup Plaza, at 1800 / 1840 Century Park East.

Other Hunt sculptures, each made of welded bronze or welded corten or stainless steel, are at the ABC Entertainment Center, 2020 Avenue of the Stars; in the Century City Plaza, 2020-2040 Century Park East; at Watt Plaza, 1875 Century Park East; at Gateway East, 1800 Avenue of the Stars; 2029 and 2049 Century Park East (The Twin Towers); and 1880 Century Park East.

The Art Council’s next Sculpture Walk is in March.

Palm Springs Desert Museum: Sinatra Sculpture Garden, Marcuse Sculpture Garden, Elrod Sculpture Garden, 101 Museum Drive, Palm Springs, (619) 325-7186. All three sculpture collections are open for viewing during museum hours, which are: Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The museum is closed Mondays, on all major holidays and from early June through late September. Admission is $4 for adults, $2 for students with I.D. and children 6 to 17 years, free for ages 5 and under. Free admission for all on the first Tuesday of each month. On other Tuesdays, senior citizens 62 and over pay $2.

Sculpture currently on view in the Sinatra Sculpture Garden include “Torso of Woman,” 1957, and “Reclining Figure,” 1956, both bronzes by Henry Moore; “Maiz Goddess,” 1977, by Erwin Binder; “3x6 Interplay,” 1975-76, by Yaacov Agam; “Horse With Six Heads,” a bronze by Germaine Richier; and “Enclosed Figure,” a copper sculpture by Abbott Pattison. Lunch is available here.

The Marcuse Sculpture Garden shows “Casualty in the Art Realm,” 1979, by Robert Arneson, a new acquisition in honor of the museum’s 50th birthday; “Construction,” 1967, gray granite, by Max Bill; “Structure and Flow 4,” 1966, copper and glass, by Claire Falkenstein; and three others.

In the Elrod Sculpture Garden the following pieces are seen: “Sunbird,” 1962-64, a bronze by Sorel Etrog; “Old One Tooth,” iron and steel by Mark di Suvero, also acquired in honor of the museum’s 50th birthday; “Monumental Holistic XIV,” automobile enamel on 1-inch steel, by Betty Gold; and several others.

The Stuart Collection, UC San Diego, La Jolla, (619) 534-2117. Pick up a map of the collection at the central library or various other campus locations. The library is open 8 a.m.-11 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, noon-11 p.m. Sunday. Metered parking is available throughout the campus, and visitors may purchase one-day parking permits at the cashier’s or parking offices. Short video programs about the works may be viewed at the Playback Center in the undergraduate library, and guided group tours for 10 or more may be requested in advance.

Formally launched at UCSD in 1982, the Stuart Collection of outdoor sculpture includes six works of art, with two more due to be completed and installed in 1988. The first commissioned work was Niki de Saint Phalle’s “Sun God,” a brightly colored 14-foot bird on a 15-foot concrete arch, which is in a grassy area north of the Mandeville Auditorium.

Pedestrian paths cross the eucalyptus grove in which Robert Irwin’s “Two Running Violet V-Forms” is situated. You’ll see blue-violet chain-link fencing atop 25-foot steel poles set up in V-forms among the trees.

A sculpture by Terry Allen takes the form of three real trees stripped of their bark and preserved. By means of specially designed speakers, two of the trees “talk”--chants, songs, poetry and the sounds of Allen and other people.

May S. Marcy Sculpture Court and Garden, San Diego Museum of Art, Balboa Park, (619) 232-7931. The museum is open Tuesday-Sunday 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Admission is $4 for adults, $3 for senior citizens and military, $2 for students, $1 for children 6-12; those 5 and under are admitted at no charge.

This collection represents an international selection of 20th-Century artists. Museum visitors may purchase food from the cafe and eat in the sculpture garden.

Among the 15 works on view are “Spinal Column,” a 1968 steel piece, painted red/orange, by Alexander Calder; “Accelerated Point,” 1974, copper tubing and flowing water, by Claire Falkenstein; “Solar Bird,” 1967, bronze, by Joan Miro; “Reclining Figure: Arch Leg,” 1969-70, bronze, by Henry Moore; “Mother and Daughter Seated,” 1971, bronze by Francisco Zuniga.

California Scenario Sculpture Garden, South Coast Plaza Town Center, San Diego Freeway at Bristol Street, Costa Mesa, (714) 241-1700. Open free to the public from 8 a.m. to midnight daily. A collection of sculptures and a special “environment” have been worked into the layout of a large central plaza.

Created by Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi, California Scenario is a 1.6-acre garden framed by two reflective glass buildings and two 40-foot-high white concrete walls. Noguchi combined several kinds of granite with sandstone, metal, water, earth, vegetation and unseen plumbing to create a reflective environment. His sculpture, “The Spirit of the Lima Bean,” is composed of 15 bronze-colored, precisely cut and fitted granite rocks.

Works by other artists found in the Town Center include “Sun Ribbon” by Claire Falkenstein, “Pekin” by Alexander Calder, “Oiseau” by Joan Miro and “Four Lines Oblique Gyratory--Square IV” by George Rickey.

Monumental Sculpture Collection, University Art Museum, Cal State Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach, (213) 498-5761. You can obtain a brochure containing a map by calling ahead or at the University Art Museum Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, 1-5 p.m. (The museum is closed until Jan. 26.) On weekends, visitors can park at any of the campus parking areas. During the week, permits are required for most lots. The walking tour of the collection covers about two miles of landscaped pathways, with an elevation change of 70 feet.

The following works are a few of those in the collection: “MU 464,” etched, engraved, and anodized aluminum, by Kengiro Azuma; “Queen’s Chapel,” 1982, steel tubing and eucalyptus wood, by Woods Davy; “Now,” 1965, stainless steel, Piotr Kowalski; “Sun Forces,” 1965, an acrylic wall mural; and more than a dozen others.

MacArthur Park Public Art Program, Wilshire Boulevard and Alvarado Avenue, Los Angeles. This is a program of the Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design, (213) 251-0556, which is across the street. Otis/Parsons has been working with the community for the past five years, and now an assortment of artworks is scattered throughout the park.

“We’ve been using public art as a way to stimulate the community to upgrade the parks,” said Al Nodal, director of exhibitions for Otis/Parsons and director of the school’s park rehabilitation program.

The works on view at the park: R.M. Fischer’s “Arches,” at the Wilshire and Park View entrance; “Clock Tower,” a tower made of discarded materials, by George Herms, at the southwest corner of the park (7th and Park View streets); a spray-painted mural on the back of the band shell at the corner of 6th and Park View streets, by local teen-agers; Doug Hollis and Richard Turner’s “Poetry Garden,” three bench speakers that play poetry in Spanish, Korean and other neighborhood languages, installed in benches on a hillside north of the band shell; two brightly colored, tiled pyramids by Judith Simonian, each with a speaker and connected by an underground tube so children can talk to one another; and Alexis Smith’s three “Mini-Monuments,” sidewalk-embedded terrazzo and bronze installations with quotes from Raymond Chandler, around the south side of the western underpass.

The next piece to be installed will be “Border Crossing,” a sculpture by Luis Jimenez, at the southeast corner of the park (Alvarado and 7th streets).

The vintage neon signs on buildings around the park have recently been re-lit; however, the best time to visit the park is still during daylight.(