PepsiCo Gardens Provide Public With a Treasury of Art

There exists a surprising harmony between heavy metal and flower petals in the Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens.

Nestled in artfully landscaped woods in Westchester County are works by some of the greatest sculptors of this century. They range from a traditional piece by Auguste Rodin to more modern sculpture by Alberto Giacometti, and abstract art including a towering work by Alexander Calder.

Although the gardens are easily accessible--on the grounds of PepsiCo World Headquarters just over the border from Connecticut--visitors might feel they have stumbled onto a secret.

“This garden has never been promoted or advertised,” said Katherine Niles, former manager of the art program at PepsiCo. “It’s never been commercialized.”

As a result, the well-manicured grounds are pristine, peaceful and provocative. They are also free and open to the public.

“Look at this one. . . . It’s so beautiful,” a woman remarked to a friend recently as they stood before “Le Matin.” The Henri Laurens work is of an amply proportioned woman, kneeling beside a fountain, her head bowed as if to wash her hair.

Two of Laurens’ works are among 10 in the sunken courtyards of PepsiCo’s impressive building. Many ground-floor offices have particularly good views of the artwork. Other offices around the complex have spectacular views of the sculptures artistically arranged around the 168-acre property.

Although hundreds work at the headquarters for the beverage-snackfood-restaurant company, only a handful were seen on the sprawling grounds during a recent weekday visit. That day, the public gardens hosted hand-holding couples, stroller-pushing parents and groups of students.

“Look at the floating boy,” a grade-school student shouted as he ran through the PepsiCo building’s main courtyard toward the fountain. Its centerpiece is “Girl With a Dolphin” by David Wynne, a traditional sculptor not as well known as others represented in the garden.

“That’s a girl, not a boy,” another student said. “Look, you can tell. Gross.”

As is the case with most of the traditional sculptures in the garden, the figure is not clothed.

“It is not gross,” another student said, admiring the playful pair in the center of the fountain. “I think it’s beautiful. I want to take a picture.”

Some students nodded in agreement while a teacher tried to explain that many artists portray their subjects nude.

That was one of the easier explanations. The teachers had a much tougher time answering questions about why aluminum bars suspended from wires should be called “Mozart II” or why a multilegged giant orange-red metal structure should be called “Hats Off.”

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Visitors are free to roam the rolling hills, fields and pathways or to picnic in a grove beside a lake. Or they can pick up a map at the Visitor Center and follow the Golden Path through the entire property.

Along the path are gardens that are works of art in themselves, designed by internationally known landscape designer Russell Page. Particularly striking are the Lily Ponds and Perennial Garden as well as the Birch Grove and Gold Garden.

To the left of the drive into the property are the Oak Grove and Stream Garden, a harmonious blending of art and nature.

At the entrance to these two areas is one of the few works in the garden by a female sculptor, Judith Brown. “Caryatids” is a post-modern work that echoes ancient Greek or Roman sculptures. Made from old car parts, the work is of three Amazon-size women draped in clothing similar to togas, carrying a crumbling cornice over their bowed heads.

The pathway narrows as it moves toward the Stream Garden. Here, the grounds are lush with ferns and flowers beside a stream. Visitors walk a wood-chip path beneath a low archway of trained trees, over a small wooden bridge and around a corner to spy “The Search,” a sculpture of a man walking with outstretched arms. The dreamlike quality of Victor Salomone’s work is enhanced by the setting--it is about 20 feet from the path in a grove of bushes and trees.

Also in this area is Art Price’s “Birds of Welcome,” perched by a small lake and caressed by the branches of a nearby weeping willow.

The works become more abstract as a visitor continues along the path toward the Birch Grove and Gold Garden. In this area are two modern pieces, “Passage” by Richard Erdman and “Duck” by Tony Smith.

“I’m not saying everyone loves every piece,” Niles said about the company’s collection. “But it is what it is because we are a 20th century company.”

The 43-piece garden began with the opening of the PepsiCo headquarters in 1970. Then-chairman Donald M. Kendall had bought six pieces of sculpture for the courtyards, and they were much admired at the dedication ceremony.

“ ‘If they like it so much, we’ll keep it open so people can come to see,’ ” Niles recalls Kendall saying at the time. “The quality of the pieces established the quality of the rest of the collection. He got hooked.”

That was the birth of one of the richest public sculpture collections in the world. It is open daily from 10 a.m. to dusk.