A Very Public Display of Collection

Twenty-six sculptures that are scattered in popular spots throughout the Cal State Fullerton campus will be honored by The Architecture Foundation of Orange County. The university will receive an Art in Public Places Award on Friday.

“They have a unique collection that caught our attention,” said Paul Ruffing, chairman of the foundation, an offshoot of the American Institute of Architects--Orange County Chapter.

This year’s annual awards banquet will be at the Noguchi Garden in Costa Mesa, the first site presented with the award--an inch-thick glass plaque about 4 inches high and 6 inches wide. There have been eight previous recipients.

“The outdoor sculpture collection is a hidden treasure that most people don’t know is there. Our goal is to bring these designs and works of art to the public’s attention,” Ruffing said.

Cal State Fullerton started its sculpture collection decades ago. Among the first sculptures were Claire Falkenstein’s “Game Action,” installed in the summer of 1965 in the Titan Gym, and Bernard J. Rosenthal’s “Terrace Screen,” installed in the fall of 1968 when the visual art department was built.

It took physical strength and dexterity to install some sculptures, recalled Jerry Samuelson, dean of the college of arts.

A professor at the time, Samuelson climbed scaffolding in the gym to help Falkenstein hang her work on the wall just above the entrance.

The sculpture is a handful of tubes with embedded glass, curved and stretched across the wall. At first, some students were skeptical of the abstract piece.

“So Claire met with the students and explained that the tubes were symbolic of the forces and movement of athletes,” Samuelson said. “Once they understood the art, they took to it. So that controversy ended and our sculpture garden began.”

Most of the contemporary pieces were gifts or acquired through donations. The campus art department has benefited from its community support group, the Art Alliance. The alliance has raised funds to purchase several works, including the 1982 “Lemonade” by Jay S. Willis, and Michael Todd’s 1973 “Homage to David Smith.”

Throughout the years, the university has made an effort to boost its outdoor sculpture collection, which also consists of two Betty Gold creations, an untitled work made in 1979 and the 1985 “Kaikoo H. XI,” and Dextra Frankel’s 1967 “Weathervane.”

Seventeen of the sculptures are around the art complex and nine are elsewhere on campus.

“The Wall Gazing Gallery” is wood and metal that looks like a corrugated, tin-roof shack floating above a small pool. Students can sit on the structure, let their feet dangle and contemplate their grades, love interests or life in general. The 1983 piece, created by Richard Turner, was inspired by Buddha, who focused his thoughts on the walls of a cave for 10 years. Turner, who studied in Southeast Asia, rebuilt the sculpture in 1988.

“ ‘The Wall Gazing Gallery’ is just outside my office,” Samuelson said. “It’s nice to go out there, sit and have lunch.”

The majority of Cal State Fullerton’s sculptures are by California artists.

The art department’s high-profile acquisition of the Richard Newquist sculpture collection in 1995 was considered a coup. Art gallery director Mike McGee was instrumental in obtaining the Newquist sculptures, Samuelson said. The eight pieces in the Newquist Sculpture Court, outside the art department office and main art gallery, were donated between 1995 and 1998.

“To see the contemporary sculptures from the Newquist collection in the courtyard is my favorite thing. It really makes the place feel like an art department,” Samuelson said.

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Six of the eight works were a gift in 1998 from Thomas Knaup, a Cal State Fullerton alumni, who adopted the collection after he purchased the Newquist home in Orange, following the art patron’s death. The Newquists donated two artworks in 1995. The entire collection now includes works by Woods Davy, DeWain Valentine and Charles Fine. Michael Davis’ 1985-86 “Terra Firma/Terra Incognita” and Dustin Shular’s 1987 “California Carwash” also are part of the collection.

“This is the first really significant recognition of the outdoor sculpture collection,” Samuelson said of the award. “One of the things sculpture does is give a human scale and element to buildings and the environment. The art building, for instance, is built in a modern, geometric, clean, classic Bauhaus style, so the architecture is a good foil and background to these sculptures.”

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Although many of the sculptures were carefully acquired, a favorite among them was simply salvaged. The “Fallen David,” a broken replica of Michelangelo’s masterpiece, has its parts strewn around a grassy area at the center of campus. The marble--cut in Florence, Italy, from the same quarry as the original--was donated to the school by Forest Lawn in Cypress after it fell during the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake and broke in pieces.

It was about to be discarded when art professor Don Lagerberg requested that it be donated to the school. Forest Lawn agreed and helped install the mangled David, which was broken at the waist, lower torso, legs and ankles.

Students have adopted it as a prime place to lounge, often propping up against the statue to rest or read.

“It was a great idea not only because David is such a symbol of youth and strength, but because the sculpture is fallen, it’s also a symbol of the fragileness of youth,” Samuelson said.

Ruffing said the unusual way in which it was acquired makes the “Fallen David” special.

“It could’ve ended up in a trash dump,” he said. “That type of thinking and approach to art in public places is what we’re looking for. It’s wacky and it’s a lot of fun.”