Sculpture garden spruces up for fall

By Rob Sullivan
UCLA Today

David Smith Smith, CUBI XX, 1964. Welded Stainless Steel. Collection of the Franklin D. murphy Sculpture Garden, UCLA. Gift of David E. Bright.

The Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden, beloved for 38 years by the campus community for its graceful interplay between three-dimensional art and nature, will soon be turning over a new leaf.

I t’s being revitalized with new grass, a “smarter” irrigation system, improved lighting and a new look.

“This has been needed for decades,” said Cynthia Burlingham, deputy director of collections at the Hammer Museum, which curates the garden. “It’s wonderful that it’s finally being done.”

Ten of the 72 sculptures exhibited there have been relocated to other spots within the garden. Most were relocated to accommodate the design of the Edythe L. and Eli Broad Center now under construction and the installation this spring of a 35-ton untitled, steel torqued ellipse by internationally known sculptor Richard Serra. The new ellipse, Serra’s first public art work in Southern California, will be located next to the four Matisse bronzes that are anchored to a wall in front of what will be the New Wight Gallery.

The new improvements befit the garden’s stature as an outdoor showcase for works by Henry Moore, Jean (Hans) Arp, Henri Matisse, Barbara Hepworth, David Smith, Jacques Lipchitz, Isamu Noguchi and an illustrious assortment of world-renowned artists.

“The sculpture garden is respected and enjoyed by the campus community,” Burlingham said. “This is one of the best public collections of sculpture in the country, if not the world.”

A new irrigation system had to be custom-designed because the old one, which dated back to the mid-60s, watered the sculptures as well as the grass.

“Several of the works had been affected by water from the sprinklers,” said Lyndsey Cameron, Capital Programs project architect for the renovation.

At the opposite end of the garden, between Bunche Hall and the Public Policy Building, two newly installed abutting brick walls are the sites for relocated pieces, “Difficult Dialogue” by Pietro Consagra, “Abstract Plaque” by Tony Rosenthal and the bust of the garden’s founder and former UCLA chancellor, the late Franklin D. Murphy, sculpted by the American artist Elden Tefft.