The Stuart Collection

On April 22nd, the Palm Desert Art in Public Places Commission was regaled with a tour of the Stuart Collection on the UC San Diego campus. One of the most celebrated public art collections in the United States, the Stuart Collection features major works by some of the most important contemporary artists from the last three decades. The collection first started in the early 1980's with pieces by Robert Irwin and Niki De Saint Phalle, followed by artworks by Terry Allen, Nam June Paik, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Richard Fleischner, Bruce Nauman and Willam Wegman. All the pieces are site specific and reflect the pinnacle of sensitively of integrating public artworks into the environment by allowing each artist to visit the campus and select the site they would like to develop a proposal for.
Our docent guide, Susan, a retired lawyer, did a excellent job of explaining each piece and the process that was required to fabricate the artworks. We all were extremely thankful to her and the expert way she guided us through and around the campus for close to 2 hours.
We piled into the tour bus and headed to the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art for lunch at their wonderful restuarant. Everyone enjoyed their lunch and then shopped at the museum store. Unfortunately, the museum was closed on Wednesday and we missed seeing the Jasper Johns exhibition.