Three Themes You May Want to Know About our Public Art on Campus

Beauty of Geometry

By Yifan Lee, AD&A Museum Curatorial Intern

Beautiful outdoor sculptures are scattered throughout the UC Santa Barbara campus, sharing many similarities. Some of them embody the beauty of geometry. Upended (1969) was made by the American-Australian sculptor Clement Meadmore. Strongly influenced by Bauhaus, an art movement which emphasizes the clarity and simplicity as the beauty of sculpture, Upended is placed in front of the Arts Building and features a full use of straight and curved lines, a “thrilling leanness”, quoted from the scholar Philip Goad, on an overall black, thick, and three-dimensional body, fascinatingly showing multiple and twisted surfaces. 

A series of works by the artist Ernest Shaw is distributed across the lawn north of Stoke Tower, including Ruins VII, Ruins V, and Shogun XXIII (1978). They are constructed by applying various lengths of straight linear components to create a subtle equilibrium of physical forces between parts of the object, which I view as a group of towers built by fresh, crispy French fries with a strong beauty of structure. The Folden Circle T and Arc (2012) made by the artist Fletcher Benton, who came from San Francisco, is a work composed of three-quarter circles and complex geometric forms. Unlike Clement Meadmore, according to the American critic Carter Ratcliff, he cares more about the contingencies of real-life experience and thus transforms abstract geometric forms into a vivid, enthusiastic, energetic expression of his aesthetics. And in this work, Benton added more musical sense to it, making its shape resemble a French Horn and creating a strong emotional dynamic.

Celebration of Nature

There are also some sculptural installations that represent the eco-friendly spirit of our campus, and that also celebrate nature in a variety of ways. Sandstone Rocks (2005) is situated in front of the AD&A Museum, designed by Isabelle Greene. Greene is one of California’s best-known and most innovative landscape architects, who studied at UCSB by taking studio art classes. She also shows the essence of her organic design in gardens in this work. This rocky bench is made in an unpolished, natural style, with a rough, rugged surface, and it fits the environment so naturally that our students use it as a bench—hardly anyone could notice that it’s actually an artwork! The growing light white and cyan lichens have also become completely part of this work, showing how the environment changes its appearance while also blending into it. 

Also, as a relatively peaceful, nature-infused work, Mowry Baden’s group of installations, Untitled (1981), is located in the pine grove west of the Arts Building. Although fast-growing woods and weeds now hide it, its choice of light grey played well on thick wooden strips and several concrete walls, which could stir spiritual reflection in the viewer. And when people walk on it, they dive into nature step by step. Bernard Rosenthal’s Untitled (1965) sculpture is more prominent in its location. It is installed on a wall in front of the AD&A Museum’s offices, facing the central courtyard. It is a bronze work, but under the artist's treatment, it conveys the rough, irregular texture of rock, while the gradual wear of time adds a vivid sense of weathering. 

Sculptor Evan Lewis, who grew up in Santa Barbara and lives in Chicago, created Quiet Storm (1990) on the south-facing wall of Snidecor Hall. In this kinetic sculpture, these two groups of wave-shaped “wings” are installed on separate single arms projecting from the wall. When wind moves through the structure, they rotate like a fan, responding to both the direction and speed of the breeze. Like Sandstone Rocks, the work conveys a concept of embracing nature while simultaneously being embraced by it. Annular Eclipse (1998-2000), another kinetic sculpture created by George Rickey, shares the same idea of nature’s dynamics as interactive power.

Thinking of Humanity

Although they have completely different artistic styles based on the large gap between the time they were created, Haig Patigian’s Industry, Navigation, and Aviation (1929) shares similarities with Peter Logan’s Flying Pencil (1986) in their idea of understanding humanity. The three gilded god-like statues made by Patigian, in a traditional decorative and symbolic way, represent the personification of the three distinguishing achievements of human civilization, praising the significance of creativity, intelligence, and perseverance within human society. The statue of colorful pencils was made by the artist Logan from Oxfordshire, UK. It is composed of enlarged-scale pencil models that are freely flying in the air, representing the ability to create art. This statue, in a much more joyous and abstract way, also reminds employees and students on the UC Santa Barbara campus of how creative we can be.

Bibliography:

Goad, Philip. “Clement Meadmore: The Art of Mid-Century Design.” Houses. September 30, 2019. https://architectureau.com/articles/clement-meadmore-the-art-of-mid-century-design/.

Keraghosian, Greg. “His Work Is Everywhere in SF. But This Secret Society Head Is Now Largely Forgotten.” SFGATE, October 3, 2023. https://www.sfgate.com/sfhistory/article/sf-secret-society-president-work-forgotten-18379283.php.

Norrington, Bill. “Flying Pencil Sculpture.” UC Geography, Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara. https://legacy.geog.ucsb.edu/flying-pencil-sculpture/.

Ratcliff, Carter. “Fletcher Benton: Indifference to the Absolute.” Sculpture. April 1, 2008. https://sculpturemagazine.art/fletcher-benton-indifference-to-the-absolute/.

Waterman, Pamela. “Isabelle Greene: Botanist, Artist, and Landscape Architect.” Pacific Horticulture. https://pacifichorticulture.org/articles/isabelle-greene/.