One of the perks of going to UCLA is free and easy access to the
Hammer Museum in Westwood or the Fowler Museum on campus. But
perhaps one of the campus’s best kept secrets for art-viewing
is, right next door to the Fowler, the Anderson School of
Management. Who would have thought?
“It’s a hidden gem for the campus,” General
Manager of Building Services Michael Heafey said.
The school has in its collection three Picasso pieces, one of
which, “La Guitare Devant la Fenetre,” is worth
$22,500, a Robert Motherwell oil painting worth $100,000 and an
instantly captivating piece by Hiroshi Senju called
“Waterfall.” The piece, hung in the Collins Center, is
worth $140,000.
Most pieces are gifts from alumni or on loan from the artists,
many of whom are personal friends of Anderson School alumni or
employees. Artist Guy Harper, for instance, who has loaned two
pieces to the school, was the jogging partner of an Anderson School
building services employee.
The school also owns original movie posters for
“Heaven’s Gate” and “Ishtar” and
features in the school’s coffee shop, Café Roma, one of
the oldest New York Stock Exchange trading horseshoe posts (named
for its shape) installed between 1929 and 1932.
But much, if not all, of the school’s displayed art often
goes unnoticed. And senior faculty member Donald Morrison, who
helps manage the collection, admits that UCLA’s students,
including the Anderson School’s own faculty and students,
often overlook the school’s large collection of modern art,
which is displayed throughout the five-story complex. The usual
response of Anderson students and faculty when asked about the art,
Morrison notes, is highly indicative of this.
“Art? What art?” he mimicked.
Although Morrison’s own office is adorned with delicate
watercolor paintings and a Monet poster, the bulk of the Anderson
School collection features bold-colored, heavily textured modern
art that fits more appropriately than watercolor would into the
modern look of the complex, which was completed in 1995 under the
architect Henry N. Cobb of the internationally renowned
architectural firm Pei, Cobb, Freed and Partners, which is based in
New York.
In fact, the most valuable piece of art the Anderson School owns
is the school itself. The building, which cost an estimated $80
million to complete, is a massive, intricate piece of artwork. For
example, the gleaming polished marble tiles found in the complex
feature a design that represents the Pythagorean theorem, according
to Morrison. Similar angles to those in the tiles are found in the
exterior architecture of the complex.
Cobb’s favorite aspect of the complex is an extremely thin
slit formed between two adjacent buildings that provides a visual
effect of the buildings rising up high into the sky.
The complex features a mix between the old (bricks) and the new
(large glass windows and doors, and gleaming silver and metal
railings). Cobb wanted the building to fit in with its
surroundings, so he copied Royce Hall’s brick structure. The
bricks have dominant, horizontal bands of cement running through
them, and the Anderson complex is supposed to be an updated version
of Royce Hall.
And though Cobb preferred that the compass-shaped complex not
feature any artwork in the interior, the school now displays 50 art
pieces on the otherwise stark, massive, white walls.
“The building itself is pretty sterile and that was part
of the architect’s vision to keep the walls that
unencumbered,” Heafey said.
The role of the art is, for Heafey, to add character to the
walls, and for Morrison, to provide a pleasant and stimulating
atmosphere. Works such as “Homage to the Muse,” a suite
of 15 panels with oil and wax on canvas, by James Hayward, are
especially well suited to this purpose. Each of the 15 large panels
features a different bold color with heavy, protruding textures
that contrast the flat, white walls of the complex.
Heafey’s favorite piece is John Okulick’s
“Apex,” which resembles children’s building
blocks and features bright, playful colors and 3-D wood pieces.
Meanwhile, Morrison’s favorite piece, Harper’s oil on
canvas work, “Something like Red Bell Peppers,” also
features bold colors, in this case, mostly red and rich textures,
this time via shading.
With all this elaborate artwork, it seems strange that only a
small population of students and faculty have viewed it. Part of
the problem is that most UCLA students wouldn’t think to
venture that far beyond the Fowler Museum and up the intimidating,
massive steps into the Anderson courtyard, the center of the
complex.
Heafey admits the building can seem like a “brick
bastion” or “fortress-like” with its massive
brick towers, which creates a need for warming up the inside with
color and texture, a need that the modern art on display
fulfills.
“In a certain way, it’s disconcerting that people
don’t expect to find paintings or displayed pieces like this.
They expect to find charts and graphs,” Heafey said.
Other displayed art includes that of Charles Arnoldi, Billy Al
Bengston, a Jackson Pollack-looking Ronald Davis piece and a
Jacqueline Dreager piece some students like to call “Pickup
Sticks in the Gutter,” according to Morrison. The school also
has a black-and-white aerial photograph of the UCLA campus in
1935.
With all this valuable art on display, and only a few people
taking the time to view it, Heafey recognizes the waste and the
need to promote the viewing of the art.
“Perhaps we should toot our horn a little bit more
loudly,” he proposed.