A separate peace

By Stella Chu

Daily Bruin Contributor

For some students, the Franklin D. Murphy sculpture garden, a
five-acre quadrangle of land sandwiched between Bunche and Dickson
Halls means a break from the hurriedness of UCLA life.

“This place is great,” said former UCLA student Aric
Gregson. “It’s the quietest place here, yet you can
still hear the muffled noise from the road and fountain in the
background.”

Where cars once sat parked on a barren lot, motionless bronze
and stainless steel figures stand instead, quietly watching over
visitors who amble casually along the shady, curved pathways.

Beside statues like Henry Moore’s 1961 Reclining Figure
No. 3, students also lie relaxing.

The casual intermingling of life and art distinguishes the
sculpture garden from any other place on campus, Gregson said.

“It’s relaxing and the quietest place on
campus,” he said “It’s my favorite place
here.”

Completed in 1967, the sculpture garden was dedicated and named
for then-UCLA Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy in 1968.

Despite today’s manicured appearance,in 1960 the garden
was still only an image envisioned by Murphy.

In the 1960s, just as UCLA’s reputation as a prestigious
university was growing, the campus’ physical size also
increased.

When the university began searching for a new region to develop
on the campus in 1963, they looked to North campus ““ an area
housing MacGowan and Dickson Halls, both less than a year old at
the time.

Jennifer Dunlop, curatorial assistant at the UCLA Hammer museum,
provided some background on the sculpture garden’s history
from various publications.

Planners began to draft a long range development plan for the
campus in the late 1950s.

“Particular attention was paid to the need for the
preservation of open spaces and for careful and sensitive
landscaping,” reads “In the Sculptor’s Landscape:
Celebrating Twenty-five Years of the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture
Garden,” published in 1993.

With all the construction, Murphy also desired a place where
there was balance between the creativity of nature and the
creativity of man, according to the book.

Howard E. Troller, who helped design the garden, recalled in a
letter that Murphy wanted the garden to be unique.

According to Troller, Murphy told them that “Gentlemen, I
want you to design the finest sculpture garden in the
world!”

Murphy’s plans, however, were met with some opposition,
because some students believed the space should be used for
parking. The students petitioned to stop bringing more sculptures
to campus.

Despite the controversy, Murphy teamed up with Ralph Cornell, a
distinguished Southern California landscape architect, to realize
his dream.

The combination of Murphy, a man avidly dedicated to the arts,
and Cornell, a man whose dedication rivaled Murphy’s only by
his equal dedication to beauty in nature, created the perfect
elixir for the garden’s success as a distinguished outdoor
sculpture collection, according to Dunlop.

“Dr. Murphy and Mr. Cornell dreamed not alone of a green
open space but of a collaboration between nature and man which
would combine the creative genius of sculpture with the constantly
changing creativity of plant life in an intimate setting,”
reads “Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden,” published
by the UCLA Art Council in 1984.

Construction began early in 1964, where asphalt pavement was
stripped and grass was laid in it’s place and textured
pathways were arranged upon the sloping lawn.

“I wanted something expansive but not flat,” Murphy
once recalled in Vaissair’s Diary, an art column. “So
Cornell conceived a garden that caught a sense of movement in the
terrain as it moved over the hillocks.”

Cornell also satisfied Murphy’s wishes by installing
curved, fluid seating areas to follow the theme of continuity
instead of individual benches.

In conjunction with the interplay between art and life, many of
these seating arrangements double as sculpture display stands, the
giant figures towering above any person who sits there, according
to Dunlop.

Although the sculpture garden was officially completed in 1967,
the first sculpture installed in the area was the Tower of Masks,
by Anna Mahler in 1961.

New additions to the garden came in 1969 with the arrival of
Jean Arp’s masterpiece “Ptolemy III,” Francesco
Somaini’s “Verticale-Assulonne” and William
Tucker’s “Untitled.”

The sculpture garden eventually grew to display more than 60
pieces from world-renowned artists because of various donations and
UCLA Art Council fund-raising.

In addition to the man-made art, natural beauty speckled
throughout the landscape also contribute to the sculpture
garden’s character.

From its inauguration more than 30 years ago, species of
Brazilian jacarandas, California sycamores and eucalyptus trees
still continue to provide shade to the many delighted visitors that
pass through the garden.

This blending of nature and sculpture through the years has
become a part of UCLA’s natural setting, as Murphy once
described in an issue of the “At UCLA” publication.

“Once exposed to beauty we begin to accept it and to
expect it,” Murphy then told “At UCLA.”
“We’re uncomfortable only in its absence.”

Murphy’s dream to provide people with a sense of nature
and relaxation, has become a reality with the sculpture garden
being one of the most popular places on campus.

The garden’s fame has also spread beyond UCLA’s
borders.

“I had heard about it on the radio as one of L.A.’s
best places to have a picnic,” said campus visitor Sue
Fox.”We came here to find it and everybody on campus knew
about it.”

With Murphy’s vision realized by the garden’s
popularity, he still has an enduring presence on campus.

“Dr. Murphy frequently came down in bathrobe and slippers
early in the morning to observe the progress of the
construction,” Troller said.

In a 1985 interview for “Art News,” Murphy affirmed
his continued dedication to his dream.

“I’m still guardian of the garden,” he
said.