UCLA Sculpture Gardens on Thursday

I roamed around the UCLA Franklin Murphy Sculpture Gardens on Thursday morning just after it had rained a bit.  The gardens were championed by the UCLA Chancellor, Franklin D. Murphy, who later became chief executive of the Times Mirror Company.   The garden was dedicated in 1967 and features over 70 modern and contemporary sculptures on a five-acre site designed by landscape architect Ralph Cornell.  I first visited the gardens in 1977 and have enjoyed them many times over the years.  It is fun to see the students and faculty also enjoying the gardens as it is a great place to picnic, study, nap, spoon with your partner, and just look around and enjoy.

Here are some of my favorites:

"Reclining Nude" by Francisco Zuniga 

"Oval Form" by Barbara Hepworth

"Bathers" by Jacques Lipchitz

"Tower of Masks" by Anna Mahler

"Mother with Child at her Hip" by Francisco Zuniga 

"Two-Piece Reclining Figure" by Henry Moore

 "Dance Columns I and II by Robert Graham

"Maja" by Gerhard Marcks

"Pensive" by Deborah Butterfield

One of 4 Bas-Relief panels by Henri Matisse

"Night" by Anna Mahler

"Mulier" by Eric Gill