La Jolla Vista View: detail of telescope overlooking the area

For the Stuart Collection Wegman created his first major outdoor permanent sculpture: he installed a scenic - or nonscenic - overlook at one edge of the campus, near the location of the university's theater and dance complex. The site commands a view not of the Pacific Ocean, visible from the other side of the university, or some other pristine wilderness view, but of La Jolla's suburban sprawl. The centerpiece of La Jolla Vista View is a long bronze map; it transposes from Wegman's idiosyncratic drawing the supposed "points of interest" discernible from the overlook. These include housing developments, construction sites, and the footbridge connecting UCSD with the shopping center adjacent to the campus. Wegman's overlook, complete with a telescope, drinking fountain, and picnic table set under a palm tree, makes a simple cartoonlike connection between Southern California's still-picturesque natural scenery and its booming economic growth/development which places an ever-increasing strain on the region's environment.


"This is the telescope such as one often finds at roadside historic markers. This one works and is free!" - Mary Beebe, Stuart Collection Director

• 1988

• Stuart Collection (San Diego, Calif.)

• Rittermann, Philipp Scholz (American photographer, 1955 CE-)

• Wegman, William (American photographer and painter, born 1943)

• Beebe, Mary Livingstone (American, born 1940)

Theater and dance complex: University of California, San Diego; La Jolla, California, United States

stone (rock), bronze map, telescope, drinking fountain, and picnic table; site approximately 4,400 square feet

• Installations (visual works)
• Interactive art
• Markers (monuments)
• Memorials
• Outdoor sculpture
• Overlooks
• Plaques (flat objects)
• Public art
• Site-specific works

• University of California, San Diego--History

• American
• Cities
• Contemporary
• Humor
• Irony
• Landscapes (representations)
• Nature
• Neighborhoods
• Tourism
• Urban planning

Point: 32.871432, -117.240124

• image

• No linguistic content; Not applicable

Architecture and City Planning

Garden and Landscape

Sculpture and Installations

• Rittermann, Philipp Scholz (American photographer, 1955 CE-)

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2023-10-26