 “Element E” is a 50-foot-tall fiberglass sculpture by Pop Art master
Roy Lichtenstein. Recently unveiled in the headquarters of the New
York City Department of Education in Lower Manhattan, it actually
began its life at UCSD as a twinkle in the eye of Mary Beebe, director
of the Stuart Collection.
“We requested a proposal from Roy and
he came to the campus in April 1983,” says Beebe. “We agreed on
a workable site between Mandeville and the student center and he
came up with this idea of five different elements the cost of which
would have been $500,000.” And therein lies the rub. At the time,
that was a good portion of the money in the Stuart Collection.
“The
Collection was young, and just beginning and people didn't know
what we were up to,” says Beebe. “The friends of the Stuart Collection
didn't begin until 1998. And they are now a huge help in underwriting
and supporting these new works. That was a lot of money then and
so it got away.”
Other art works, thankfully, did not get away.
Bruce Nauman's “Vices and Virtues,” Richard Fleischner's “Stonehenge,”
Alexis Smith's “Snake Path” and Niki de Saint Phalle's “Sun God,”
have since become touchstones of the UCSD experience.  |
