Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego Review

Driving along Coast Boulevard, it is hard to miss the mass of watercraft jutting out from the rear of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) La Jolla location. Pleasure Point by Nancy Rubins is just one example of the mingling of art and locale at this spectacular oceanfront setting.

Highlights

The oldest section of La Jolla's branch of San Diego's contemporary art museum was originally a residence, designed by Irving Gill for philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps in 1916. In the mid-1990s the compound was updated and expanded by architect Robert Venturi, who respected Gill's original geometric structure and clean Mission-style lines while adding his own distinctive touches. The result is a striking contemporary building that looks as though it's always been here.

The light-filled Axline Court serves as the museum's entrance and does triple duty as reception area, exhibition hall, and forum for special events, including the glittering Monte Carlo gala each September, attended by the town's most fashionable folk. Inside, the museum's artwork gets major competition from the setting: you can look out from the top of a grand stairway onto a landscaped garden that contains permanent and temporary sculpture exhibits as well as rare 100-year-old California plant specimens and, beyond that, to the Pacific Ocean.

California artists figure prominently in the museum's permanent collection of post-1950s art, but the museum also includes examples of every major art movement through the present—works by Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, Joseph Cornell, and Jenny Holzer, to name a few. Important pieces by artists from San Diego and Tijuana were acquired in the 1990s. The museum also gets major visiting shows.

TIPS

Be sure to also check out MCASD's downtown branch; admission is good for seven days and valid at both locations. See Chapter 2: Downtown for MCASD's downtown branch. Get in free the third Thursday of every month from 5 to 7. Informative and insightful exhibit tours are offered free of charge weekends at 2, and on the third Thursday of the month at 6. Head to the museum's X Store for unique cards and gifts. The pleasant courtyard at the museum café is a great spot to relax and recharge.