Landmarks : Sculpture Commissions for the Stuart Collection, University of California, San Diego

In 1981, The Stuart foundation, a not-for-profit foundation dedicated to funding experimental public sculpture, and the University of California, San Diego formed an extraordinary partnership to create the only major public, site-specific sculpture collection in the world. This collection has redefined the entire arena of public art. Instead of asking artists to create an object, without reference to the site, they required that each artist explore the campus carefully, and create a site-specific piece that could be integrated into the beautifully landscaped, 1,200-acre UCSD campus in La Jolla. The collection includes work by some of the most important contemporary artists, including Niki de Saint Phalle, William Wegman, Bruce Nauman, Kiki Smith, Nam June Paik and Robert Irwin, among others.