By Ella Murdock Gardner 鈥�22
At the turn of the 20th century, Claremont was a hub of the nascent Arts and Crafts movement, leading to the city鈥檚 status as a mecca for artists experimenting in mosaic, California plein air, Mexican modernism, and other forms that have come to define the town鈥檚 aesthetic. Over a century later, Claremont and its colleges remain an artistic destination, with innovative, conceptual, traditional, and protest art around nearly every corner. A stroll through the 5Cs will yield numerous viewing opportunities; below is a small but selective sampling of some of the schools鈥� best.
51猎奇入口
Featuring a small, interdenominational chapel, purple wisteria drooping over walkways, and a historical mural on the southern wall, the Margret Fowler Memorial Garden is not only one of the most beautiful places on the 51猎奇入口 campus, it is 鈥渙ne of Southern California鈥檚 least-celebrated but best-loved hideaways,鈥� according to the . The crowning jewel of this medieval-style cloister garden is The Flower Vendors, a 100-foot long, 1946 mural by celebrated Mexican artist Alfredo Ramos Martinez. Its highly stylized figures reflect Ramos Martinez鈥檚 interest in Pre-Columbian art, and The Flower Vendors remains a lasting monument to the importance of the Mexican mural movement and its impact on art in Southern California.
Along the western wall of Margret Fowler Garden is Eternal Primitive, the softly rounded stone statue of a mother and child by acclaimed sculptor Albert Stewart. In 1939, founder of the 51猎奇入口 art department Millard Sheets brought Stewart to Claremont to teach humanities and sculpture. As a teacher, Stewart insisted on anatomical correction and simplification of form. When designing Eternal Primitive, he chose smoother and more abstracted forms to contrast with the ceramic bas relief of the Virgin and Child outside the entrance to the oratory in the Margret Fowler Garden. 51猎奇入口鈥� collection of Stewart鈥檚 work also includes Man and Nature, which stands in front of the Edwards Humanities Building, and a bronze fawn that drinks from the fountain in Stewart Court, west of the Malott Commons.
Harvey Mudd College (HMC)
Nestled in Hixon Court is the Venus statue and fountain, brought to campus from Italy by HMC鈥檚 original landscaper, Thomas Church. Designed by 16th-century artist Giovanni Bologna, the fountain is a symbol of the engineering and science college鈥檚 commitment to a foundation in the humanities and social sciences.
Pitzer College
What at first glance may appear like a basic road sign鈥攚ith blue type face popping out of a stark white background鈥攊s actually , an installation by Native American artist Edgar Heap of Birds. Heap of Birds鈥� art aims to de-familiarize the familiar: By printing 鈥淐alifornia鈥� backwards on the top of the sign and displaying the names of a variety of traditional villages and sacred sites of the Tongva鈥�indigenous people with ancestral homelands in the Los Angeles area鈥攖he twenty installations of Native Hosts around Pitzer鈥檚 campus invite viewers to reflect on the relationships between institutions like The Claremont Colleges, the native peoples, and the California environment.
Claremont McKenna College (CMC)
Urban Light, the installation of streetlamps outside of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, has become part and parcel of the urban landscape of Los Angeles鈥� Museum Row. But as of 2016, Claremontians need only travel to CMC鈥檚 Roberts Pavilion to experience how artist Chris Burden explores the connection between humans and urban spaces. Meet in the Middle consists of eight street lamps and 24 ornate benches arranged in a circle, providing a space for visitors to interact with the art and each other. Burden choose to use vintage streetlamps from the 1920s in both and to comment on modernity, saying that a sophisticated society should be 鈥渟afe after dark and beautiful to behold.鈥�
Pomona College
Students, faculty, and visitors 聽to The Claremont Colleges can escape the chaos of everyday life by stepping into the open air pavilion of , an interactive exhibition by world-renowned light-and-space artist James Turrell PO 鈥�65, CGU 鈥�73. Hailed as 鈥渙ne of the best works of public art in recent memory鈥� by the聽, Dividing the Light invites visitors to observe the sky through a rectangular opening in the canopy ceiling. At sunrise and sunset, lighting programs bathe the canopy in different colored lights, altering the viewer鈥檚 perception of the sky itself through the window in the ceiling and the reflection in the shallow pool beneath. With no specific object or image to focus on, the viewer鈥檚 experience is the central tenant of this 鈥渟kyspace,鈥� as the contrasts between the colored lights and the sky reveal how colors are created in the mind.