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Outdoor Sculpture

Costa Mesa is home to the California Scenario, a unique sculpture garden by the legendary Isamu Noguchi. The area also hosts special art exhibits, such as the magnificent works of artist Mark di Suvero, and features a striking variety of public art by other prominent artists, including Joan Miro, Jean Dubuffet and Henry Moore.
 
Tour Aux Jambes
by Jean Dubuffet
Jean’s Dubuffet Tour Aux Jambes can be translated as “Encirclement of Limbs” or “Tower of Legs.” Located in the Imperial Bank Building, Dubuffet’s treatment of the “limbs” or “legs” is so abstract that it is impossible to see human components, yet it is easy to follow the sculpture’s form and content. This artwork, made of epoxy and polyurethane, is rather like a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle, though its lines are only on the surface.
 
Night Shift
by Jim Huntington
While most of the artworks at South Plaza were clearly brought from outside and installed here, Jim Huntington’s Night Shift looks as if it might have grown out of a grassy mound on the peaceful Town Center Park. Cut from a massive chunk of Sierra white granite, the piece is abruptly sliced through the top by a plate of polished, stainless steel.

 
Reclining Figure
by Henry Moore
Reclining Figure by Henry Moore is located at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. A gift of “The Angels of the Arts” to The Center, it is a splendid example of the renowned sculptor’s mature work. By designing a void in the mass of his Reclining Figure, Moore encourages us to see that space around the figure is as important as the solid material. Through his mastery of open and closed form, Moore has captured the dignity and living force of a woman.

 
Sun Ribbon
by Claire Falkenstein
Sun Ribbon by Claire Falkenstein has artfully orchestrated stripes of gold, orange, red, violet and clear-textured glass to form a translucent windscreen. Like the sun, this colorful stained-glass wall radiates warmth, light and cheer. Sun Ribbon is a masterfully designed piece of functional art that creates a bright, vigorous counterpoint to the solemn vertical rise of surrounding buildings. 
 

Fermi
by Tony Smith
Tony Smith’s white marble sculpture, Fermi, is an homage to Enrico Fermi, the Nobel Prize-winning Italian physicist who brilliantly investigated quantum theory and atomic structure. Smith asks us to consider the complex structure of things while giving us a handsome form that also can be appreciated for its uncomplicated elegance.

The Ram
by Charles O. Perry
The Ram, Charles O. Perry bright yellow, steel abstraction, was the first sculpture in the area and it remains a colorful center of attention. The sculpture’s title and form suggest that Perry was inspired by animal horns, but he has taken the idea so dramatically into the realm of abstraction that it literally rises above any reference to nature.

Sun Glitter and Jonah and the Whale
by Carl Milles
Carl Milles’ fountains and sculptural monuments are well known treasures in many cities of his Swedish homeland. Center Tower is blessed with two of his delightful bronzes, both located in ponds that merge the force of water with buoyant figures and animals.
In Sun Glitter, a mermaid with hair flying rides a dolphin through the spray while smaller fish circle around them. This piece is a joyous celebration of youthful energy set free in the elements.

Jonah and the Whale reenacts the story. We find a tiny man perched precariously on the mouth of an enormous whale and immediately sense the drama of the moment. Milles has interpreted the familiar tale with typical vigor in a perfectly appropriate setting.

Un Deux Trois
by Sheila Hicks
At South Coast Plaza, fiber artist Sheila Hicks has made a three-part fiber construction which hangs on a brick wall in a stairwell of the retail center. Titled Un Deux Trois, (One Two Three) it consists of large sculptural hanks of yarn fashioned on silk-covered circles. Though the form of Un Deux Trois is simple, Hicks has used it deftly to reveal that her unorthodox material is a viable contemporary art medium.

Four Lines Oblique Gyratory-Square IV
by George Rickey
George Rickey takes the wind as his partner and uses real movement in his perfectly balanced kinetic creations. His stainless steel sculpture, “Four Lines Oblique Gyratory-Square IV,” is so elegantly understated that it may be overlooked by people in a hurry. Those who stop to observe it, however, are likely to become enchanted by its constantly changing arrangement.

Oiseau
by Joan Miro
Joan Miro’s cast bronze Oiseau, perched in the lobby of the Center Tower, is a “Bird” of a monumental and highly unorthodox order. Its bulbous volumes and spiky projections lend it a whimsical character, thoroughly in keeping with the great Spanish Surrealist’s sense of humor. Miro is renowned for such fanciful abstractions, blending invention with the spirit of nature.

Utsurohi 91 - Costa Mesa
by Aiko Miyawaki
Utsurohi 91 - Costa Mesa, a sculpture by internationally renowned Japanese artist Aiko Miyawaki is located on a grassy rectangle adjacent to Plaza Tower. The dynamic sculpture consists of a series of twelve, ten-foot columns set in an elliptical configuration with chromium-plated steel “threads” intertwining in graceful patterns at the top of each column.

Fire Bird
by Richard Lippold
Soaring though the facade of Orange County Performing Arts Center’s Segerstrom Hall is Fire Bird, a major architectural sculpture of enormous scale created by renowned sculptor Richard Lippold. Made of red, gold and silver aluminum and steel, Fire Bird’s vibrant colors relate to the warm tonalities of The Center’s Napoleon Red Granite exterior, while its polished metal surfaces contrast to the granite’s rugged texture. The great glass wall that encloses the lobby areas permits a visual continuity between the inside and outside of the building, while the balconies on each level allow patrons to experience the sculpture at a close proximity.

California Scenario
by Isamu Noguchi
California Scenario, dramatically framed by two reflective glass buildings and two 40-foot high white concrete walls, is a 1.6 acre environment created by Japanese-American sculptor, Isamu Noguchi. This quiet retreat is the most important outdoor sculpture open to the public in Southern California, and it has few equals across the country. Noguchi has combined several kinds of granite with sandstone, metal, water, earth, vegetation and unseen plumbing to create a reflective environment that unifies and humanizes its surrounding.

Six vital elements of the state’s environment are depicted in California Scenario, as well as a sculpture composed of 15 bronze-colored granite rocks precisely cut and fitted to compose “The Spirit Of The Lima Bean.” This piece is in recognition of the Segerstrom family’s nearly ninety years of agricultural land use in South California. Part of the beauty and timeless value of “California Scenario” is its changing appearance with the light conditions and with the maturation of its plantings.

Courtesy Costa Mesa Conference & Visitors Bureau