‘Pleasure' principals
MCASD marks the 25th anniversary of a fundraising group that’s ‘changed the dynamic in the city’
If you want to know how an enduring group of patrons at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego has contributed to the evolution of its collection, then all you need to do is look at the roof on the ocean side of its home in La Jolla. What you will see is a grand-scale construction made from castoff boats that creates a dynamic flourish, a kind of baroque exclamation point on the building. The sculpture: Nancy Rubins’ “Pleasure Point” (2006). The group of ambitious patrons who made it possible for the museum to own this piece: Contemporary Collectors.
It’s not coincidental that an exhibition marking the group’s 25th anniversary carries the title of Rubins’ piece as its name. It’s arguably the piece de resistance of the group’s efforts to expand the permanent collection.
A few others just might give it a measure of competition — say, Sol LeWitt’s wall painting “Isometric Pyramid” (1983) or Robert Therrien’s witty sculpture, “No Title (Blue Cloud)” from 1992. But it’s the sustained support of the group, embodied in the exhibition as a whole, that impresses most. We can all quibble about the quality of this or that individual work, but the cumulative quality of “Pleasure Point: Celebrating 25 Years of Contemporary Collectors” is what matters most.
When museum director Hugh Davies arrived here in 1983, funds for