THE SAN DIEGO MUSEUM OF ART OPENED IN BALBOA PARK 95 YEARS AGO

In February 1926 a new art gallery in Balboa Park was formally opened to the public in a building designed by William Templeton Johnson. In 1978, it was renamed the San Diego Museum of Art.

By Hazel Boyer Braun

The high board fence which has divided the Plaza de Panama in Balboa park for almost two years came down this week and revealed the beauty of the Fine Arts gallery in its relation to the other buildings on the plaza. Templeton Johnson, an architect, has created a work of art: a building which fits its space with proportions that satisfy, as it has simple lines which the Moors gave to Spain. His inspiration has been from plateresque form of Spanish architecture of the days when the spirit of building so possessed the colonies conquered by the Moors that they called every available craftsman into the realm of architecture. Many Italian and French silversmiths had crossed the mountains into Spain. They were masters of the art of decorating platters with small but elaborate design. Since the Moors love to use flat decorations, usually, with geometrical lines the silversmiths became builders, and the fusion of an economic situation led to the plateresque style. The decorations of the Fine Arts gallery are centralized about the main entrance of the building. In three arches above the entrance arch are the sculptured figures of three of Spain’s immortal painters: Murillo, Velasquez and Zuburan. Nothing could be more characteristic of Spain that this phase which is the churches adaptation of Moorish architecture.

Fortunately, the trees have been preserved to give such a note of poetic decoration that only eucalyptus trees can do. Even the lawn that fronted the Sacramento building during the Fair, was preserved, and now a splendid planting of small shrubs helps the gallery building to feel at home on the plaza.

Invitations are out for the reception and private view on the evening of Feb. 26, which is not only the formal opening of the Fine Arts gallery adorned with rare treasures, but also the occasion of the presentation of this beautiful gift to the city of San Diego by Mr. and Mrs. Appleton S. Bridges.

Just now, when one makes an official visit to this busy sanctum, Mr. Blanchard, the ever watchful guard at the door, admits one grudgingly and asks that you shall not look at anything, but when Mr. Beskow who has brought so many master pieces here, says, “Come and see that tapestry you wrote about last week,” could one refuse to stand before that wonderful treasure? Color is as fresh as a rose, and the marvel of it is that the reds, the most fugitive of all colors, should have preserved their quality since the days of Louis XIV. All those delicate tones that one associates with a Fragonard are woven into this vital tapestry. This is only one of many.

The gallery of Americans to be shown reveals what we have come to take for granted that landscape is the favored choice of subject. In a country of out-doors loving people it is not surprising that the rolling hills, the pastures, trees and ever changing skies have inspired our artists to bring America to lead the world of art in the realm of landscape painting.

BEAUTY OF MEMORIAL ART GALLERY REVEALED AS FENCE IS REMOVED; NOW FILLED WITH TREASURE COLORS