I didn’t know what to expect when I recently visited the La Jolla Historical Society‘s museum to experience their current exhibition Helen and Newton Harrison: California Work.
The exhibition is described as a retrospective about the work of husband-and-wife team of Helen Mayer and Newton Harrison, who were among the earliest and most notable ecological artists. Founding members of the Visual Arts Department at UC San Diego, Helen and Newton were local San Diego artists for nearly four decades, where they developed their pioneering concepts of Ecological Art.
Would I see paintings? What exactly was this ecological art?
What I discovered was unexpected and thoroughly thought-provoking!
The walls of the La Jolla Historical Society’s museum–the Wisteria Cottage–were covered primarily with technical drawings, maps and designs that conveyed innovative environmental ideas the couple developed over many years of working together.
If you love invention and human creativity, you’ll want to view this exhibition. You’ll see how human genius can create previously unthought-of technology that can benefit both people and the planet. You’ll observe how our understanding of nature and the ecosystems we all live in might conceivably be improved.
There were dozens of surprising ideas. I saw a proposal to create flood-reducing canals around downtown San Diego, practical Survival Pieces intended to create self-sustaining ecosystems (including a portable fish farm), and even a huge, Earth-orbiting sky mirror!
The Harrisons’ work is so expansive and full of variety that it’s hard to describe it all. So you’d better check it out yourself!
Helen and Newton Harrison: California Work is actually a multi-museum exhibition in San Diego County. The La Jolla Historical Society’s part of this exhibition is sub-titled Urban Ecologies, and traces the Harrisons’ collaborative practice during the late 1960s-1990s.
Additional parts of this exhibition can be viewed at the California Center for the Arts Escondido, and at the San Diego Public Library Gallery. Helen and Newton Harrison: California Work continues at all three locations through January 19, 2025.
If that’s not enough, this exhibition is part of a much larger Southern California event now underway: the Getty’s 70+ institution PST: Art and Science Collide!
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