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The UCLA Anderson School of Management’s buildings have many pieces of art displayed along

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One of the perks of going to UCLA is free and easy access to the Hammer Museum in Westwood or the Fowler Museum on campus. But perhaps one of the campus’s best kept secrets for art-viewing is, right next door to the Fowler, the Anderson School of Management. Who would have thought?

“It’s a hidden gem for the campus,” General Manager of Building Services Michael Heafey said.

The school has in its collection three Picasso pieces, one of which, “La Guitare Devant la Fenetre,” is worth $22,500, a Robert Motherwell oil painting worth $100,000 and an instantly captivating piece by Hiroshi Senju called “Waterfall.” The piece, hung in the Collins Center, is worth $140,000.

Most pieces are gifts from alumni or on loan from the artists, many of whom are personal friends of Anderson School alumni or employees. Artist Guy Harper, for instance, who has loaned two pieces to the school, was the jogging partner of an Anderson School building services employee.

The school also owns original movie posters for “Heaven’s Gate” and “Ishtar” and features in the school’s coffee shop, Café Roma, one of the oldest New York Stock Exchange trading horseshoe posts (named for its shape) installed between 1929 and 1932.

But much, if not all, of the school’s displayed art often goes unnoticed. And senior faculty member Donald Morrison, who helps manage the collection, admits that UCLA’s students, including the Anderson School’s own faculty and students, often overlook the school’s large collection of modern art, which is displayed throughout the five-story complex. The usual response of Anderson students and faculty when asked about the art, Morrison notes, is highly indicative of this.

“Art? What art?” he mimicked.

Although Morrison’s own office is adorned with delicate watercolor paintings and a Monet poster, the bulk of the Anderson School collection features bold-colored, heavily textured modern art that fits more appropriately than watercolor would into the modern look of the complex, which was completed in 1995 under the architect Henry N. Cobb of the internationally renowned architectural firm Pei, Cobb, Freed and Partners, which is based in New York.

In fact, the most valuable piece of art the Anderson School owns is the school itself. The building, which cost an estimated $80 million to complete, is a massive, intricate piece of artwork. For example, the gleaming polished marble tiles found in the complex feature a design that represents the Pythagorean theorem, according to Morrison. Similar angles to those in the tiles are found in the exterior architecture of the complex.

Cobb’s favorite aspect of the complex is an extremely thin slit formed between two adjacent buildings that provides a visual effect of the buildings rising up high into the sky.

The complex features a mix between the old (bricks) and the new (large glass windows and doors, and gleaming silver and metal railings). Cobb wanted the building to fit in with its surroundings, so he copied Royce Hall’s brick structure. The bricks have dominant, horizontal bands of cement running through them, and the Anderson complex is supposed to be an updated version of Royce Hall.

And though Cobb preferred that the compass-shaped complex not feature any artwork in the interior, the school now displays 50 art pieces on the otherwise stark, massive, white walls.

“The building itself is pretty sterile and that was part of the architect’s vision to keep the walls that unencumbered,” Heafey said.

The role of the art is, for Heafey, to add character to the walls, and for Morrison, to provide a pleasant and stimulating atmosphere. Works such as “Homage to the Muse,” a suite of 15 panels with oil and wax on canvas, by James Hayward, are especially well suited to this purpose. Each of the 15 large panels features a different bold color with heavy, protruding textures that contrast the flat, white walls of the complex.

Heafey’s favorite piece is John Okulick’s “Apex,” which resembles children’s building blocks and features bright, playful colors and 3-D wood pieces. Meanwhile, Morrison’s favorite piece, Harper’s oil on canvas work, “Something like Red Bell Peppers,” also features bold colors, in this case, mostly red and rich textures, this time via shading.

With all this elaborate artwork, it seems strange that only a small population of students and faculty have viewed it. Part of the problem is that most UCLA students wouldn’t think to venture that far beyond the Fowler Museum and up the intimidating, massive steps into the Anderson courtyard, the center of the complex.

Heafey admits the building can seem like a “brick bastion” or “fortress-like” with its massive brick towers, which creates a need for warming up the inside with color and texture, a need that the modern art on display fulfills.

“In a certain way, it’s disconcerting that people don’t expect to find paintings or displayed pieces like this. They expect to find charts and graphs,” Heafey said.

Other displayed art includes that of Charles Arnoldi, Billy Al Bengston, a Jackson Pollack-looking Ronald Davis piece and a Jacqueline Dreager piece some students like to call “Pickup Sticks in the Gutter,” according to Morrison. The school also has a black-and-white aerial photograph of the UCLA campus in 1935.

With all this valuable art on display, and only a few people taking the time to view it, Heafey recognizes the waste and the need to promote the viewing of the art.

“Perhaps we should toot our horn a little bit more loudly,” he proposed.