When I first saw Robert Irwin’s 1° 2° 3° 4° at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, I got it all wrong.
It was evening, after six o’clock on one of the museum’s monthly free Thursdays. I was supposed to have met a friend, but we never found one another in the vast space. I wandered alone, eventually stopping in a room where, in the dark, there seemed to be nothing displayed but three black squares on a glass wall. A noise like crashing waves played, I presumed, over hidden speakers.
Only when I stepped closer to one of the blacked-out sections and felt a cold breeze did I realize they were cut-outs—paneless windows to the rolling sea just beyond the museum. The ocean sounds were happening in real time. I came very near the glass and watched the whitewater come in. I wanted to put my hand through, into the air outside, but I wasn’t sure if this counted as touching the art.
During the day, the fact that Irwin, the beloved local leader of the California Light and Space Movement who passed away in 2023, had intended to frame the coastal view with apertures is obvious. But that night, when I was confronted suddenly with the reminder of all that existed past the museum’s walls, it was a surprise so beautiful it brought me to tears.
Art can move us, often in unexpected ways. It can profoundly shift a moment—or alter a life. That’s why we’re dedicating this issue to the artists who inspire us, including two people who found successful careers in the arts only after beginning elsewhere. In this edition, we revisit the San Diego origins of world-renowned painter Ernie Barnes, whose time on the Chargers’ offensive line—and illustrating articles for San Diego Magazine—molded his uniquely expressive and kinetic style. Later, we step into the studio with Del Mar resident Dan “Nuge” Nguyen who, stifled under the rigidity of his role at an architecture firm, discovered an outlet—and eventually a calling—in carving wood into shapes that nod to bed sheets and snakes (see cover).
If it’s been a while since you had your own perspective-shifting encounter with art, our arts preview is your field guide to some of the county’s most compelling exhibitions, theater shows, concerts, and more. Or revisit classic rock through a fresh lens with SDSU-born band Silver Bullet.
Great art can rattle our egos, catalyze change, and nourish and uplift us. Other stories in this issue explore those goals through different lenses. Executive Editor Mateo Hoke pushes the limits of wellness with an all-day massage. We eat our way through Carlsbad’s best culinary offerings and we visit a Del Mar home with ocean vistas as breathtaking as the ones I viewed through Irwin’s windows—once I got close enough to look.
After all, that’s what art always asks us to do: Take a moment to pause and sit with beauty, discomfort, joy, surprise. I encourage you to do the same with this magazine. Read through it, and then go have a moment with a work of art. There’s so much to discover beyond the walls.
