San Diego Museum of Art, Art museum in Balboa Park, San Diego, US
The San Diego Museum of Art is an art museum in Balboa Park in San Diego, California, displaying paintings, sculptures and prints spanning seven millennia. The collections range from ancient Near Eastern and Asian art through European old masters to modern Californian works.
The museum opened in 1926 under the name Fine Arts Gallery as the first art museum in Balboa Park. William Templeton Johnson designed the building in Spanish Colonial Revival style, drawing inspiration from the facade of the University of Salamanca.
The building's architecture draws directly from Spanish models, underlining California's historical ties to the Iberian Peninsula. Visitors recognize in the facade details echoes of plateresque art, a decorative style from the Spanish Renaissance.
The entrance is on the ornate plateresque facade facing the Prado walkway in Balboa Park, with the west wing and sculpture court added in 1966 and the east wing in 1974. The building is entered through the arched doorway beneath the three statue niches. A renovation of the rotunda, sculpture garden, facade and auditorium is planned, so some areas may be closed off.
The facade displays ornamental reliefs and niches made famous by the plateresque style in Spain, transferred to a Californian park of the 1920s. Visitors can examine the heraldic medallions and stone ornamentation above the main entrance up close.
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