Fountain of Two Oceans - San Diego, CA - Fountains on Waymarking.com

The Smithsonian Inventory (visit link) briefly describes this fountain sculpture thusly:

"A nude male and female sit side-by-side facing each other. Both figures are leaning back on their proper right arms and have their knees raised."

The figures are set atop a circular basin whose waters flow into a slighter larger circular basin below it...and then into the circular stepped base.

The artist is Sergio Benvenuti, an Italian sculptor from Florence. This website (visit link) informs us that:

"Sergio Benvenuti was born in Lucca and lives and works in Greve in Chianti (Florence). He was a student of Mario Moschi’s in Lucca and he attended the Fine Arts Academy of Florence. He taught sculpture at the Lyceum of the Academy of Florence and he is a member of the Fine Arts Academy of Florence. When Benvenuti arrived in Florence, Antonio Berti, an official sculptor to the Vatican and to the Royal Family, gave him a formidable training. A sculptor was supposed to be like an athlete – he was to show himself to be strong and capable. In 1956 Sergio Benvenuti worked as an assistant to Antonio Berti on Berti’s monument to Alcide de Gasperi . Benvenuti worked in the theatre and does it assiduously. He produced sets for the “Teatro Comunale” of Florence and for “La Scala” of Milan. He enjoys it. Benvenuti has also done some works for Japan. One of his “Ballerinas” was selected as décor in a large department store in Tokyo and Kyoto. He won awards at exhibitions and competitions and recently he also made international group exhibitions. He also made the “Two ocean fountain” for the city of San Diego and the equestrian monument for the Broncos Stadium in Denver, Colorado."

The poster of this waymark couldn't find information about why the Fountain is called "Fountain of Two Oceans" but it reminded him of a previous waymark (visit link) which has two figures in relief in Balboa Park which represent the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. Those reliefs were made for the 1915 Pan American Exposition. Perhaps this fountain is intended to recall San Diego's Exhibition history.

Note, in December, these figures don Santa hats! : )

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Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   11/06/2017 Casper&Aero visited it 05/21/2017 bluesnote visited it 03/30/2017 Where's George visited it 08/12/2014 DopeyDuck visited it 02/12/2011 Metro2 visited it

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