"Beloved San Diego Artist Gave His All to the World"
Robert L. Pincus

San Diego artist and UCSD professor Italo Scanga, beloved in local art circles and renowned in the United States, Europe and beyond, collapsed Friday in his Pacific Beach studio around midday and died shortly thereafter. He was 69. The cause of death was heart failure.

"It's hard to imagine the world without Italo," said Mary Beebe, director of UCSD's celebrated Stuart Collection, a campuswide display of commissioned works by significant artists. "He gave his all to the world. He was such an incredibly generous spirit and an extraordinary teacher."

Christine Forester, a longtime arts activist and former member of the board of trustees at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, said: "He provided the crucial link between the university and the community. I think this is a role that will be missed by everyone, especially artists."

The ebullient and prolific Mr. Scanga, a native of Calabria, Italy, made persistent reference to the country of his youth in the graceful landscapes, cypress trees and pottery he painted. His palette, too, was predominantly bright and Mediterranean.

But the versatile artist was probably best known as a sculptor. "I love objects, kitsch or high art. I have no prejudice about them," he said in a Union-Tribune interview last year.

Mr. Scanga would combine found objects, handmade shapes and an assortment of everyday items into figures that blended cubist and folk influences. He often adorned them in the same exuberant palette and patterns he employed in his paintings, prints and works in tile.

Swap meets and thrift shops were constant haunts. Mr. Scanga's finds, such as cheap statues of animals, candelabra and furniture, all became elements in his sculptures.

He had become enamored with glass, too, beginning in the early 1970s, often collaborating with his close friend Dale Chihuly, the renowned artist in that medium. They joined last year as artists-in- residence for Summerfest, the La Jolla-based music festival.

Mr. Scanga's list of exhibitions, solo and group, is staggeringly long. Major solo venues included New York's Whitney Museum of American Art (1972) and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1983). His art is also in numerous museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

Works owned by The Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, will go on view tomorrow at its Axline Court, inside the entrance to its La Jolla quarters. They include a towering figurative sculpture, "Monte Cassino: Betrayal of the Intellectuals," which alludes to World War II tragedies in Italy, and pictures collectively titled "Los Perdidos and the Crying Women," which pay homage to Pablo Picasso.

"He was an alchemist when it came to transforming found objects into art," said Hugh Davies, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. "He was a collagist equally at home sculpting or painting, and frequently combined both."

Other works by Mr. Scanga have become familiar sights at the Earl and Birdie Taylor Library in Pacific Beach. His abundant gifts for combining found objects and fusing formal ingenuity with whimsy are evident in the sculptures that fill its patio and the large, boldly colored prints that grace its walls.

This was one way for Mr. Scanga, who lived in La Jolla and long had an expansive studio in Pacific Beach, to express his passion for the community.

"He loved San Diego and he loved the university," said Joe Scanga, one of the artist's sons.

"He set the tone for our program," said Mark-Elliott Lugo, curator of the library's exhibitions, recalling the inaugural show of Mr. Scanga's work. "He approached art-making, like life, with gusto. He was incredibly generous with his support of other artists and his friends."

Small works decorated Saffron, a popular Thai restaurant owned by Su-Mei Yu, his companion of 10 years and a cookbook author.

Mr. Scanga, who joined UCSD as a visiting professor in 1976 and 1977, took a permanent position with the school's art department a year later.

He came to the United States at age 14 with his family in 1946. They settled in Detroit.

He earned a bachelor's degree in 1960 and a master's in sculpture a year later at Michigan State University. But even earlier, he had attracted acclaim for his photographs of southern Italy in Look magazine, which chronicled his mother's return to Calabria.

Before taking a position at UCSD, Mr. Scanga had taught at several universities, including the University of Wisconsin in Madison and the Tyler School of Art at Philadelphia's Temple University.

He is survived by his companion, Su-Mei Yu; five children from his first marriage, Anthony Scanga of Glenside, Pa.; Catherine Scanga of Riverside, R.I.; Sarah Scanga of Charlottesville, Va., Joseph Scanga of San Francisco and William Scanga of New York City; and four grandchildren.