De Young Museum Sculpture Garden

If you weren't paying attention, you might miss one of the finest works of art at the De Young Museum for one reason: it's out on the sidewalk. To the casual eye, the cracks in the sidewalk might not inspire much attention except for a few compelling facts. They all seem to line up perfectly into one narrow fracture. Subtle as it is the fracture manages to split several large boulders along its windy route to the museum entrance. Don't worry if you missed it. The artist, Andy Goldsworthy has made sure it's not going anywhere.

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While the architecturally edgy de Young facility houses American and world collections and cutting-edge exhibitions of fashion and modern art, the museum's garden composes its own sprawling world—an unforced mix of industrial and urban among a natural setting within Golden Gate Park. Wander around the grass of the Barbro Osher Sculpture Garden, and you will see a 21-foot safety pin, enlarged red apples situated in a Magritte-like juxtaposition against the lawn, and the highlight of this landscape: a trio of Juan Muñoz sculptures. These figures—almost-human with rounded, sandbag-like bottoms—play off each other as well as their surroundings, and are full of motion yet stagnant at once. This Conversation Piece—part of a signature series of the Spanish artist—is similar to works featured in settings worldwide, such as the Smithsonian and the Tate Modern.

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