The Getty!

I just got back from a visit to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. It was fabulous! I am a little ashamed to say that I have lived here for 20 years, and watched the Getty being built, but have never been. What an amazing way to spend an afternoon. And the best part, the Getty is FREE. You have to pay 15$ to park, but then you have to spend $15 to park anywhere in LA. If you ever come to Southern California to do the beach thing, and Disney land, spend an afternoon at the Getty.


I'm glad I came after studying architecture and also painting. I appreciated it so much more and enjoyed the experience so much more than I would have. The Getty is build on 700 acres on a hill overlooking much of the Los Angeles area. The architect is Richard Meyer, and after studying architecture, it was easy to see what his style was - very modernist. The tour guide asked us to observe and tell him what Meyer's favorite color was, what his favorite shape was, and what his favorite building material was. His favorite color was white, his favorite shape is the square, and his favorite building materials are metal and glass. Luckily, the Getty committee who hired him insisted that he use stone too, or it would have all been white squares of metal and glass squares for the buildings. The travertine marble used was really beautiful and helped the building blend in with the surrounding hills. Even the gardens it seemed were planned by sculptors rather than by landscape architects. All of the sycamore trees used on the property have half of their leaves carefully removed to allow just the right amount of filtered sun through.


But enough about the buildings and grounds. There was amazing stuff inside the buildings too. They had an exhibit of Illustrated Manuscripts from 1300 and 1400s that were pretty incredible. The detail and depth of the illustrations were amazing, and some of them were very small, as in a prayer book about the size of our smallest scriptures. It is remarkable that these books and illustrations are 600 -700 years old! Some of the detail was so tiny and the lines were so fine, I can't imaging what they would have used to create such detail.


They also had an exhibit of Italian religious paintings. One of my favorite was a picture of Christ. I am used to LDS artists depictions of Christ, particularly close-ups of his face. This one is different, but hauntingly powerful. There is such expression, pain and sorrow, yet there is love. It is a small painting, but one that really touched me. This painting is by Correggio about 1525, Counter-Reformation era.

I also got to see an original Van Gogh. That was one of the highlights of this trip. The painting is Irises. This was done while he was in the asylum for his mental illness. This seems to me to show a lighter, possibly happy side of Van Gogh. Perhaps he was feeling hopeful, maybe his treatment was going well. The colors are vibrant and clear and high key. I think the one white iris is interesting. No two flowers are the same, in the painting or in nature. But the white one is more different than the others. I wonder if Van Gogh felt like he was more different than other people. The white iris in this painting stands out in a positive way. It is strong and tall, and adds beauty and contrast to the other flowers, much the same way Van Gogh's paintings are more different and distinctive than other painters, and adds so much to the art world, and to all the world.

This is so long, but I have only scratched the surface of what I was able to experience today. I saw Monet, Degas, Titian, Domier, Courbet and so many more artist's paintings that I have not heard of. This experience was definitely a 10. We should all go!