Spin control—it’s been around for centuries. Louis XIV, king of France from 1660 to 1715, was a master at it, using art—especially the work of his court painter, Charles Le Brun—to create and perpetuate a glorified image of his monarchy…. More»
For six months, I lived up the hill from Sunset and Coronado in Silverlake. I’d go to Mariela’s for burritos—always a little too watery, always with salsa not quite spicy enough, but cheap, and the size of a brick. It… More»
The American Association of Museums annual conference is in Los Angeles this week. In between sessions and schmoozing, AAM is hoping that conference attendees will have some fun playing games! To that end, AAM invited Kellian Adams, museum maven from… More»
Los Angeles is a gigantic, sprawling city. Just trying to find your way across town can make you feel a little desperate. At the Getty Center, we often see visitors looking out over the landscape, attempting to get situated—“Wait, where’s… More»
On a recent Saturday night, nearly 20 visitors tried to make sense of a huge, mysterious painting in the Getty Center’s Flemish gallery. Mysterious, because our leader, Lilit Sadoyan, had covered up the painting’s accompanying wall text. We were forced… More»
Jennifer Lisowski’s ninth-grade English class from Westchester Senior High recently enjoyed a visit to the exhibition Urban Panoramas: Opie, Liao, Kim with a special guide: photographer Soo Kim. The visit was part of Community Photoworks, a partnership between the Museum’s… More»
The Augsburg Display Cabinet—the Getty Museum’s 17th-century “cabinet of curiosities” on display starting tomorrow in our New Galleries for Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture and Decorative Arts—is both a work of art and an early prototype of museums. With dozens of… More»
Last week we asked you to post photos of the Getty gardens to our Flickr group for National Public Gardens Day, and you responded! On the group, which launched earlier this year, you can find fantastic uses of perspective, color,… More»
Education is at the heart of a museum’s mission. You want to know what you’re looking at, and we want to tell you—through object labels, audio tours, videos, brochures, Web sites, and public programs. But is this really education? Not… More»
It’s one thing to see a writer read her own work, but when someone else gets their hands on it, the fluid dynamic between story and storyteller is revealed. How much is the reader outside of the story, telling it… More»
Remarkably realistic for medieval illuminated beasts, which were often fabulous admixtures of fantasy and fur. The unicorn is clearly drawn from life, for example.