In 1949, self-taught photographer Lucien Hervé (1910–2007) traveled from Paris to Marseille to see Unité d’habitation, a housing complex by architect Le Corbusier. Awed by the groundbreaking modern design, Hervé took 650 photographs of it in a single day. When… More»
As Californians, we are well aware of the damage that results from earthquakes, even in new buildings constructed with modern materials. But what happens to historic buildings made of earthen materials such as adobe? These structures can be particularly vulnerable… More»
The two bronze statues at the heart of the current Getty Villa exhibition Apollo from Pompeii: Investigating an Ancient Bronze—set to close September 12—may look rather familiar if you’ve traveled to Pompeii or seen it in pictures. For as you… More»
Those accustomed to thinking of Sam Francis as a major figure in a local art scene will be surprised to find that he was quite the internationalist, even before it became compulsory for Los Angeles artists to be so. A… More»
The J. Paul Getty Trust is an extraordinary arts institution. That I knew before coming to work at the Getty this week as its president and CEO. What I didn’t know—couldn’t know until I became a full part of this organization—was… More»
Initially designating himself an “ignorant American,” photographer Alex Harris went to Cuba in 1998, camera in tow, without preconceived notions. He simply wondered what photography could tell him about this neighboring country that he, along with so many other Americans,… More»
Nikolaus Pevsner (1902–1983) was one of the 20th century’s foremost historians of British architecture. Even today, tourists wander through the historic squares of England aided by Pevsner’s The Buildings of England guidebooks, which remain in print with Yale University Press… More»
What drew them to Cuba? We asked photographers Alex Harris, Virginia Beahan, and Alexey Titarenko, whose work is featured in the exhibition A Revolutionary Project: Cuba from Walker Evans to Now, to talk about what took them to the island,… More»
Julio César Pérez Hernández, architect and author of Inside Cuba, visits the Getty Center this Thursday to talk about Cuban architecture in conjunction with the exhibition A Revolutionary Project: Cuba from Walker Evans to Now. Evans’s photographs of Cuba from… More»
An important archive on postwar art is now available for research at the Getty Research Institute. After several months of writing and archival processing, I’ve just finished my work on the archive of Galerie Schmela. The archive’s 172 boxes and 25 flat file… More»
Alchemical manuscript. [box 04]
> From Manly Palmer Hall’s Collection.
Alchemy never quite panned out, but it really seems like they were onto something here.