What do the expressions “highbrow” and “lowbrow” have in common with saying a woman has “mousey” features? What does Homer Simpson have to do with photographs of sculpture in profile by contemporary artist Ken Gonzales-Day? All are contemporary manifestations of… More»
A room full of Franz Xaver Messerschmidt’s Character Heads—currently at the Getty Center as part of the exhibition Messerschmidt and Modernity—may be the best place in L.A. right now to observe neurobiological reactions to human expression. The heads are not… More»
The exhibition Inside Out: Pompeian Interiors Exposed, recently opened at the Italian Cultural Institute in Westwood, provides a historic glimpse inside the houses and villas of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Drawing mainly from the photo archive of the Getty Research Institute,… More»
Peruvian poet César Moro has received relatively little notice in American scholarship. His poetry, artwork, and activities within and without the surrealist movement in Paris, Mexico City, and Lima remain little examined. But the Getty Research Institute exhibition Farewell to… More»
Ray K. Metzker is one of the most innovative photographers of the last half century, though he is not as well known as some of his contemporaries. The new exhibition The Photographs of Ray K. Metzker and the Institute of… More»
In the early 1300s, 150 years before Leonardo and Michelangelo walked its streets, Florence was a hotbed of artistic production and creativity. Three works in the Getty Museum’s collection produced in the city at this dynamic moment—all by the same… More»
You’ve seen them on billboards, magazines, and TV—images of young, thin, overtly seductive women posed to sell. Herb Ritts photographed the world’s top models for ads and fashion spreads, but his women are different. Though beautiful, they have strength and… More»
Mount Vesuvius erupted on August 24, A.D. 79, burying Pompeii and neighboring towns under tons of ash and volcanic debris. Rediscovered by accident some 1,650 years later, the Vesuvian ruins captured the imagination of artists and writers, who vied to… More»
The West Pavilion of the Getty Center contains a surprise, the cabinet-like space known as Gallery W104. For the past three years, W104 has hosted a changing display of drawings and watercolors related to exhibitions nearby—most often, the one just… More»
While working on the show The Getty Research Institute: Recent Print Acquisitions (in the GRI Gallery until September 2), I had the pleasure of getting to know one Édouard Gautier-D’Agoty. Every bit the late-18th-century gentleman-artist and rendered in velvety soft… More»
Medieval methods of entertainment included sad dances and alienation parties.
Tights are not pants, circa 1400something.