Accompanying you as you wander the gardens at the Getty Villa are 44 beings in bronze—animals, gods, satyrs, troubled philosophers, athletic youths crouched for action, wild-eyed old men with scraggly beards. These are replicas of ancient Roman sculptures commissioned by… More»
Sometimes, only a friend will tell you what they really think. Take the case of artist Ed Kienholz and curator Walter Hopps. Kienholz’s over-life-size assemblage portrait of his friend, Walter Hopps Hopps Hopps—the inspiration for our collage meet-up this Saturday—is… More»
A beautiful bronze Double Head, attributed to the Italian sculptor Francesco Primaticcio, has just joined the Museum’s collection. Though made by an Italian, it was commissioned by a Frenchman: Francis I, the king of France, for his palace at Fontainebleau… More»
Artists’ studios aren’t generally thought of as meditative places. The stereotype is one of disarray—an image comes to mind of paintbrushes, sculpting tools, or other instruments of the trade strewn about a room, as if to signal an unruly creative… More»
In the ocean, a crosscurrent runs across the main flow, stirring things up. Similarly, you can see different artistic movements, crossing each other from a variety of directions, in the exhibition Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture,… More»
One of the most influential sculptors active in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s, De Wain Valentine is perhaps best known for his striking, semitransparent, and delicately colored large-scale polyester resin sculptures of simple geometric forms that interact intensely… More»
Did you know that artists used pig bladders to carry paint before tubes were invented, that the gold leaf used to gild paintings and manuscripts was made by pounding a coin into thin sheets, or that 18th-century fashion designers used… More»
Can love outlast death? Love and desire sizzle in this sculpture showcasing Venus and Adonis. Venus is desperately in love with Adonis, a handsome mortal. However, fate has it that goddess of love will not hold onto her man. Preferring… More»
A long lively stroke of deep brilliant blue, black, and white, a curved swipe of muted yellow, a short dab of red—perhaps you’ve seen artist Roy Lichtenstein’s colorful painted aluminum sculpture Three Brushstrokes on a visit to the Getty Center…. More»
Enter Paris: Life & Luxury, closing this Sunday, and you’ll hear chimes pinging through the galleries from extravagant clocks that French aristocrats used to mark time more than two centuries ago. Download (MP3 file, 5 MB) | Length: 5:24 The… More»
Nature, a powerful force out of the control of man. Storms can be a depiction of anxiety, heroism, drama, and beauty, but also can provide a context for an artist to explore the emotion behind color, form and texture.
Long Ship’s Lighthouse, Land’s End, 1834-1835, Joseph Mallord William Turner, watercolor and bodycolor. J. Paul Getty Museum.
A Storm on a Mediterranean Coast, 1767, Claude-Joseph Varnet, oil on canvas. J. Paul Getty Museum.