The Getty Center
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Dawoud Bey & Carrie Mae Weems: In Dialogue
April 4–July 9, 2023
Dawoud Bey and Carrie Mae Weems have been friends and colleagues for more than 40 years. Each addresses race, class, representation, and systems of power in their work, creating photographic series grounded in Black history and realities that speak to the human condition. This exhibition sheds light on their unique trajectories and modes of presentation, and their shared consciousness and principles.
Organized by the Grand Rapids Art Museum. -
Tim Walker: Wonderful Things
May 2–August 20, 2023
Journey into the fantastical worlds created by internationally acclaimed fashion photographer Tim Walker. The exhibition pays tribute to Walker’s distinctive contribution to image-making while also highlighting the work of his creative collaborators: set designers, stylists, makeup artists, models, and muses. At the heart of the show is a new series of photographs directly influenced by his research into the collections of the Getty Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London.
A V&A Exhibition – Touring the World. -
Play and Pastimes in the Middle Ages
May 16–August 6, 2023
Discover the lighter side of life in the Middle Ages through the surprising and engaging world of medieval games and leisure. The exhibition features dynamic images of play and explores the role of entertainment in the Middle Ages. Manuscript images capture the complex contests and pastimes that medieval people enjoyed, ranging from a light-hearted game of chess to the dangerous sport of jousting. Then as now, play was thoroughly woven into the fabric of society at every level.
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Beyond the Light: Identity and Place in 19th-Century Danish Art
May 23–August 20, 2023
During an era marked by military defeat, financial collapse, and national disintegration, 19th-century artists in Denmark intensely studied themselves and their culture to portray a sense of belonging and displacement. Featuring drawings, oil sketches, and paintings from public and private collections in Copenhagen, New York, and Los Angeles, this exhibition is the first to elucidate how Danish artists depicted the extent and limits of their nation.
Organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in collaboration with the Statens Museum for Kunst. -
Giacomo Ceruti: A Compassionate Eye
July 18–October 29, 2023
In a group of remarkably haunting paintings by Italian 18th-century artist Giacomo Ceruti, beggars, vagrants, and impoverished workers are portrayed in mesmerizing realism, emanating a sense of dignity and emotional depth. Why were these subjects painted? Where and how were these works displayed, and for whom? At a time when severe inequalities continue to mark even the wealthiest societies, Ceruti’s work testifies to the enduring power of art to reflect our shared humanity.
Organized with Fondazione Brescia Musei. -
Graphic Design in the Middle Ages
August 29, 2023–January 28, 2024
Medieval scribes and artists were some of the world’s first graphic designers, planning individual pages and whole books in creative ways. Exploring the idea of designing a medieval book, from the layout of the page to text as graphic organizing tool, and the role of ornament in the structure of the finished product, this exhibition reveals the ways that design influenced the reading and interpretation of medieval books.
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Alfredo Boulton: Looking at Venezuela (1928–1978)
August 29, 2023–January 21, 2024
Alfredo Boulton was one of the most important intellectuals of the 20th century in Latin America and a seminal photographer of the modern period. Through his body of work, Boulton generated a new cultural definition of Venezuela. This exhibition explores Boulton’s photography, his relationships with modern artists, and his influence on the formalization of art history in his country.
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Reckoning with Millet’s Man with a Hoe
September 5–December 10, 2023
This focused exhibition charts the tumultuous public life of Jean-François Millet’s iconic depiction of peasant labor, Man with a Hoe, which was bookended by two moments of controversy. First, the painting’s shocking Paris debut in 1863, where it was attacked as a glorification of ugliness and human degradation. Then, over 30 years later in San Francisco, the painting inspired a politically charged poem that critiqued oppressive labor conditions and suggested a great reckoning to come.
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Finding an Audience: 19th-Century Drawings
September 26, 2023–January 7, 2024
Featuring drawings from the collection by Edgar Degas, Gustav Klimt, Odilon Redon, Sarah Stone, and JMW Turner, this exhibition looks at strategies used by European artists in the 19th century to show and sell their work. It explores the emerging phenomenon of the “exhibition watercolor” and new opportunities provided by the vibrant market for prints.
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William Blake: Visionary
October 17, 2023–January 14, 2024
A remarkable printmaker, painter, and poet, William Blake (1757–1827) developed a wildly unconventional world view, representing universal forces of creation and destruction—physical, psychological, historical—through his own cast of characters. By combining his poetry and images on the page through radical graphic techniques, Blake created some of the most striking and enduring imagery in British art. This major international loan exhibition explores the artist-poet’s imaginative world through his most celebrated works.
Organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum in cooperation with Tate. -
Sheila Metzner: From Life
October 31, 2023–February 18, 2024
This exhibition celebrates the artistry of the internationally acclaimed American photographer Sheila Metzner, who made her mark on the history of late 20th-century photography in the areas of fashion and still life. Metzner’s unique style blends aspects of Pictorialism and Modernism to forge an aesthetic that not only stands out in the history of photography, but became closely associated with the best of 1980s fashion, beauty, and decorative arts trends.
The Getty Villa
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The Gold Emperor from Aventicum
May 31, 2023–January 29, 2024
This unique portrait bust of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, who ruled from AD 161 to 180, was excavated in Avenches, Switzerland—the ancient Roman site of Aventicum—in 1939. Discover this remarkable object, made by hammering a single sheet of gold, and explore the history of an ancient city where Roman institutions blended with the local traditions of a Celtic tribe known as the Helvetii.
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The Horse and Rider from Albania
July 26, 2023–January 29, 2024
In 2018, archaeologists discovered the delicate bronze statuette of an equestrian made around 500 BC at the site of Babunjë in Albania, in a region once populated by Greek colonists and known as Illyria. In collaboration with the Albanian Archaeological Institute, Getty conservators have recently completed treatment of the bronze. The exhibition focuses on the process of analyzing, cleaning, and stabilizing this fragile work of art.
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Sculpted Portraits from Ancient Egypt
November 1, 2023–November 9, 2026
Egypt’s 26th Dynasty (664–526 BC) was a period of revival and renewal. It marks the last great phase of native pharaonic rule in ancient Egypt and is notable for its exceptional artworks, particularly stone sculpture. The achievements of Egyptian artists of this period are vividly expressed in the sculpted portraits of officials associated with the court and priesthood, which were created to be displayed in tombs and temples.
The works in this exhibition are on special loan from the British Museum, London. -
The Egyptian Book of the Dead
November 1, 2023–January 29, 2024
Among their rigorous preparations for eternity, ancient Egyptians developed an intricate set of religious writings to help the deceased achieve a blessed afterlife in union with the solar god Re and the netherworld god Osiris. Known collectively as the Book of the Dead, these ritual spells were inscribed on funerary objects. This exhibition features the Getty's Book of the Dead manuscripts, which have never been on public view.