Current Exhibitions
Future Exhibitions
Past Exhibitions



Future Exhibitions
The Getty Center, Los Angeles

Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils: Telling the Difference
December 8, 2009–February 28, 2010
Distilling over 30 years of scholarly research, this major international loan exhibition presents a singular opportunity to explore the differences between Rembrandt's drawings and those of more than 14 pupils and followers. In carefully selected pairings of celebrated drawings by Rembrandt and his pupils, the exhibition outlines these artistic differences and sheds light on the art of drawing in Rembrandt's circle and the vibrant creative life within the master's studio.

A Record of Emotion: The Photographs of Frederick H. Evans
February 2–June 6, 2010
Frederick H. Evans (English, 1853–1943) began pursuing photography in the mid-1880s. Focusing on architecture, he paid particular attention to medieval cathedrals in England and France. His images of York Minster and Ely Cathedral are among the most renowned architectural renderings in the history of photography. He attempted to capture what he called "a record of an emotion," by invoking the potent symbolism of these awe-inspiring spaces. These photographs and other cathedral subjects are displayed alongside rarely seen landscapes of the English countryside and intimate portraits of the artist's family and friends, including writer George Bernard Shaw and artist Aubrey Beardsley.

Urban Panoramas: Opie, Liao, Kim
February 2–June 6, 2010
This exhibition highlights work by three contemporary photographers, each of whom implemented a panoramic viewpoint to examine a specific urban environment. Catherine Opie (American, born 1961) created inkjet prints from scans of 7x17-inch negatives of the mini-malls that characterize Los Angeles's automobile culture. Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao (Taiwanese, born 1977) digitally combined color film negatives into seamless inkjet prints for his Habitat 7 project, which traces the route of the New York subway from Queens to Manhattan. By layering hand-cut chromogenic prints made in Reykjavik at midnight during the summer solstice, Soo Kim (American, born South Korea, 1969) achieved the three-dimensional effect of a semitransparent city.

Building the Medieval World: Architecture in Illuminated Manuscripts
March 2–May 16, 2010
Among the lasting achievements of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance are the architectural wonders of soaring cathedrals and grand palaces. The daily presence of these towering and monumental architectural forms in both cities and in the countryside fascinated medieval viewers and crept into the fictional world of the painted page. This focused exhibition explores representations of medieval architecture in manuscript illumination. Artists incorporated examples of medieval church and domestic architecture into scenes depicting stories drawn from scripture, literature, and history. They also employed impressive architectural settings to symbolically convey the importance of individuals and events, and they frequently used architectural elements as decorative motifs to frame texts and images.

Leonardo da Vinci and the Art of Sculpture: Inspiration and Invention
March 23–June 20, 2010
The first display of works by Leonardo da Vinci in Los Angeles in decades, this major international loan exhibition celebrates his achievements and involvement in the art of sculpture. Through original drawings, the exhibition explores his ambitious designs for huge equestrian sculpture projects that were never completed. Important works by artists who inspired Leonardo—and were inspired by him—are also on view, including Donatello's newly restored Bearded Prophet and three larger-than-life-size bronze figures by Leonardo's collaborator Giovanni Francesco Rustici that have never been seen outside Italy. The exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, in association with the J. Paul Getty Museum.

In Focus: Tasteful Pictures
April 6–August 22, 2010
Photographers have been enticed by the subject of food since the earliest years of the medium. Drawn exclusively from the Museum's collection, this selection of more than twenty works highlights important technological and aesthetic developments, including bountiful still life compositions, innovative close-ups and photograms, and documentary studies. Among the photographers featured are Roger Fenton, Adolphe Braun, Edward Weston, Bill Owens, Martin Parr, and Taryn Simon.

Printing the Grand Manner: Charles Le Brun and Monumental Prints in the Age of Louis XIV
May 18–October 17, 2010
Printing the Grand Manner explores the form, content, and function of late 17th-century reproductive engravings that, given their quality and impressive size, were meant to evoke the grandeur of Charles Le Brun's large-scale paintings and tapestry designs. Despite the fact that no other moment in the history of art witnessed such a concerted production of unusually grand reproductive prints, this visually compelling group of images has not drawn the attention of specialists or the public (in part, because the prints are difficult to handle and display). The exhibition examines the prints' rich vocabulary and illuminates the context of their production between the mid-1660s and 1690. It also calls out the relationship between Le Brun and his printmakers, while interpreting the prints and their inscriptions in light of debates regarding allegories, narratives, and the representation of Louis XIV.

Old Testament Imagery in Medieval Christian Manuscripts
June 1–August 8, 2010
The Old Testament, as the Hebrew Bible is known to Christians, served as one of the richest sources for narrative art in the Middle Ages. It provided familiar stories—such as those of the Creation of the World and Noah's Ark—and held up heroes such as David and Solomon for emulation. Medieval readers turned to the Old Testament not only for inspiration and moral guidance, but also as a source of entertaining tales and historical information. This exhibition features the Old Testament in a wide variety of books, including Bibles, private devotional manuscripts, books for the mass, and world histories.

The Spectacular Art of Jean-Léon Gérôme
June 15–September 12, 2010
Organized with the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, this is the first comprehensive show in decades devoted to the popular academic artist Jean-Léon Gérôme (French, 1824–1904). The exhibition showcases the full range of Gérôme's paintings: polished society portraits; idyllic genre scenes set in classical antiquity; ancient and modern historical subjects, scrupulously researched with an eye for archeological detail and dramatically staged to sensational effect; and Asian subjects inspired by his travels in Egypt and the Near East and treated with a new spirit of ethnographic realism. Additionally, the exhibition features photographs instrumental to Gérôme's pictorial practice and a selection of his innovative polychrome sculptures.

Engaged Observers: Documentary Photography since the Sixties
June 29–November 14, 2010
Engaged Observers: Documentary Photography since the Sixties explores the direction of published photo essays in the second half of the 20th century. The show focuses on a diverse array of independent photojournalists who have sought to develop their work beyond traditional media outlets, pursuing book-length projects of artistic proportions. Important bodies of work by Leonard Freed, W. Eugene Smith, and Lauren Greenfield, among others, are included. A section of the exhibition is devoted to tracing the origins of the genre, touching on American Civil War photographs, turn-of-the-century activist projects by Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine, Depression-era photography, and the development of a modern photojournalism aesthetic in early illustrated newspapers and picture magazines.


Current Exhibitions at the Getty Center

Past Exhibitions at the Getty Center

 
The Getty Villa, Malibu

The Aztec Pantheon and the Art of Empire
March 24–July 5, 2010
Organized to celebrate the bicentennial of Mexican independence, this exhibition reveals a defining moment of cultural encounter. In the sixteenth century, European exploration and colonization in the Americas coincided with the Renaissance rediscovery of classical antiquity, and parallels were routinely drawn between two great empires—the Aztec and the Roman. Masterworks of Aztec sculpture, largely from the collections of the National Museum of Anthropology and the Museo del Templo Mayor in Mexico City, are the point of departure for a comparative approach to the monumental art of empire.


Current Exhibitions at the Getty Villa

Past Exhibitions at the Getty Villa


 
The Getty Center Los Angeles   The Getty Villa Malibu

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