Beautiful things: paintings, books, sculptures, photographs, artistic finds.
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The Getty is art, architecture, and gardens at two locations: the Getty Center in Los Angeles and the Getty Villa in Malibu.
Andrea del Sarto, Various studies, c.1520’s
Son of a tailor (sarto). Andrea became one of the best loved artists of Florence. Vasari had good things to say about him.
…Andrea del Sarto, in whose single person Nature and art showed all that painting can achieve by means of drawing, colouring and invention: and indeed if Andrea had possessed a little more boldness and daring of spirit, to match his very profound judgement and talent as a painter, he would, there is no doubt at all, have been without equal.
Browning wrote poems about him:
Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what’s a heaven for?His drawings are natural, graceful and sensitive, an excellent draughtsman.
…and he was very much in love with his wife… (something we don’t often hear about Renaissance artists!)
Our curator Julian Brooks is in Florence now researching del Sarto for an exhibition in 2015.
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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.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/021a8c77590f1a6334141af026a2b8f4/tumblr_mmqlnbISF91qe866ho1_250.jpg)
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.
Medieval methods of entertainment included sad dances and alienation parties.
Tights are not pants, circa 1400something.
(via Suzanne Jongmans)
This could be my favourite Greek drinking vessel ever!
Rhyton (Drinking Vessel) in the Shape of a Donkey Head
c. 460 BC
Greek, Attica
This drinking cup could not have been set down without its contents spilling. It is fashioned after the head of a bridled donkey with a white muzzle, teeth, and ears. Like the naked satyr chasing a fleeing maenad on the vessel’s neck, the donkey belongs to the retinue of the wine god Dionysos. Douris, one of the great Athenian vase painters of first half of the fifth century B.C., decorated this amusing cup.
Source: The Art Institute of Chicago
In the morning, I’m making WAFFLES
This cup has a built-in drinking game: it can’t be put down until empty.
The Rosebud Garden of Girls, June 1868, Julia Margaret Cameron. The J. Paul Getty Museum
Paul Signac (French, 1863-1935), Eucalyptus à Antibes, 1910. Black ink, watercolour and gouache, 39 x 34.5 cm. Collection James T. Dyke.
Signac quoted Delacroix approvingly: “L’ennemi de toute peinture est le gris!” (“Gray is the enemy of all painting!”)
(via agapie)
“What is my L.A.? It’s the pot on the stove. Add stuff, keep it warm, new flavors and colors. Every day.”
PA and PE, 1990, Peter Alexander. Pacific Enterprises.
“My L.A. is very bright, hot, colorful, and a little rough around the edges. It’s far away from everything, but right next to everything at the same time.”
The messy chaos of Los Angeles can be charming. Or disorienting. Or a bit of both! Office hours with Chris & Lyra of Overdrive’s curatorial team continue tomorrow,12-1pm and Thursday, 2-3pm at the entrance to the exhibition at the Getty Center.
Inside Out, 1961, Roger E. Kuntz. The Estate of Roger E. Kuntz, courtesy of Mary Kuntz. Photo by Maureen Murphy Fine Arts.
“People consider Los Angeles to be this chaotic, sprawling mess. This exhibition reveals that there is a plan, there is an order and a system to L.A. But I think its complexity is what makes it so interesting.” —Chris Alexander, curator
What is your L.A.?
On this week’s Getty Voices, curators Chris Alexander and Lyra Kilston are taking to social media and on-site informal “office hours” inside the exhibition at the Getty Center (Tuesday, May 14, 12-1pm; Wednesday, May 15, 12-1pm; and Thursday, May 16, 2-3pm) to hear your stories. L.A. is a complex place that perhaps is best described through a weaving of personal narratives.
This week we’re all ears, so please come talk to us in person, on Facebook or on Twitter #OurLA!
Case Study House #22, Pierre Koenig: view of two women in white dresses, 1960, Julius Shulman. The Getty Research Institute, Julius Shulman Photography Archive.
Johnie’s
Miracle Mile, CA
Johnie’s, formerly Romeo’s Times Square, designed in 1955. Now just a filming location, Johnie’s is one of the many repurposed sites from an era of design innovation.
Overdrive: L.A. Constructs the Future, 1940-1990 on view now at the Getty Center. A rich exploration of an often overlooked architecturally intriguing city.
Romeo’s Time Square Restaurant, exterior corner perspective, 1955, Armet & Davis, Collection of Armet Davis Newlove Architects.
If you notice a few more ladybugs in the Getty gardens than usual, it’s because today our awesome garden supervisor, Michael DeHart, released a few hundred spotted friends to munch on pesky aphids.
Happy National Public Gardens Day! A female carpenter bee visiting the pea vines yesterday. She’s California’s largest bee.
Rembrandt at age 22.
This self-portrait—which is less than 9 inches high and painted on copper—was only recently rediscovered.
Rembrandt Laughing, about 1628, Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn. The J. Paul Getty Museum
Francois-Léon Benouville, The Wrath of Achilles, 1847, Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France.
Remember those “academic artists” the Impressionists reacted against? This.
Benouville won the Prix de Rome, the French art-world’s highest establishment honor, five years before Bouguereau.
Like? Hate?
(Also, we move to call this The Mild-and-Unconvincing-Distraction-by-Annoying-Shiny-Object of Achilles)
