Your first stop in Los Angeles should be The Getty Center. Either for grand views of Los Angeles from above, world-class architecture or an impressive collection of art, the Getty Center is one of the most impressive places I visited recently. It’s free (15US$ per car for parking), and if you’re a patron of the arts – you can easily spend an entire day there browsing the various galleries or joining one of the many tours and events hosted on site.
By the time I made it to the Getty Center, I’ve already been through some art museums in Austin and San Francisco, and so limited my visit to a remarkable exploration of the dawn of photography with Queen Victoria’s collection (A Royal Passion: Queen Victoria and Photography) and Hiroshi Sugimoto (Past Tense). Other than that, I mostly spent my time wondering around and taking in the wonderful architecture and the breath-taking views of LA.
When you play with those photos a bit, this is what comes out…
And the grand views of LA …
What is the Getty Center?
Let’s start with who Getty was…
Fortune magazine called Jean Paul Getty the richest man in the world in 1957, but most people had never heard of him. Born in 1892 in Minneapolis and raised as an only child, he was introduced to the oil business by his lawyer father. A roustabout and wildcatter in the Oklahoma oil fields, Getty became a millionaire by the time he was 23. By the 1960s, his company Getty Oil became one of the largest oil companies in the world. […]
Late in life Getty conceived the idea of building a major museum on his ranch property. He decided that it would be a near replica of the Roman Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum, Italy, which had been buried in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Critics derided the Villa as a gimmick when it opened in 1974, but the public loved it.
And continue to the Getty Trust …
The new vision that emerged by 1982 conceived of the Getty as an interdisciplinary center for learning and a resource to the world of art and art history. The new institution would include a research center and scholarly library, a conservation institute, an art history information program, arts education, a modest grant program, and new publications initiatives, as well as a new museum.
With its approval of these initiatives in 1982, the Board effectively remade the Getty as a multifaceted institution engaged in a broad range of programs related to art, art history, and education.
Here’s a bit more with untouched photos…
Location :
A truly great visit. Wish I had more time to go back and explore a bit more.