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| 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. These include Donatello's marble Bearded Prophet and three larger-than-life-size bronze figures by Leonardo's collaborator Giovan Francesco Rustici, all recently restored in Florence and never before 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
Jean-Léon Gérôme (French, 1824–1904) ranks among the most successful artists of the nineteenth century. Ranging from the ancient Roman arenas of gladiatorial combat to the streets of modern Egypt, his spectacular, meticulously rendered pictures captured the public's imagination and made him one of France's most honored painters. Restless and experimental, he also helped pioneer the artistic use of photography and made bold forays into polychrome and mixed-media sculpture. Critically controversial in his day, Gérôme was neglected for much of the twentieth century due to the triumph of Impressionism and Modernism. Organized with the Musèe d'Orsay, Paris, this is the first comprehensive show devoted to the artist in decades.
| | | 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.
| | | Obsidian Mirror-Travels: Refracting Ancient Mexican Art and Archaeology
November 16, 2010–March 27, 2011
This exhibition explores representations of Mexican archaeological objects and sites made from the Colonial era to the present. Featuring images of ancient Maya and Aztec ruins by archaeologist explorers such as John Lloyd Stephens, Desiré Charnay, and Augustus and Alice Le Plongeon, the exhibition showcases depictions of the Aztec Calendar Stone and other Mexican antiquities as well as panoramic visions of Mexico—all in the context of the Spanish conquest, the 19th-century French intervention in Mexico, and the lengthy presidency of Porfirio Díaz (1876–1910). Some of the works exhibited are accurate, while others are fanciful; each portrays a distinct vision of Mexico.
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Current Exhibitions at the Getty Center
Past Exhibitions at the Getty Center
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