Migrations of the Mind: Manuscripts from the Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection
November 17, 2009–April 18, 2010
Highlights from this extraordinary collection of illustrated manuscripts on the history of science and ideas—exhibited together publicly for the first time—demonstrate the circulation of knowledge around the world and across cultures during the medieval and early modern periods. Medieval Muslim and Christian medicine, Chinese acupuncture, secret experiments in alchemical laboratories, codebooks for keeping secrets secret, and French and Persian visions of the cosmos that blend science with spirituality are among the treasures on display. These manuscripts were produced for caliphs, popes, merchants, and scientists. Copied and illustrated by hand, their contents—their ideas and visions—illustrate the human urge for knowledge and creative invention.

Drawing Life: The Dutch Visual Tradition
November 24, 2009–February 28, 2010
During the 1600s, citizens of the Netherlands witnessed increasing political freedom, religious tolerance, and economic prosperity that resulted in a boom of artistic patronage and art production. Dutch artists began to portray their native land with its bustling cities, rustic countryside, and placid waterways. These landscapes were complemented by scenes of everyday life in which peasants frolicked, merchants ice skated, and cows rested in fields. This exhibition of Dutch drawings from the Getty's collection traces the invention of these new genres and examines the persistence of these genres in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Medieval Scriptorium
November 24, 2009–February 14, 2010
Organized with children in mind, this exhibition presents medieval manuscripts from the Getty's collection and focuses on the working method of medieval artists. Before technology made it possible to print many copies of a book, scribes and artists made each manuscript by hand. Scriptorium is a Latin word that means "place for writing," and it was also a place where monks illustrated their books with images created with costly pigments and precious metals such as silver and gold. Children are invited to view medieval manuscripts and take part in a copying activity at the scriptorium table.

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 late 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 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
Highlighting images by three living photographers—each of whom implements a panoramic viewpoint to examine a specific urban environment—this exhibition explores the essential rhythms of three cities while showing the range of technologies used by photographic artists today. 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 Liao (Taiwanese, born 1977) digitally combined color film negatives into seamless digital 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 Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland, during the summer solstice, Soo Kim (Korean, born 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

Reconstructing Identity: A Statue of a God from Dresden
November 19, 2009–February 8, 2010
This exhibition examines the restoration history of a Roman statue from the Skulpturensammlung, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Since its discovery in the 1600s, the figure has been restored as Alexander the Great, Bacchus, and Antinous in the guise of the wine god. Damaged in World War II, the sculpture was recently reassembled by Getty and Dresden conservators.

Collector's Choice: J. Paul Getty and His Antiquities
November 19, 2009–February 8, 2010
With his first antiquities purchase in 1939, J. Paul Getty embarked on a lifelong pursuit of "true and lasting beauty." Celebrating seventy years of collecting, this exhibition presents seldom-seen works of art that captured the founder's eye and inspired the creation of a museum modeled on an ancient Roman villa. Favored objects and personal memorabilia illuminate Getty's taste, his engagement with noted connoisseurs, and his profound love of the classical Mediterranean world.

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