• Plan your visit

    Breaking News: Turning the Lens on Mass Media

    December 20, 2016–April 30, 2017

    Getty Center

    Untitled, from the series Television Political Mosaics, 1968-1969,1968-1969. Donald Blumberg, gelatin silver print. Courtesy of Donald R. and Grace Blumberg. © Donald Blumberg

    Untitled, from the series Television Political Mosaics, 1968-1969,1968-1969. Donald Blumberg, gelatin silver print. Courtesy of Donald R. and Grace Blumberg. © Donald Blumberg

  • First Lady (Pat Nixon), from the series House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home, 1967–1972, Martha Rosler, inkjet print. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Committee on Photography and The Modern Women's Fund. Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY. © Martha Ro

    First Lady (Pat Nixon), from the series House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home, 1967–1972, Martha Rosler, inkjet print. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Committee on Photography and The Modern Women's Fund. Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY. © Martha Rosler, courtesy of the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, NY.

  • The Great Sakata Fire, from the series Television, 1975–1976, Masao Mochizuki, gelatin silver print. Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck Collection. © Masao Mochizuki, courtesy of Osiris.

    The Great Sakata Fire, from the series Television, 1975–1976, Masao Mochizuki, gelatin silver print. Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck Collection. © Masao Mochizuki, courtesy of Osiris.

  • Untitled, 1984, Robert Heinecken, silver-dye bleach print. The J Paul Getty Museum. © The Robert Heinecken Trust.

    Untitled, 1984, Robert Heinecken, silver-dye bleach print. The J Paul Getty Museum. © The Robert Heinecken Trust.

  • Untitled (detail), from the series Untitled (Newsweek), 1995, Alfredo Jaar, inkjet print. Courtesy Alfredo Jaar and Galerie Lelong, New York. © Alfredo Jaar

    Untitled (detail), from the series Untitled (Newsweek), 1995, Alfredo Jaar, inkjet print. Courtesy Alfredo Jaar and Galerie Lelong, New York. © Alfredo Jaar

  • Debate 2004, from the series Close to Home, 2004, Catherine Opie, dye-diffusion prints. Courtesy of the Artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles. © Catherine Opie

    Bush Smiling, Help Us, from the series Close to Home, 2005, Catherine Opie, dye-diffusion prints. Courtesy of the Artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles. © Catherine Opie

  • Debate 2004, from the series Close to Home, 2004, Catherine Opie, dye-diffusion prints. Courtesy of the Artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles. © Catherine Opie

    Plate 10 from War Primer 2, 2011, Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, inkjet print. Courtesy, Private Collection. Image courtesy of the artists and Lisson Gallery. © Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin.

    President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton along with members of the national security team, as they receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House May 1, 2011.

Breaking News: Turning the Lens on Mass Media

December 20, 2016–April 30, 2017, Getty Center

/ Plan your visit

Over the past 50 years, artists have increasingly turned to newspapers, magazines, and televised news programs as rich sources of inspiration. This exhibition explores how artists have looked at and commented on news images, from the Vietnam War in the 1960s to the so-called “War on Terror” in the 2000s. Much of the work is political; all of it is personal. Through photographs and videos, these artists have juxtaposed, mimicked, and appropriated media elements to transform ephemeral news into lasting works of art.

RELATED EVENTS

TALKS
Artist Presentation: Martha Rosler

Since the 1960s, Brooklyn-based artist Martha Rosler has offered political and social critique through video, photography, installations, and performances. Her series "House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home" (1967–1972) is featured in the exhibition. In this presentation, Rosler reflects on her current and past projects.

Tuesday, February 7, 7:00 p.m.
Getty Center, Museum Lecture Hall

"It is Difficult"

Artist, architect, and filmmaker Alfredo Jaar, winner of the MacArthur and Guggenheim awards, discusses his recent work and reflects on "The Rwanda Project." The lecture's title refers to the lines by poet William Carlo Williams: It is difficult / to get the news / from poems / yet men die miserably every day / for lack / of what is found there. Jaar's work is featured in the current exhibition Breaking News: Turning the Lens on Mass Media.

Thursday, February 23, 7:00 p.m.
Getty Center, Museum Lecture Hall

TOURS
Curator’s Gallery Tour

Curator Arpad Kovacs leads a gallery tour of the exhibition. Meet under the stairs in the Entrance Hall. Sign-up begins at 1:30 p.m. at the Information Desk. Capacity limited. 

Tuesday, February 21 and April 4, 2:30 p.m.
Getty Center, Museum galleries

Point-of-View Talk with Artist Alfredo Jaar

Join artist Alfredo Jaar, whose work is featured in the exhibition, and curator Arpad Kovacs as they discuss Untitled (Newsweek) (1995) and Searching for Africa in LIFE (1996), two multi-part works that critique the news media’s depiction of current events. Sign-up begins at noon at the Information Desk.

Thursday, February 23, 1:30–2:30 P.M.
Getty Center, Museum galleries

Point-of-View Talk with Artist Donald Blumberg

Join artist Donald Blumberg, whose work is featured in the exhibition, and curator Arpad Kovacs as they discuss photographs the artist made in the late 1960s that respond to the media’s coverage of the Vietnam War and the domestic political climate of the period. Sign-up begins at noon at the Information Desk.

Thursday, March 2, 1:30–2:30 P.M.
Getty Center, Museum galleries

IN RESIDENCE
KCHUNG Radio Residency

Los Angeles' artist-run community radio station KCHUNG is in residence for two weeks at the Getty Center to broadcast in-depth news programming and build opportunities for spectacle, performance, and live engagement that imagine new uses and definitions for the news. Complementing the exhibition Breaking News: Turning the Lens on Mass Media, the diverse breadth of content from KCHUNG's artistic community includes exhibition themes, interviews, performances, and reporting from live events. Details to be announced.

Tuesday, January 31–Sunday, February 26, 2017
Getty Center

Click here for more information and schedule of live-broadcasts and events.

VIDEO


Excerpt from CNN Concatenated, 2002, Omer Fast, single-channel video. Courtesy of and © Omer Fast.

In CNN Concatenated, Omer Fast strings together the truncated words and heavy pauses of CNN news anchors to create sentences that portray the collective anxiety, uncertainty, and fear that followed the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.


Excerpt from Cross-Cultural Television, 1987. Antoni Muntadas, single-channel video. Courtesy of Electronic Arts Intermix, New York. © Antoni Muntadas.

Cross-Cultural Television (1987) is a personal and fragmented comparative analysis of global broadcast TV news. In the 35-minute video Antoni Muntadas combines clips taken from news programs from around the world to highlight how news formats reflect specific cultural communities through editing and graphics.


Excerpt from The Meaning of Various News Photos to Ed Henderson, 1973. John Baldessari, single-channel video. Electronic Arts Intermix, New York. Courtesy of and © John Baldessari.

In the 14-minute video The Meaning of Various News Photos to Ed Henderson, John Baldessari presents images clipped from newspapers to Ed Henderson and asks his friend to speculate as to their meaning. Henderson’s answers show how unmoored and personal interpretation can become when images are freed of captions or context.

MOBILE TOUR

Free GettyGuide® Multimedia Player

Mobile Gallery Icon
Explore how mass media has influenced art over the past fifty years with Getty photographs curator Arpad Kovacs and artists in the exhibition.

Pick up a multimedia player free of charge in the Museum Entrance Hall or use your own smartphone on our free GettyLink Wi-Fi.

Take the mobile audio tour >

Plan your visit
Share