Browse the reactions of other viewers to Viola's work below.

These reactions were submitted to this site between January 17 and April 28, 2003. The site is now closed to new reactions.

The opinions presented here may have been edited and do not reflect the opinions of the Getty.

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Bill Viola's work is phenomenal, but nothing wrecked me so completely as Surrender. I just got back from seeing it and am already planning a return trip. I was literally swaying back and forth with the waves of emotion that were hitting me. I went from anguish to release to joy over and over again...don't miss this exhibit.

I enjoyed the sound of Five Angels for the Millennium. Is this a field recording from the environment?

Although Bill Viola does not specify the source of the sound in Five Angels for the Millennium, he does comment on the role sound plays in this installation:
"Sound has one foot in the invisible world and one foot in the visible, tangible world. It connects us to things that exist on the other side of the wall, behind your back, in pitch-black darkness—in the places you can't see...With Five Angels, most people hear the sound of the Angels before they can actually see them. Sounds of underwater space fill the room with a continuous drone, immersing the viewer in a sonic landscape, an eternal image without a story, without a beginning, without an end. The sound literally becomes the invisible presence in the room."
— Bill Viola, from the exhibition catalogue, Bill Viola: The Passions

I have followed Bill Viola's work for 20 years. I always knew he was a master, but this exhibition proves you have to wait patiently and quietly for angels. It is by far the most moving body of art I have seen in these 20 years.
This is the future.

Silent Mountain is anything but silent. Since my encounter with it yesterday, it has continued to resonate through my entire being. The concentrated emotion, exploding, in excruciating detail, for all to witness is nearly overwhelming.
I cannot wait until I can see it again.

I visited the Getty Museum this past weekend and was very moved by the work of Bill Viola. In some cases I wasn't sure of exactly what I was viewing and wish I could receive an explanation by Mr. Viola as to what he is depicting in his works.

After too long viewing paintings and furniture, I stumbled upon Passions.....and could not leave. I must have spent 30 minutes in front of [one video] absolutely mesmerized by the emotion portrayed.Perhaps this was because I visited the Getty on Feb 1, the day the Columbia [Space Shuttle] was lost, with friends with whom I had been teaching at an American school in Pakistan on Sept 11—the raw horror and sorrow in the work suited our need to grieve again together in the face of a national tragedy. Rarely does one have the chance to view a new art form that truly captivates and captures the emotions in the way Bill Viola's work does.

Made me have an intense wish to live near LA, so I could go see the exhibition. But I'm stuck in snowy Copenhagen.

I am an artist that creates much of my work in a digital environment. This exhibition has shown me the future of presenting fine art.

First, I was touched by the passions expressed in the artwork. Then, I realized, that the passions are only played by actors. I didn't feel touched by the artworks anymore. But I did have the impression as if late Medieval religious panel paintings came alive...

Deeply moving. The medium is amazingly profound. By the time I reached the third display I was already crying. Truly mesmerizing work.

Someone said here that he finds documentaries more moving than fiction. Perhaps putting a premium on lived experience also explains the popularity of reality TV. But I would like to add that fictional forms such as music, opera, ballet and pictorial art can be profoundly moving. Not because they are "real" in a simplistic way, but because they can give audiences a link to the ineffable. The paint on a Rembrandt is no more 'real' than Viola's rays of light on a screen. Yet both artists can touch our souls through a wordless language all humans can share. Perhaps that is why art can speak to us across the centuries.

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