“PST Art and Science strikes at the heart of the enduring human intertwining of science and art. Neither has limits, both speak to the imagination, and when they are put together, each is even more powerful,” says Katherine E. Fleming, President and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust. “It’s very exciting that my first PST will bring together wide audiences and practitioners to share the creative collision of art and science. In converging the two, we start to think and talk about them in new and different ways, even as a new merged category. At Getty, we’ll be exploring a variety of art and science topics that will be presented across nine exhibitions that range from how science, art and religion were interconnected in the Middle Ages to reframing our Irises, by Van Gogh.”
“No fewer than six exhibitions at the Getty Museum will explore the myriad ways in which our understanding of light as a natural phenomenon, as the basis of sight, and as the fundamental medium of all art, has evolved over the centuries,” says Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle Director of the Getty Museum. “The extraordinary creations on show will include both the technologies that have allowed us to explore the world we inhabit from the most minute to the cosmic, but also the visualizations in art, literature, and spirituality that these discoveries inspired, from medieval stained glass to photographic holograms.”
From September 2024 to February 2025, Getty explores art and science through a major exhibition that examines how the science of light impacted art and religious language of the “Long Middle Ages;” photography exhibitions of artists who experimented with light in abstract imagery and holography; an exhibition on a spectacular French microscope from Getty’s collection; a manuscript exhibition that reveals the scientific mysteries of medieval astrology; a drawings exhibition that explores how artists creatively used paper and light together; a conservation exhibition on Van Gogh’s Irises that reveals a new understanding of this beloved painting; an exhibition that tells the story of Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T) and the role it played in fostering collaboration between artists and engineers; and, finally, a social impact project that showcases 100 extraordinary people creating positive change across L.A.
Getty PST Art: Art & Science Collide Exhibitions
Lumen: The Art & Science of Light
September 10–December 8, 2024
Exhibitions Pavilion
Contemporary society separates science and spirituality, but in the medieval world the science of light was harnessed by artists and scholars to better perceive and understand the sacred. Focusing on western European art, this major exhibition demonstrates how the study of light, vision, and the movement of the heavens were explored by Christian, Jewish, and Muslim theologians during the “Long Middle Ages” (about 800–1600). Featuring glimmering golden reliquaries, illuminated manuscripts, rock crystal vessels, and scientific instruments, it reveals how optics, geometry, and astronomy impacted art and religious language of the period. To convey the sense of wonder created by moving light on precious materials, a select number of contemporary artworks will be placed in dialogue with historic objects.
Sensing the Future: Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.)
September 10, 2024–February 23, 2025
Research Institute Galleries
In the mid-twentieth century, Bell Telephone Laboratories produced much of the foundational technology for the digital age, inventing the transistor, the laser, information theory, and many computer programming languages. From its campus just outside of New York City, this scientific research center also served as a launchpad for transformative collaboration with the city’s avant-garde artists. This exhibition will tell the story of Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), the non-profit organization founded in 1966 by the Bell Labs electrical engineers Billy Klüver and Fred Waldhauer, and the American artists Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Whitman. From its debut event, which integrated art, theater, and groundbreaking technology at the Armory in Manhattan, to its development of a multi-sensory environment for the first contemporary world exposition held in Asia, the Pepsi Pavilion in Osaka, Japan, E.A.T. played a critical role in fostering collaboration between leading artists and engineers. Drawing on E.A.T. Records uniquely held at Getty, as well as the archive of live electronics composer and E.A.T. contributor David Tudor and the photographic collection of Harry Shunk and Janos Kender, this exhibition will tell the story of E.A.T. by highlighting the group’s innovations in electronics and audience participation.
Abstracted Light: Experimental Photography
August 20–November 24, 2024
Center for Photographs
Abstract imagery made with experimental light exposures was of great interest to avant-garde photographers from the 1920s to the ‘50s. This exhibition features photographs by international artists devoted to the practice, including László Moholy-Nagy, Francis Bruguière, Man Ray, Tōyō Miyatake, Asahachi Kono, and Jaromír Funke. The selection of works demonstrates the dynamic interplay between still photography, experimental film, and the dazzling time-based artworks by Thomas Wilfred called “Lumia instruments.”
Sculpting with Light: Contemporary Artists and Holography
August 20–November 24, 2024
Center for Photographs
Made possible by the invention of laser technology in the 1960s, holograms produce the illusion of three-dimensional objects floating in space. Many artists have experimented with holography: Louise Bourgeois, Ed Ruscha, and others were invited by the C Project to explore the creative potential of the medium in the late 1990s, and Deana Lawson turned to holography to expand her photographic practice around 2020. The master technician in both instances was Matthew Schreiber, an artist in his own right, whose work is also featured.
Magnified Wonders: An 18th-Century Microscope
September 10, 2024–February 2, 2025
South Pavilion
The spectacular French microscope from Getty’s collection is a unique testament to scientific advances and Rococo design in the Age of Enlightenment. It allowed science enthusiasts to immerse themselves in the recently discovered world of the microscopically small. New study and conservation present the cultural and historical context of this magnificent object and reveals its technical complexity in a display which includes its lavish tooled-leather case and specimen slides of natural curiosities.
Rising Signs: The Medieval Science of Astrology
October 1, 2024–January 5, 2025
North Pavilion
Medieval Europeans believed that the movements of the sun, moon, stars, and planets directly affected their lives on earth. The position of these celestial bodies had the power to not only influence individual personalities but also created the seasonal conditions ideal for a variety of tasks from planting crops to bloodletting. Exploring the 12 signs of the zodiac still familiar to us today, this exhibition reveals the mysteries of medieval astrology as it intersected with medicine, divination, and daily life in the Middle Ages.
Ultra-Violet: New Light on Van Gogh’s Irises
October 1, 2024–January 19, 2025
West Pavilion
Examine Getty’s much-loved painting, Irises by Vincent Van Gogh, from the perspective of modern conservation science. This exhibition shows how the artist’s understanding of light and color informed his painting practice, and how conservators and scientists working together can harness the power of light with analytical tools that uncover the artist’s materials and working methods. Lastly, the exhibition reveals how light has irrevocably changed some of the colors in Irises. A painting we thought we knew so well has suddenly become quite unfamiliar.
Paper and Light
October 15, 2024–January 19, 2025
West Pavilion
Artists have for centuries explored the interaction of paper and light. This exhibition of drawings charts some of the innovative ways in which the two media were creatively used together. Works include Getty’s extraordinary 12-foot-long transparency by Carmontelle—essentially an 18th-century motion picture—which will be shown lit from behind as originally intended. Drawings by more contemporary artists including Vija Celmins will join sheets by Tiepolo, Delacroix, Seurat, and Manet to portray the themes of translucency and the representation of light.
Alta / a Human Atlas of Los Angeles
Getty Conservation Institute
Alta / a Human Atlas of Los Angeles is a social impact project by Marcus Lyon, in collaboration with the Getty Conservation Institute, that showcases 100 extraordinary people creating positive change across Los Angeles County. Each participant is photographed and interviewed by Lyon and also contributes a sample of their ancestral DNA. The photographic portrait, DNA profile, and interview reveal the contexts of how their lives intersect with L.A. history and aim to preserve these multivocal narratives for future generations. The project will be shared in several formats, including exhibitions within the participants’ own communities, outdoor projections, a website, and a book. Accompanying these is a mobile app that allows users to scan each participant’s portrait to listen to excerpts from their oral histories. Participants were identified by peers from diverse organizations across L.A., and the project builds on previous Human Atlas projects by Lyon including i.Detroit, WE: Deutschland, and Somos Brasil.
View the thematic exhibition overview of PST Art: Art & Science Collide
About PST ART
Southern California’s landmark arts event, Pacific Standard Time, returns in September 2024 with more than 50 exhibitions from museums and other institutions across the region, all exploring the intersections of art and science, both past and present. Dozens of cultural, scientific, and community organizations will join the latest edition, PST ART: Art & Science Collide, with exhibitions on subjects ranging from ancient cosmologies to Indigenous sci-fi, and from environmental justice to artificial intelligence. Art & Science Collide will share groundbreaking research, create indelible experiences for the public, and generate new ways of understanding our complex world. Art & Science Collide follows Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA (September 2017–January 2018), which presented a paradigm-shifting examination of Latin American and Latinx art, and Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945–1980 (October 2011–March 2012), which rewrote the history of the birth and impact of the L.A. art scene. PST ART is a Getty initiative. For more information about PST ART: Art & Science Collide, please visit pst.art.