TUOT89

So much disdain for LA museums here. Some of them are outstanding. The Getty Center - It is a collection for connoisseurs of art --- not comprehensive, but only the best examples of their kind. All of the art is impeccably preserved and presented. The cases, framing, lighting, and educational materials set the standard. As for the building, it is a masterpiece of its own and worth the trouble. The Getty Villa - This is my favorite LA museum. The setting is secluded. The collection of antiquities is one of the best in the US. The presentation is also remarkable. No expense is spared in how the art is displayed or in how the building has been outfitted. The ocean views from the Villa give you a sense of what it must have felt to be a Roman elite. LA MOCA - One of the best post-War art collections in the world, though it might appeal more to art historians than art audiences. The building is unassuming, but it is finally getting the recognition it deserves. (The architect of the building won the Pritzker Prize this year.) The Broad - One of the best post-Warhol collections of contemporary art in the world. The best examples from all the top artists, beginning more or less with Warhol. This is a collection meant to appeal to art audiences more than art historians. It is pure spectacle. Norton Simon - Simon was the preeminent art collector of his time. The collection is a testament to that. Almost every piece attests to his eye for art and his taste level. Like the Getty Center, it is a collection for connoisseurs of art, but at a much smaller scale. LACMA - an encylopedic museum, modeled after the Met. Worth visiting alone for two pieces --- Burden's Urban Light sculpture and Metropolis II. Probably the best LA museum for people watching. In the process, however, of shutting down its main building as it prepares for construction of a new building. See not so bad. The other thing worth noting is that LA has become over the last 20 years one of the top centers for art production in the world. As a result, the galleries here function almost like museums of the now. The top galleries in LA are Blum & Poe, David Kordansky, Regan Projects, Maccarone, Gagosian (BH), and Hauser & Wirth.

All great paintings tell a story not just through the figures but the forms. Look at the pool in the bottom corner. It is spilling over. It is failing to contain. Look at the shape of the pool, what you see is a triangular section. The section of the sky you see is also triangular. The doubling also suggests a lack of closure. The two triangles almost meet at a point, but they don't. A long rectangular plane comes between them. There are at least 3 more triangles in the painting, some of them implicate the figures.

Another man whose name also had to a's, Isaac Newton thought that the doctrine of the trinity was the result of a power play between two church fathers. In order to establish the doctrine, the Church (under the direction of Athanasius) changed the Gospel of John to add the reference to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The reference was not in the pre-4th-century Bible. For the record, Newton also loved a man (Fatio). Though it did not lead him to murder, it may have led to a nervous breakdown.

In your opinion, what exactly is junk? The Met collects in depth, for a particular artist and within a particular period or style. What this means is that there are going to be greater and lesser pieces, but all the pieces are still representative in some way and therefore academically important. At the Getty, Meier tailored the building to the collection. The first floor was reserved for light-sensitive objects (e.g., illuminated manuscripts). The second floor for everything else, mainly the painting collection. Furthermore, the museum was divided into pavilions because that is how curators wanted to group/divide the parts of the collection. It is possible to see most of the painting collection by just moving between the pavilions on the second floor. The stairs at each pavilion lobby are there to create another way of experiencing the museum and the art. Some people don't have an interest in surveying the entire painting collection, all at once or at all. The building is actually quite democratic; the stairs are not a form of torture. In my opinion, the illuminated manuscripts are the best thing about the museum. The painting collection is a masterpiece collection, meaning the piece represents the peak of each artist's work. (People in LA should be proud of the collection.) As to the garden, I don't like it. It is pure spectacle and entertainment. It doubles down on the play already inherent in the design of the building, but not in a good way. In general, art takes patience. The work is on display for a reason, even if I have no preference for the artist, the genre, or period. Major museums don't display junk. But more to the point, at LACMA recently, I rode the elevator up from the garage with a very hot guy. We smiled at each other and exchanged a few words. I noticed he had big feet. I was there to pick something up from a friend who is a curator. I had forgotten how much else there is to see. ; )

He is a really nice guy. Recommended.