The Getty

On Saturday we went to the Getty - despite having lived in LA for around 3 years, it was the first trip for both of us. You park at the bottom of a hill and then take a tram up to the museums and gardens. It was a very pleasant space - it's not terribly high but it felt quite removed nonetheless, which made the day feel really calm and relaxing. My favorite part was just walking around outside and looking at the gardens and the buildings. There were a number of outdoor exhibitions as well, like a Taiko drum show and an Aerial Silks performance.

On the art front, we saw sculpture in the Classical Connections and Casting Nature exhibitions, and paintings in the Landscapes in the Renaissance exhibit. We also saw a number of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works. The most famous piece was likely van Gogh's Irises, but we also saw a few Monets and a bunch of other stuff that I may not be able to name, but at least I know it's famous!

One highlight was the Eliot Porter photography exhibition. This was a combination of nature and bird photography. There was one interesting blurb about his techniques for capturing birds up close - he would construct a stilted perch near a tree with a nest and wait for the perfect shot. Not too strange there. But unless I am completely misunderstanding things, if the angles weren't good, or his perch wasn't quite high enough, he would occasionally cut the branch that the nest was on and lower it via ropes until it was easier to photograph! I really hope I read that wrong, as it makes it a little harder to appreciate the otherwise amazing photographs.

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