Getty continues its online-accessible series of exhibits and art exploration. Explore the range of online events, podcasts, and articles below.
Bringing a goddess back to life
When preparations began for the Villa exhibition Rubens: Picturing Antiquity, one of J. Paul Getty's favorite paintings—Diana and Her Nymphs on the Hunt—came out of storage and into the conservation studio. Layers of varnish had degraded, giving the painting a yellowish appearance. But with skill and patience, our conservators were able to revive the brushstrokes and lively colors obscured by the varnish.
Getty's year in review
In 2021 Getty greatly extended its digital reach, launched an ambitious diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion plan, and welcomed visitors back to its sites. Read more about that work and learn about Getty's projects, exhibitions, acquisitions, and challenges in this review of the past fiscal year.
The photographer who fought to end child labor
Lewis Hine and his advocacy for working kids are the subjects of a new children's book, The Traveling Camera: Lewis Hine and the Fight to End Child Labor. From 1906 to 1918, Hine documented the large numbers of young people in the labor force and the harsh conditions under which they worked. His pictures attracted national attention and assisted in the passage of child labor laws.
Recent Acquisitions 2021: Collecting for the Museum
Getty Center, through February 27
See 20 works of art acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum over the past year. Chosen by the director, these pieces also reflect the museum’s priorities to represent more women artists, tell more inclusive histories of European art, explore the legacy of the Classical world, and bring greater diversity to our holdings of modern and contemporary photographs.
How to paint a party
In 1712, painter Jean-Antoine Watteau wanted to join the Royal Academy, France’s premier art institution. He submitted Pilgrimage to the Isle of Cythera (above), a painting so good that the Royal Academy had to accept it, even though it didn't conform to the accepted genres. And so a new genre was born: the fête galante.
The art of being vulnerable
Our society often treats the sick body with little empathy—but lots of products. Fluxus artist George Maciunas's massive One Year reflects that, and also serves as a grimly comedic portrait of living precariously.
A birdwatcher's eye view
This week marks National Bird Day, a time to shine a spotlight on issues critical to the protection and survival of birds, both captive and wild. We thought we'd revisit our story about how a birdwatcher—someone who observes birds in the wild and is intimately familiar with their true personalities and habitats—reacted to artists’ representations of birds in the Getty collection.
Flesh and Bones: artists’ depictions of human anatomy through the decades
For centuries, anatomy was a fundamental component of artistic training, as artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo sought to skillfully portray the human form. A new book,
Flesh and Bones: The Art of Anatomy, examines the inventive ways anatomy has been presented: from spectacular life-size prints to 3-D stereoscopic photographs. A related exhibition opens February 22 at the Getty Center.
A Getty-supported project brings Rio’s dynamic past into the 21st century
Scholars, tourists, and locals eager to learn more about Rio de Janeiro have a new way to dive into its history with imagineRio, a digital platform that makes visible centuries of dramatic change in the city’s built environment. The newly enhanced digital atlas allows users to view thousands of digitized photographs, architectural plans, and landscapes that animate Rio’s evolving cityscape.
Why architects turned to plastic in the mid-20th century
In the 1950s, plastics joined traditional building blocks of modern architecture—concrete, glass, and steel—allowing for innovative, exciting forms as well as economical and quick construction. But conserving these plastics has proven surprisingly challenging. And plastic is everywhere—in windows, floors, countertops, structural elements, even textiles.
Mudlarking along the Thames
Inspired by our story about the value of fragmented objects, Londoner Peter Smith takes us into the fascinating world of "mudlarking." He explains just what mudlarking is, and tells us about the pieces of history he unearths along the mighty Thames: fragments of glass, pottery, masonry, and bone that correspond to every era imaginable.
Traditional transfer techniques in Western European art
In this new presentation on Google Arts & Culture, explore the techniques commonly used from the 15th to 19th century to copy original works of art. Learn about squaring, incising, pricking and pouncing; then follow tutorials to try them yourself.
New at the Getty Villa: general Germanicus
The Getty Museum has acquired an early first-century marble bust of the Roman general Germanicus, adopted son of Tiberius and father of Caligula. Germanicus was a successful general and immensely popular with both the military and Roman citizenry, yet he never ascended the throne due to his suspicious death at the age of 33.
Photographing America's racist monuments
During the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, New York-based landscape and architectural photographer Kris Graves got a call from National Geographic: could he travel to Richmond, Virginia, to photograph the protests there? Accepting the assignment, Graves then embarked on a weeks-long road trip across eight states, an experience that resulted in his project American Monuments.
Preserving signs of protest
During the Black Lives Matter demonstrations, waves of posters surged above the sea of chanting protestors marching down city streets. Some appeared to be quickly made—a simple square of cardboard with “BLM” painted in block letters; others displayed more elaborate messages and artwork. Though not typically meant to be saved, signs can be collected and preserved, allowing future generations to study and learn from the activism of the past.
Inside the archive of activist-photographer Charles Brittin
In the spring of 1963, the struggle for racial justice in Los Angeles had reached a fever pitch. While most news photographs of the time show either bird’s-eye views of crowds or sensationalized stand-offs between protestors and police officers, the images of activist-photographer Charles Brittin emerged from a radically different angle.