Roamings of a Leo: A Day at the Getty Center, January 17

The Getty Center is a great place to bring your newspaper, have coffee outside and wonder at the beauty of the Brentwood hills, the views from down town LA to Catalina Island. Oh, by the way they have some pretty interesting art too.

Surrealism and Latin America is one of the exhibits. Three European artists - Wolfgang Paalen, Alice Rahon and Eva Sulzer- left Paris in 1939 for Mexico City and joined a group of surrealist artist who lived there in the 1940's. "Farewell to Surrealism: The Dyn Circle in Mexico" explores Dyn and its influence in surrealist circles. Many were drawn to the pre-Columbian era of Mexico and the findings from archaeological expeditions. "Dyn painters merged imagery from physics, mathematics, geology, and archaeology with motifs from pre-Columbian and Pacific Northwest native objects to create works of visual abstraction."

Eva Sulzer, Alice Rahon and Wolfgang Paalen a day in the garden enjoying the exile from Europe during the War years of the 1940's. They were haunted by the war, inspired by science and seduced by archaeological discoveries.
They made the transition from Surrealism to abstract expressionism.

People dressed as dogs for a Fiesta by Carlos Merida

Florence at the Dawn of the Renaissance is another exhibit at the Getty. "During the first half of the fourteenth century, the city of Florence witnessed rapid civic and church growth and was home to revolutionary painters." The exhibit focused on manuscript illumination and panel paintings.

During this time it is written that the city of Florence was reborn. "The medieval tower houses that dominated the skyline...were soon rivaled and ultimately replaced by the civic and church buildings...Palazzo dei Priori (Palazzo Vecchio), the iconic Duomo...and the many churches including Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella and Santa Maria del Carmine." These all required sumptuous panel paintings and illuminated manuscripts.

The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation has given about 30 photos each to the LACMA and to the Getty Center. The Getty collection shows portraits of people and flowers. He lived from 1946 until 1989, dieing of AIDS related illnesses. Below are two self portraits, one in 1985 is an experiment in motion...a double portrait. "This image suggests a powerful awareness of the transience of life." The second one is from 1980. The third photo is of Patti Smith for her first record album.

My next discovery at the Getty was the Jawlensky paintings from the Long Beach Museum of Art. Russian born Alexei Jawlensky was a key member of the German avant-garde in the early twentieth century. These five paintings are a part of Milton Wichner's collection and bequeathed to the Long Beach Museum.