All posts tagged: Getty

Gehry Partners sign on for Getty Center renovation

Gehry Partners sign on for Getty Center renovation

Published by Sam Flores

Gehry Partners will design a variety of upgrades to the Getty Center — including a major revamp of its entry experience — during its upcoming year-long closure, the museum announced Thursday. A variety of other partners and firms will also join the remodel effort including WHY Architecture and OLIN landscaping. The museum nestled in the hills above the 405 Freeway is scheduled to close next March. When it reopens, visitors will be greeted by a new arrival area, a revamped tram system including new cars, a garden cafe, a gift shop and abundant new green space. The bulk of the announced improvements will target the arrival system, including the parking and tram boarding area, and the tram itself, but plenty of work will also be done at the top of the hill, including the addition of a new Welcome Hall. The goal, according to a news release, is to create a more “gracious and efficient entry experience” for more than 1.4 million annual visitors. This includes school groups, which visit the museum at a rate …

LA’s Getty Center to Close for Renovations Beginning in 2027

LA’s Getty Center to Close for Renovations Beginning in 2027

Published by Jenni Sidey

The Getty Center, the main campus for the Getty Foundation’s two Los Angeles museums, announced that it will close for renovations for about a year. The closure is expected to last from spring 2027 to spring 2028, meaning that the institution will reopen in time for the Olympics. The last public day of the museum will be in about 11 months from now, on March 15, 2027. In a release, the Getty termed the renovations “modernization initiatives,” which would be the first since the museum opened in 1997. The goal, per the release, is to “elevate the overall visitor experience, enhance accessibility, strengthen energy resilience and support the long-term stewardship of the site’s iconic campus.” Related Articles The focus on “resilience” is especially crucial for the institution given that it rests on a hill above Brentwood and has been in recent years been forced to close because the wildfires that frequently occur in these brushy parts of LA County. The campus has several mechanisms already in place that make it less susceptible to damage from …

Getty Museum Acquires Two Significant Dutch Still Lifes

Getty Museum Acquires Two Significant Dutch Still Lifes

Published by José Betancourt

The Getty Museum in Los Angeles has acquired two Dutch still lifes of note—including one that the institution said it “has been seeking over two decades,” according to a press release announcing the news. Jan Davidsz. de Heem’s Glass Vase with Flowers and Fruit (ca. 1673–74) is one of nine similar paintings that demonstrate the artist’s “skill of illusionism and accurate botanical and entomological observations,” per the release, and was unrecorded until it came out of a private collection in Germany in 2022. The arrangement includes flame tulips (“still a highly prized flower in the Netherlands”) as well as plums, berries, roses, morning glory, milk thistle, and honeysuckle. Related Articles Look closely and you will also see insects going about their business at minuscule scale. “Butterflies and caterpillars, associated with metamorphosis, represented the transience of life and the soul freed from greed and desire,” the Getty’s release reads. “And, according to literary tradition, ants were respected as hardworking and symbolized diligence and frugality.” De Heem’s painting is already on view in the Getty Center’s West …

Collective Climate Action Implemented by Los Angeles Arts Institutions

Collective Climate Action Implemented by Los Angeles Arts Institutions

Published by José Betancourt

In part a reaction to the wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles just over one year ago, a number of the city’s most significant arts institutions issued a collective pledge to follow climate-minded guidelines known as the Bizot Green Protocol. Initiated in 2015 by the Bizot Group, a network of art museum directors from institutions around the world, the protocol has been amended and revised in the decade since, as catastrophes attributable to climate change have intensified. Institutions behind the newly issued pledge include the Getty, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), the Hammer Museum, and the blue-chip gallery Hauser & Wirth. Related Articles “This is the first time that Los Angeles art institutions have announced together their commitment to these recommendations, and it is our hope that it will motivate others to commit as well,” Camille Kirk, sustainability director at Getty, said in a press release. A joint statement from the collective reads: “Though not a direct cause, climate change was an exacerbating factor in the size and …