Getty Center
Los Angeles, Sepulveda Pass
May 17, 2014
On this recent visit, we went to the Getty Center primarily to see a special exhibition of photographs of Queen Victoria and her family (“A Royal Passion: Queen Victoria and Photograph”), which we learned of through a Los Angeles Times article.
We have been to the Getty a number of times before. When we first started our museum odyssey we steered clear of it, intimidated by the large scale and thinking it was not worth the trip if we were not going to spend a full day. At the time we did not realize that admission is free. The only cost to get in is $15 per car to park. If you come by public transport, then there is no cost. (On this particular visit the pay parking machines were not working, so everyone was able to leave without paying for parking.) We now visit the Getty whenever there is a special exhibition we are interested in, and we usually take some time after that to visit one or two of the permanent galleries.
We will not try to give a full description of the museum here. Suffice it to say it is a really splendid institution. In addition to its outstanding collections, the architecture, gardens, and setting are all beautiful. The one drawback is that access to the museum is from the 405 in the Sepulveda Pass, which is an area of Los Angeles Meredith likes to refer to as her personal purgatory because of the ever-present traffic congestion.
The photos of Victoria, Albert, and their children spanned the entire period of her reign. Photography was first invented just two years after Victoria became queen, so she was the first of the English Royals to be photographed. In the early years the photos were informal, private photos taken for the family’s own enjoyment. Later photos in the exhibit include the formidable official portraits more familiar to us. We were struck by the explanation next to one of the last photos that the negative was retouched to make the queen look slimmer and less wrinkled; the beginning of photo retouching! We also liked a 38 second silent video, quite good quality, of the queen in her carriage in the procession for her Diamond Jubilee in 1897.
Near the Victoria photos was a gallery with a special Ansel Adams exhibit of photos. The Yosemite photos were perhaps the most striking, but what Margaret and Meredith enjoyed most were three video excerpts of interviews with the artist. We went on from the special photography exhibitions to see a special showing of Jackson Pollock’s painting, Mural, then finished with the 19 century European paintings on the upper level of the same building. Those are part of the permanent collection, and we always enjoy looking at them. But let’s face it, who doesn’t enjoy Monet?
We ate lunch, as we usually do, at the museum café. We have not yet tried the museum restaurant; the prices are a bit more expensive than we like to pay. The café – located on the lower level of the same building as the restaurant — is a cafeteria with half a dozen different stations. It offers Mexican food, pizza, sandwiches, burgers, and a few other options. The food is good; the prices are a little high but comparable to other museum cafés. The hostess was quite helpful and made a point of telling us we should ask her if we would like help carrying the trays. Once we had our food, she came over promptly and carried one of our trays, while Bob carried the other and Meredith pushed Margaret in her wheelchair.
