Getty Museum Review of Two New Shows

Last week, I was in Los Angeles for National Review Institute donor visits and museum visits as well. It’s a quiet season for art, it seems, but I love the Getty and always go whether or not there’s a blockbuster on view. I saw two exhibitions there, mostly from the permanent collection. Drawing on Blue: European Drawings on Blue Paper, 1400s–1700s is a perfect but not fascinating exhibition and Blood: Medieval/Modern is too small, impressionistic, and hodgepodge to get traction. Where’s yellow? It’s a primary color, too. There’s the California sun under which the Getty sparkles, I decided, and the sun takes it in stride.

Even in this bit-of-a-fizzle season exhibition-wise, the Getty looks splendid. I love it. The campus will be 30 years old in 2027, and it looks both new and venerable. The Getty, the Disney Center, and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, called the music center, are the anchors in Los Angeles’s evolution from a white-bread town to a high culture-giant.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

Last week, I was in Los Angeles for National Review Institute donor visits and museum visits as well. It’s a quiet season for art, it seems, but I love the Getty and always go whether or not there’s a blockbuster on view. I saw two exhibitions there, mostly from the permanent collection. Drawing on Blue: European Drawings on Blue Paper, 1400s–1700s is a perfect but not fascinating exhibition and Blood: Medieval/Modern is too small, impressionistic, and hodgepodge to get traction. Where’s yellow? It’s a primary color, too. There’s the California sun under which the Getty sparkles, I decided, and the sun takes it in stride.

Even in this bit-of-a-fizzle season exhibition-wise, the Getty looks splendid. I love it. The campus will be 30 years old in 2027, and it looks both new and venerable. The Getty, the Disney Center, and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, called the music center, are the anchors in Los Angeles’s evolution from a white-bread town to a high culture-giant.