Thursday began innocuously enough; the skies were cloudy, but not overly so, and it seemed a perfectly unpleasant day was in store – the kind of mushy, cloudy day that one spends inside with a steaming cup of tea or hot chocolate. But as the only real day in the upcoming two weeks that I have free, it seemed a good idea to plan out a trip to the Getty Museum, and take advantage of what would (hopefully) be a day with few visitors.
Needless to say, with the rapid approach of the second major Southern Californian storm in almost as many weeks, what I hoped would be a calm – if fairly wet – drive from Irvine to Los Angeles became instead a wrestling match with the elements. When I finally arrived, mercifully still in one piece, I discovered that the entire population of LA county must have had the same idea I had.
But with such minor complaints aside, Thursday’s visit to the Getty was an engaging one; I have visited the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Downtown LA twice already, so expanding my horizons was a welcome experience. Unlike the LACMA, which holds a larger array of art from across the globe, the Getty housed primarily European art. As someone whose current interest lies primarily in European art, it was pleasant to see that the Getty had no shortage of its Degas’s and Monets. Though it also would have been reassuring to see the Getty Foundation make an effort to include more non-European art into their exhibits.
Some of the highlights for my own visit included falling madly in love with a painted portrait, seeing a favorite painting of mine – “Rouen Cathedral West Façade” by Claude Monet – as well as capturing a stunning image of the stormy Los Angeles skyline from the outside pavilions. Though I made a circuit of the available exhibits in roughly two hours, I nevertheless plan to return on a day with fairer weather to adequately take advantage of the outdoor sculpture gardens.