Adrian Galindo
Professor Eric Ryan-Stallones
3/18/2013
Midterm Project
The Getty
The Getty was the first art museum I have ever attended and I was actually very surprised with my visit. I enjoyed the museum a lot. The museum was very large so it was overwhelming at times because there was so much to look at I couldn’t absorb everything I saw.
I found I appreciated the photography more than the actual paintings. The Getty had a photography exhibit called “In Focus: Robert Mapplethorpe.” It started out with his first works of art which resembled Andy Warhol’s work. The exhibit said that Robert Mapplethorpe was a big fan of Warhol’s work and tried to emulate it when he first started doing art. His work was color but he only had his subjects in only black and white clothes in grey backgrounds. He also used an African American and Caucasian people in all of his photos on display to show a really interesting contrast. One thing I found different about the art was that most of the pictures were of naked body builders or women who were dressed like men. I didn’t understand his fascination with this type of art but it was strangely intriguing and really beautiful. It captured the human body as something that is vulnerable and amazing but he didn’t do it in a way that made it look like pornography or something sexual.
I also really enjoyed the tapestry. I found myself with my mouth open when I saw the enormous tapestries and the amount of detail in them. My favorite piece I saw was the Collation from The Story of the Emperor of China Series. When I first went into the room where all the tapestries were I thought they were paintings at first glance. When I saw the one I mentioned before I didn’t understand how that could even be produced. The tapestry has a background with mountains in it, then the color was so numerous and vibrant it looked like someone painted it on there because of the complexity.
The one exhibit I enjoyed a lot which...