“The new Getty Center. You can’t help but notice it. It overlooks the Sepulveda pass like an ostentatious king keeping watch over his dominion. This imposing monolith has been subject to so much hype that I figured visiting it would be an utterly unforgettable experience. Right?
Well, it was definitely unforgettable, but not in a good way. There were lines for the tram, the museum buildings, the exhibits, the bookstore: you name it, you’ll wait for it. For a long time.
But if people were willing to brave those torturously slow lines, I thought, there must be some great stuff behind those doors. Not so. The majority of the art was mediocre, a virtual waste of space. I expected to be wowed by Monet, Rembrandt, Degas. What I got was an excess of silly, overly embellished “decorative arts” (gilded furniture) and blah paintings by the obscure and talentless. And who wants to look at old manuscripts? This supposedly top-notch collection of medieval and Renaissance works put me to sleep.
Yet there were exceptions. The $53.9 million “Irises” by Van Gogh was on display and surrounded by starry-eyed Angelenos. Impressive was the massive “Christ’s Entry Into Brussels in 1889” by James Ensor, which began the history of Expressionism. Some of the Getty’s 65,000 photographs are on display. A particular stand-out is David Hockney’s “Pearblossom Highway 11-18th April 1996 #2,” an amalgam of 740 individual photographs massed together to create a single surreal entity.
Despite the mostly lame art, the Getty is still worth a visit, just to see what $1 billion and over eight years of construction could create. What stands out is 110 acres of ultramodern edifices constructed of 295,000 marble blocks, custom cut and shipped from Italy at a huge expense. The marble is so blindingly white that sunglasses are vital. The whole place is like a harsh and alienating space-age laboratory: no matter where you run, the cold stark stone casts its piercing eye upon you.
So turn your back on the Getty and gaze off into the L.A. basin. You can see the entire city in all its smoggy glory from atop the 862-foot hill. The view is the only thing that is utterly breathtaking. Bring your camera and your patience.”
