Press Materials

Photographs by 35 Los Angeles-based artists challenge ideals of beauty, representation, cultural capital, and objectivity. The artists in this exhibition, primarily people of color, have radically transformed photography to express their own aesthetics, identities, and narratives. Their work is foundational for an emerging generation of artists participating in the Getty Unshuttered program, which engages teens to seek photography as a platform to amplify social topics that resonate in their own lives. Guest curated by jill moniz.

The product of several craftsmen including a joiner (woodworker) and an upholsterer, this extraordinary French armchair embodies the era’s refined sense of comfort and style. Made in Paris for an elite patron, its sumptuous appearance is striking, from its deep, brocaded-silk cushion stuffed with swan and goose feathers to the gold foil on its brass tacks. Despite its fragility, the chair has survived nearly unaltered over the centuries. Curated by Charissa Bremer-David.

Medieval power structures included royal courts, the church, city governments, and even universities. Although positions of authority were usually inherited, leaders were expected to embrace justice, a virtue associated with godly rule, and tyranny, a vice that ensured downfall and chaos. Social and legal hierarchies exposed in manuscript illumination underscore the tenuous place of women, the poor, and other “out-groups.” Examples of good and bad government reveal the constant struggle between base human instincts and loftier ideals. Curated by Elizabeth Morrison, Kristen Collins, Larisa Grollemond, and Bryan Keene.

Artists were the earliest and greatest collectors of drawings. Celebrated painters including Giorgio Vasari, Thomas Lawrence, and Edgar Degas were passionate collectors, and their appetites for drawings by old and contemporary masters compelled them to acquire exceptional examples of draftsmanship by artists such as Raphael, Rembrandt, and Delacroix. Not just a tool for the making of works of art, drawings were valued as intellectual property, coveted rarities, and powerful status symbols. Curated by Stephanie Schrader and Casey Lee.