Press Materials

Once a simple wooden box with a primitive lens and cap for controlling light, the modern camera has undergone enormous change since its invention in the early nineteenth-century. Flexible film stocks, built-in light meters, motor drives, and megapixels are a few of the advancements that have transformed the way this ingenious device captures and preserves a moment in time. This display explores the evolution of the camera through the Museum’s collection of historic cameras and photographs. Curated by Paul Martineau.

ONLINE ONLY

Considered one of the most influential schools of art and design of the 20th century, the Bauhaus forged a unique educational vision that blended theory with practice in order to cultivate a new generation of artists and designers.

Conceived in tandem with the Getty Research Institute's gallery exhibition, the online exhibition Bauhaus: Building the New Artist offers an in-depth look into the school's novel pedagogy. Highlighting student explorations, masters' theories, and a variety of colorful media drawn from the GRI's archives, the project culminates with three interactive exercises inviting viewers to immerse themselves in surprising aspects of Bauhaus curriculum.

The Bauhaus was a German school of art and design whose brief yet highly influential existence rendered it a key site in the development of a new modern vision for arts education. Established in 1919 after the end of World War I, the Bauhaus sought to erode distinctions between crafts and the fine arts through a program of study centered on theory and practical experience.

Marking the one hundredth anniversary of the school’s opening, Bauhaus Beginnings investigates the school’s early commitment to spiritual expression, its innovative first-year curriculum, and its use of diverse media to introduce the work of students and masters to international audiences. The exhibition draws on the Getty Research Institute’s extensive collection of Bauhaus material—including course exercises, teaching aids and notes, and rare prints, drawings, and photographs—to offer a colorful and surprising reexamination of the founding principles of this landmark institution.

The illustration of written texts has provided artists with inspiration, and gainful employment, across the centuries. Presenting some of the most beautifully finished drawings and watercolors in the Getty collection, this exhibition explores illustration as a branch of artistic production in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Curated by Emily Beeny.

Photographers often record change through images in series, registering transformations in the world around them. Artists featured in the exhibition photographed faces and places over minutes, months, or years. Historical and contemporary photographs prompt reflection on the ways the passage of time impacts how we see people and spaces. Curated by Mazie Harris.