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Michele and I had a meeting with some folks at the Getty today, and it ended up being quite the interesting visit. Maybe I was in a good, post-got-that-grant-in-the-mail mood, or maybe it was the overpowering power of the GRI Exhibition Gallery that just ices any cake, but I was primed for viewing. Maybe it’s because I made a pile of chilaquiles for breakfast. Maybe it was because my visit to the Getty began by taking a quick survey for which I received a free glitter filled Getty novelty pen (check out the awsomely frilly skirt on this survey wrangler). Who knows. So, below, I sum up.

Manet’s Bar at the Foiles-Bergere

This isn’t my forte, but it’s worth noting that this show consists of a single object, in a lone, dark red gallery, accompanied by a mirror on the opposite wall. There’s a fantastically informative pamphlet (with a great diagram showing the various perspectives in the painting), but the installation and the piece seemed really confusing to viewers, especially the mirror. Interesting, but a strange and somewhat alienating installation.

Recent History: Photographs by Luc Delahaye

Of particular interest is his large format image of the Palestine hotel in Baghdad, home to an isolated and out of it journalistic corps. The hotel and the army of satellite trucks that surround it dominates the painting, and the sweep of Baghdad behind it seems almost sleepy, except for two distant and rising columns of smoke, locking our awareness into the place and time of the image.

The body of his work is of the same deep impact and significance. We’d probably be living in a more informed and impassioned world if major newspapers simply printed full color images of his work, with little more explanation than the titles, rather than the gibberish that currently goes for news. This is a don’t miss exhibition - I really wished that there was more of his work on display.

Defining Modernity: European Drawings, 1800-1900

Lots of “behind the scenes” drawings and sketches by a host of early modernists. I’m only mentioning this because of one image, in a sub section of the show devoted to “non-drawing” media, of an unknown painter by an unknown photographer from the dawn of the photographic era. One of the most thought provoking objects I’ve come across in a while, and a really simple and humble gesture.

Oudry’s Painted Menagerie

I watched the PBS special on the restoration and I really didn’t have too much interest in seeing this, but I was there, and it was free, so I’d be an ass not to check it out. What a surprise. It’s really two shows, one an exhibition of the Painted Menagerie, centered around the restored painting of Clara the rhinoceros, and another show, all about the rhinoceros craze that swept Europe. The animal paintings are interesting, and seeing them together (they’re really well installed, great flow and layout) is cool, but you just get sucked into the general rhino action in the second half of the exhibition. By the time you walk out, you’re just in love with Clara, who’s career as “exhibition rhinoceros” took her all across the European continent.

Oh, and the show has a blog, too.

Evidence of Movement

Once again, the GRI Exhibition Gallery is the best curated space in the Universe. Michele said it - after the Art, Anti-Art, Non-Art show, how were they going to top themselves? Well, I don’t know if they’ve topped themselves, but they’re definitely keeping up the pace that they’ve set for themselves. This show doesn’t have a catalog like the last one, and the installation is sparser, but it holds up. Instead of a catalog, they have nice one sheet folded newspaper - excellent design, and it has a full back poster of Tehching Hsieh and Linda Montano’s Art/Life One Year Performance 1983 - 1984 piece. It’s focused and uncluttered - you have real intimacy with each piece and project they’ve included in the show.

I’m a little tired, and having trouble articulating my joy, but I am joyful. I’ve become more passionate about two things lately - documentary photography and performance art, in no small part due to the last GRI show. So when I heard that they were doing this show, I was hot with anticipation. The selection of works is awesome, and the quality of the images and objects is top notch.

There’s a large section devoted to the Vienna Actionists, with a ton of Hermann Nitsch images. I was fortunate (from a people watching point of view) to share the gallery with a trip of over-perfumed, aging socialites and hearing them try, try to seem sophisticated about Nitsch’s work and at the same time expressing profound disgust was a performance in itself. There’s some really amazing images, including a proof sheet from Nitsch’s 1978 performance in Los Angeles, a rare and unrepeated event. I was amazed to learn that in the year of my birth that for $2 you could see Nitsch perform in Venice, what a crazy, crazy bargain/opportunity.

I haven’t had much time to listen to it, but the real highlight of the exhibition is the audio content, which is available online. There’s a telephone in the gallery (I believe it’s the Yoko Ono telephone from the last show, on the same small table, re-purposed) From 1976 - 1979, KPFK broadcast a series of experimental radio programs with artists and performance artists called Close Radio - you can listen to all of the Close Radio content on line, and you can subscribe to the podcast here. Now everyone who rides in my car for the next few months is going to either be really pleased or really irritated, since I have a feeling I’ll be immersing myself.

The Getty BLT

Yes, I’m mixing obsessions here. The Getty makes a mean BLT, even if it costs an arm and a leg. This thing had a ton of bacon on it, and the tomatoes were good. That potato salad meant serious business, too. Those onion rings hiding in the background were good to go as well - nice portion size too.

Friday Off the 405

I’m not really one to get the peanut butter of DJs and drinks in the chocolate of my art viewing, but it looks like the Getty gets packed to the gills on Friday nights. Hipsters and beautiful people galore, really packing the place for what looked like a great cheap date and good time. Somehow I was surprised. There were at least two cash bars running, with multiple lines each, although it was early, and they weren’t doing much business. I liked the freak and hippie crowd at the De Young late night a bit more - too much sunglasses and dudes wearing their “maybe I’ll get laid” vintage T-shirt for me to not feel weird and out of place. The DJ was solid, if lonely looking, though. And the galleries were as empty as I’ve ever seen them, a great time for viewing - looks like the party crowd is more into the outdoors than the collection.

As we were leaving there were lines on the tram, and a half mile of cars trying to get into the parking garage. Driving out of the parking garage was like a demolition derby in a concrete tunnel, lots of dangerously frustrated folks dueling over parking spaces. Good times…

Technorati Tags: Getty, Getty Center, GRI, Hermann Nitsch, art, art museum, BLT, Manet, Luc Delahaye, rhinoceros, Oudry