The Getty Museum

I went to the Getty Museum December of last year with my boyfriend. I decided I'd use this experience because it wasn't too far away, so it's still rather fresh, and also because I haven't been able to go back since then. We made sure to go past 5pm because parking is free, which also gives enough time to go around the galleries, although perhaps not all of them or as thoroughly as I wanted to. Needless to say, we saw almost everything and at a good pace.
I would like to state how beautiful the museum looks, especially the view that you get while riding the tram up to the center of the museum, as well as when you go out to the balconies or the graden they have. The sites are beautiful.

One of my favorite exhibits was that of Irving Penn. He was a renounced photographer of the 20th century, and the exhibit that I saw at the Getty was called Small Trades, which were photographs that were taken in London, Paris, and New York around early 1950's, and that captured the different professions including the attires that were worn at the time. The reason for my liking of the exhibition is simply because as a 21st century young adult, I have never been exposed to the old professions - I say "old professions" but it's incredible that they were around not even 70 years ago, and now some of those no longer exist, or have been taken over by machines/computers. I believe some of the professions that I remember seeing that are no longer practiced or nearly extinction are: the milkman, the road sweeper, charwomen, the seamstress fitter, and the chimney man.

I'm sure there are a lot more that I've missed, but those are a few. Isn't it amazing how we don't really have those professions in practice anymore? Nowadays, those professions have been taken over by machines, computers, or corporations. For example, we don't have the milkman going around providing his community with milk, now everyone goes to the grocery store. Or how about the seamstress fitter? Everyone gets their clothes at Target, JC Penny, Macy's, etc. unless it's a real important occasion like a wedding or a Quinceanera.

This was by far my most favorite exhibition in the Getty.
Among other things that we saw that night, was the making of a Bronze Sculpture, where they had examples and brief descriptions of the the whole process starting with modeling, casting, and the finishing touches. It was quite interesting. We also visited the other pavilions with various other exhibitions that mainly contained paintings from various centuries. Personally, I found the Reinassence and Baroque exhibitions a little bit redundant and I found myself worn out after an hour or so of seeing almost the same subject, and what subject am I talking about? Well mainly Christianity and Greek Mythology. Yes, perhaps some people will be very displeased if they read what I'm saying, but I don't particularly get awed by the same repetition of subject for centuries. Couldn't they paint something more interesting? Didn't anything else inspired their lives and paintings but religion and mythology? Well given the time period these paintings were created and the culture of Western Europe at the time - probably not. But still...

Anyway, I did find a painting in one of the exhibits that were based on a later time period that completely fascinated me, and I'm not sure exactly why. It was Manet's Rue Mosnier a Parisian painter who created this work of art in 1878.



Upon analyzing this painting, I find myself drawn to the veteran - the man to the bottom-left that is missing a leg, who is ironically walking on the same streets he probably helped save, whose flags wave furiously with pride - but at what cost? That poor veteran lost his leg in the name of patriotism and who knows what psychological conflicts he might have gone through or is going through. I think it's a powerful painting that speaks out for those who have experienced war at a personal level.

I believe this will conclude my Museum Entry. It was a rather interesting experience, and I would like to go back, especially since I'm pretty sure they have a Manuscript exhibition now, and I remember I wanted to go see that when I last went there.

The Art Walk Follow-Up

My Art Walk Follow-Up is based on the Object Gallery. I was able to talk to the curator of the gallery about the intriguing works of art that resided in there. One that caught my attention was Greg Lynn's Toy Furniture: Dog Shelf.






The exhibitions at Object Gallery promoted the concept of reusing or recycling objects into art. Obviously this isn't a new idea, but it has a purpose. What they're doing is borrowing and using recycled-unwanted objects to create a new and in this case, useful object. This type of art is probably speaking out about issues regarding environmental consciousness.

The curator gave me an article that talked about the particular art work that I had been interested in. As you can see in the pictures above, the article talks a little bit about Greg Lynn's recycled toy furniture.

Apparently Greg Lynn has won the golden lion for the best installation project in the international exhibition at the Biennale, for a series of furniture made from recycled children toys. In this article they've interviewed the Lynn himself, where he says 'my father worked for a corporation which produced blister packages, plastics were the future and I was surrounded by it. Now, almost half century later petroleum-based commodities are becoming new luxury items. I have two kids and they consume toys. I recycle their unused toys into 'bricks' to create furniture and usable objects.'

The curator of the gallery rapidly explained how the recycling design and process was done. He said something about scanning the toys and putting them into a computer, and with a special software, they're defined, cut, and joined back into whatever shape the artist is trying to make.

One last thing before I finish with the post. The curator asked what class I was in, so I told him it was Philosophy of the Arts taught in Pomona, and he said it was a wonderful thing Professor Manley was doing.

The experience at this Object gallery was great!

The Art Walk

My Art Walk experience was at the Art's Colony in Downtown Pomona. My first stop was a subterranean gallery called 57 Underground. Come to think of it, I remember seeing some of my classmates there, but I proceeded to look at the art walk with my friend that had come with me for the occasion. At this gallery, I found several pieces of art that caught my attention, such as:




First: by Janet Adams; Second: by Janice DeLoof
However, my absolute favorite in that gallery was:

Kathy Breaux
"Adobe"
Acrylic & Golden Leaf

What first element that drew me to this painting, are the colors, and the swirly-Van Gogh-like sky.
I've always been drawn to cool colors such as these. The whole painting gives me a sense of calmness or relaxation. The shade created by the building is rather inviting, even though like I said before, everything seems still and calm. However, if you look closely, you can see that the light inside the very last window to the right of the building is lit. I'm assuming that the title "Adobe", refers to the clay with with the building is made out of. Overall, this painting is rather soothing and pleasing to my eyes.

After having walked around 57 Underground my friend and I walked around the various streets of downtown Pomona, seeking more galleries or interesting places to see. At one point we stopped at a restaurant/bar place called Joey's BBQ Gallery. I think the gallery part of the title was a little misleading because there weren't that many art works to look at, and they were without a title or the artist's name. They just seemed to be hanging on the walls as decorative pieces just like in any restaurant/bar, however, the art pieces where nice, and the environment in general seemed lively. Moving along the streets of Pomona my friend and I went back down Main St. and nearby areas, while appreciating all the street art that we would encounter such as:

(We took more, but I really don't know where they are!)
As you can see, no title - no author, but quite awesome nonetheless.

We then came upon the Object Gallery. The gallery had a lot of what I thought were weird shaped art works, but it turns out they were made out of recycled kid toys or other objects. Here are some of the works we saw:

Greg Lynn
Toy Furniture: Dog Shelf















After visiting this intriguing gallery, our final stop was the dA Center for the Arts.
This gallery was way bigger than the other ones we had visited. And there were definitely way more people in this one than in the other ones. It seemed like this was the "hot" gallery of Pomona (at least that night). There were a lot of interesting art works, and not only the labeled ones caught my attention, but also some that had no author or title such as:



We also took pictures of some of the exhibits that caught our attention:


(Top:Pending Title and Author)


By: Keving Stewart - Flood #1, Flood #2, Flood #3

This particular series of paintings of the "Flood", was one of the most interesting art works in the gallery. From what I read on the label next to it, this is an homage to Thomas Hat Benton's "Flood" series. The questions these paintings rise are some like: How will this small and fragile village recover? How will the farm look after the flood? And so on. I think it brings a sense of recovery from a tragic experience. Sure tragedies occur everywhere and are unexpected, but one must remember that they'll pass, and we must stand up again and rebuild whatever was lost or damaged. And I'm not talking about material things only, but rather intangible abstract things, such as our thoughts and the very elements that compose our particular lives.

This concludes my experience of the Art Walk in Pomona. Part of the assignment was to interview an artist about their art work, unfortunately, I had no luck with being able to talk to an artist. Either they were busy talking to someone else, or in the case of dA Gallery, there were so many people either listening to an all female band that was playing, or talking in small groups to one another, not to mention that I had no idea how to spot the artist itself. No one was close to a particular painting, to be able to tell. Nonetheless, I found the whole experience fascinating, and it gave me some richness for personal growth.