Sunday, March 27, 2005
Getty up
Today I slept in, for Sydney time. I was awake at 5:30, 5:40, 5:50 and finally at 6:00, I got the message and got up. Of course, in Sydney it was probably 9:00 AM on Monday, so two hours beyond my usual waking time (for the last 2 months anyway) and I had turned out the lights (literally and figuratively) about 8:00 PM last night.
I had no trouble getting ready for my $42 bus ride to the Getty (return fare). Aside from the price, the big mistake I made was that my ride back required me to leave at 2:15. Apparently that's all the culture their average customer wants, and that way after the gruelling 4 hours at the Getty they get to go on other package tours such as a bus ride around famous peoples homes. In fact most of their customers appear not to be interested in the Getty at all. The bus depot was packed with buses and hordes of people, but only 3 of us went on my tour. When I complained about the 2:15 pickup, the driver assured me that after 4 hours of looking at paintings any normal person would want to leave (also implying that no real guy would want to go there in the first place). However he did know how much money the Getty foundation spent building the museum, $1.2 billion.
Whatever was spent, it is an amazing resource. The architecture itself is worth the visit, then there's the garden, also worth a glance, and, oh yeah, there's some art too. Most amazing of all is that it is free - even the audio handsets, if you choose to take one. In the galeries, the lighting is subdued but enough to see the objects and seems to be designed to avoid reflections so you don't have to struggle to see things, unlike many other galleries I've been to lately, and there have been a few. The interpretative signage is excellent, there are a number of guided tours with further interpretative info. I'm going on and on I know. It's great and I'm going back on Tuesday.
And the art.... Today I spent most of the time with looking at a special exhibit of the work of 19th century British photographer Roger Fenton. He was one of the early photographers who tried to take photography into the realm of fine art. After a decade or so, he quit photography because he couldn't make enough money from his art to live on and didn't want to to be simply a portrait photographer. Anyway, the images were inspiring, especially given the limited capabilities of the tools he had it his disposal.
The other exhibit I saw quickly (as I was running out of time) showed a collection of paintings by French painter Jacques-Louis David. He was a cohort of Napolean and the paintings shown reflect a lot of Napolean's reign and elites from that society and also some imaginary scenes from Greek classics. To my eye, his paintings have an element of realism (which I like) augmented with a kind of "unreal beauty" filter - to use a photographic analogy. I think I saw a couple of these works when I was in Paris years ago (although there were so many then, its hard to remember). Aside from those this was likely my only opportunity to see these works. Maybe I'll have another look on Tuesday, if I have time.
Well, aren't I blathering on. At least I'm sitting down, because my right knee is killing me. It's been bothering me occasionally this trip. I've assumed it was from too much walking since I've done a lot (partly to counteract the large amounts of beer and wine I've been drinking). For the past few days it has been getting worse. The only thing I can think of is that I haven't been drinking enough beer or wine. In fact, I haven't had a beer or glass of wine since my first meal on the plane. I intend to rectify that shortly - plus take a couple of advil.
TTFN - gotta go have supper...
I had no trouble getting ready for my $42 bus ride to the Getty (return fare). Aside from the price, the big mistake I made was that my ride back required me to leave at 2:15. Apparently that's all the culture their average customer wants, and that way after the gruelling 4 hours at the Getty they get to go on other package tours such as a bus ride around famous peoples homes. In fact most of their customers appear not to be interested in the Getty at all. The bus depot was packed with buses and hordes of people, but only 3 of us went on my tour. When I complained about the 2:15 pickup, the driver assured me that after 4 hours of looking at paintings any normal person would want to leave (also implying that no real guy would want to go there in the first place). However he did know how much money the Getty foundation spent building the museum, $1.2 billion.
Whatever was spent, it is an amazing resource. The architecture itself is worth the visit, then there's the garden, also worth a glance, and, oh yeah, there's some art too. Most amazing of all is that it is free - even the audio handsets, if you choose to take one. In the galeries, the lighting is subdued but enough to see the objects and seems to be designed to avoid reflections so you don't have to struggle to see things, unlike many other galleries I've been to lately, and there have been a few. The interpretative signage is excellent, there are a number of guided tours with further interpretative info. I'm going on and on I know. It's great and I'm going back on Tuesday.
And the art.... Today I spent most of the time with looking at a special exhibit of the work of 19th century British photographer Roger Fenton. He was one of the early photographers who tried to take photography into the realm of fine art. After a decade or so, he quit photography because he couldn't make enough money from his art to live on and didn't want to to be simply a portrait photographer. Anyway, the images were inspiring, especially given the limited capabilities of the tools he had it his disposal.
The other exhibit I saw quickly (as I was running out of time) showed a collection of paintings by French painter Jacques-Louis David. He was a cohort of Napolean and the paintings shown reflect a lot of Napolean's reign and elites from that society and also some imaginary scenes from Greek classics. To my eye, his paintings have an element of realism (which I like) augmented with a kind of "unreal beauty" filter - to use a photographic analogy. I think I saw a couple of these works when I was in Paris years ago (although there were so many then, its hard to remember). Aside from those this was likely my only opportunity to see these works. Maybe I'll have another look on Tuesday, if I have time.
Well, aren't I blathering on. At least I'm sitting down, because my right knee is killing me. It's been bothering me occasionally this trip. I've assumed it was from too much walking since I've done a lot (partly to counteract the large amounts of beer and wine I've been drinking). For the past few days it has been getting worse. The only thing I can think of is that I haven't been drinking enough beer or wine. In fact, I haven't had a beer or glass of wine since my first meal on the plane. I intend to rectify that shortly - plus take a couple of advil.
TTFN - gotta go have supper...
