Gettin' Cultured at the Getty

On our way home from Malibu, we stopped at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles for a day of art and cultural refinement.  

The Getty is a great world-class art museum, architecturally exciting, family friendly, houses famous works by renowned artists, and best of all, its FREE.  My kind of place!

The boys participated in a hands-on art project where they learned about symbols in some old tapestries, then made their own block prints of their  own symbols.  

In the "Family Room"  kids get to play with art.  Here the boys are lounging on an elaborate bed.  Comfy?
Caleb copies and colors a butterfly.

One exhibit the kids really had a blast with was called "Please Be Seated."  When you sit in a chair, you see yourself on a monitor above you and it looks like you are sitting in a fancy room.  The kids had to try all the chairs and make funny faces.  And if you were wearing white you looked like all but your head and hands were invisible.

Too Cute!

Here is King Caleb sitting in his virtual royal bedroom.

The gardens at the Getty are art in themselves.

My favorite gallery of the museum was the 18th and 19th century paintings.  It has great works by Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Renoir, and the like.

I got excited when I saw this painting, entitled "Spring".  When I was in high school I went on a field trip to the other Getty, the Villa in Malibu. I loved it, and my favorite piece in the whole museum was this large painting of early Romans celebrating spring.  The photo is bad, but the flowers are perfectly detailed and literally pop off the canvas.  I loved it so much back then that I actually bought the poster there at the gift shop (not cheap for a teenager) and had it hanging inside my bedroom door for years.  Seeing it brought back a lot of memories, and I was surprised that I still liked it as much as I did then.  Its Italy, its feminine, its romantic, its flowery, its detailed - everything that I love!

The twins had to sit to take in this piece - there is a lot going on.

Van Gogh's "Irises" - one of the most expensive paintings in the world (sold for $54 million, but the guy couldn't come up with the cash).    I love this one!  Close enough to touch - but Dylan knows better.  He should because I said "don't touch" about 13 billion times in the course of a few hours.

I also loved the special traveling exhibit on the marble sculpture of Bernini.  No photographs allowed here.  It was amazing how he could take something as hard and cold as stone and make it look as warm and soft as silk, lace, hair, and human skin.  Remarkable to stand so close and study each piece.

I was really inspired and without kids I would have loved to spent a lot more time there.  I love art, and I want my kids to love art.  They had a really good time at the Getty, so that is a good sign.