The Getty

Today, with my cousin and my parents, we went to The Getty Center. For those of you who don't know what the Getty Center is, it's basically a very big art gallery with some of the world's most famous paintings, sculptures, and photographs.

It was actually a pretty cool place, especially for me since I had never been to an art gallery this big filled with famous paintings before. (I have only been to the small art gallery in Vancouver.)

I was quite thrilled to see one of my favorite paintings, the Dancer Taking a Bow (or The Prima Ballerina) by Edgar Degas.

Although I was particularly interested in the paintings and the sculptures, there was also a lot of extremely intricate furniture from Europe, from all the time periods between 1500 and 1800. They were actually quite interesting, and it was actually really fun to spot the tiny little faces and other details on the desks or the jugs or the cabinets. There were all kinds of furniture that looked so fancy they belonged at a fine palace. The fabrics of the furniture looked like they took years to make. They were all such majestic looking colors; it reminded me very much of Marie Antoinette. Seeing all of this furniture helped me to imagine how where she lived was a very grand place indeed. The Getty had a bed so big that I was led to believe that king size beds were made in early France.

The Getty center itself was actually a great work of art. The architecture of the building was really quite modern and simple, but in a very sophisticated way, if that makes any sense to you at all. The entire building was done in marble and other rock, making it look quite like no other building. I really like the way it looked.

One thing I noticed was that there was a whole lot of security in the building. There was a security officer in almost every single room. They watched you like a hawk while you went around the room, and if the tip of your jacket touched a square inch of a table that was holding up a sculpture or something, they would come over and sternly tell you to step back. I understand that something catastrophic could probably happen if they didn't do this, but I personally find it the slightest bit annoying. You're trying to get a closer look at the sculpture (that is in a glass case, by the way) and the secutirty guard rushes over and pulls you back, gesturing with his or her hands how far you have to stay from the artwork. So you nod your head and have to apologize and state that you understand and then apologize again. I guess that they're so bored staring at people looking at stuff all they that they do the only thing they were meant to do extremely well.

All in all, I was really glad that I got the chance to visit The Getty, for I really did have a splendid time there; it is definitely a place worth going. Maybe when you fellow readers go, you'll see some paintings that you recognize too!

Anyways, bye bye until next time, and thank you for tuning in!