Last time, my daughter, son and grandkids went to The Academy Museum.
This day my sister, her fellow and my son went to The Getty Museum which is in West Los Angeles. It’s on top of a hill overlooking LA and the parking is in an underground parking garage. It was huge and packed so I thought how many people are going to be in the museum? We had a timed reservation to get in, but it was free admission, would you believe – we just had to pay for parking. From the parking garage you ride a shuttle to the museum so it stands out atop a hill with no cars to obscure the it’s magnificent architecture. Visitors from all over the world visit here so we heard many language we didn’t understand.
It’s a very cool modern looking building with five two-story pavilions with hundreds of pre-20th-century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculptures, and decorative arts, and photographs. It’s the personal collection of business man and art collector J. Paul Getty (oil billionaire – richest man in the world at the time of his death in 1976). The grounds and gardens are beautiful with a panoramic view of LA.
Getty wanted to share his art with the public and saw “art as a civilizing influence in society.” In one of the pavilions there are Baroque room exhibits which are fit for a king — gorgeous furnishings surrounded by all the architectural detail to give them a look of opulence.
My son and I view art at the same pace so we stayed together as my sister lagged behind taking photos (allowed in this museum) and soaking in the beauty.
I read where the Getty Museum campus cost $1.3 billion and opened to the public in 1997.
My son and I happened upon one of the guided tours and stood in the back for a few minutes to hear detailed history of an artist and his work. I’ve visited many museums and this was one was very well designed with plenty of space, lighting and seating to accommodate everyone.
I think we only had about three hours before the museum closed for the day, so you have to maintain a pace or you won’t get through it all. My sister and her fellow were somewhere behind us, but my son and I did get through them all and out to the garden area to see the Maze Pond with azaleas in bloom.
We couldn’t get a hold of my sister right away — her phone was dead. Luckily they do have places to charge up your phone so we found her just in time to hurry to the cafe food court area. There were several food choices from sushi to burgers and fries. We only had 10 minutes to spare before the restaurant’s food lines closed down, but the seating area stayed open. We all thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the museum and wished we had another day to see it all.
There is another Getty Museum in Malibu called the Getty Villa and earlier in the week my brother and I stopped by there while running errands, but realized it was going to take hours to see so we only stayed a short time hoping to return but we ran out of time.
The next day my brother and I flew out of LA, but the rest of the family stayed one more night before heading home. It was a great vacation!
