Dive into that “more art” New Year’s resolution with these stories, shows, and events

Five conservation projects that safeguarded art

On any given day, you can find Getty’s art conservators wielding tiny brushes to sweep away dust from sculptures or using cotton balls to wipe yellowed varnish from paintings. It’s all in the name of preserving the artists’ vision and ensuring their works can be enjoyed for years to come. As we ease into a new year, learn about five recently completed projects to protect and conserve art.

From a tiny horse to a 13-foot bronze

How do you spot an Impressionist painting?

In a new Becoming Artsy video, Jessie offers fascinating facts about Impressionism and identifies several hallmarks of Impressionist works. Did you know that the invention of ready-made paint contributed to the movement’s flowering?

Get impressed

New photographs mix things up

The Getty Center installation Remix: Recent Acquisitions of Photographs features eight contemporary artists who incorporate African cultural objects into their images, drawing attention to Africa’s influence on European art of the early 20th century. “This installation highlights Getty’s commitment to expanding the scope and diversity of artists and subjects in our photography collection,” says Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle director of the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Learn more about this show

Powerful women in medieval books

Throughout the Middle Ages, affluent women expressed their social and political power as well as their piety by commissioning luxurious art objects. Several of the manuscripts in Getty’s collection contain images of these influential women, offering vivid glimpses into how they expressed their roles and identities in medieval society.

Status signaling in medieval times

Intimate Addresses: Recording Artists Live

Saturday, January 27, 5:00–7:00 pm

Getty Center, Museum Lecture Hall

Getty’s archives are filled with artists’ letters that reveal how they related to friends, lovers, colleagues, and gallerists. Join the host of Getty’s podcast Recording Artists: Intimate Addresses for a conversation about some of the 20th century’s most influential artists as told through their private correspondence.

Learn more and get free tickets

Book talk with Justin Torres at the Hammer Museum

Thursday, January 11, 7:30 pm

Hammer Museum

Justin Torres’ Blackouts secured the 2023 National Book Award for its raw storytelling, described as a “shimmering, fable-like novel” by the Washington Post. Digging into the obscured stories from the 1941 report “Sex Variants: A Study of Homosexual Patterns,” Torres crafts a thrilling literary journey.

Join Torres and UCLA professor Mona Simpson for a reading and discussion

Did you know…

…that wigs for men were a huge trend in 18th-century France? Painter Claude-Joseph Vernet even hired a wigmaker (perruquier) to comb, powder, and plump his wigs and those of his father-in-law three times a week. The wigmaker also tended to his eldest son’s wigs twice a week and provided occasional wig services for the youngest son, the future painter Carle Vernet. Why all the wigs? Find out in a fun new book about 18th-century French artists’ intriguing personal possessions.