Job 1364: Fruit cake, 1952, Julius Shulman. Getty Research Institute, 2004.R.10
This month we delve into queer ephemera from the 80s and 90s in honor of World AIDS Day, listen to the sounds of Venezuela, and find out what it means to go viral in the Renaissance.
NEWS & STORIES
Building a Community Through Protests and Performance
In the 1980s and 1990s, queer communities endured the general neglect and avoidance of politicians and much of society. But activist art produced in these years helped draw public attention to this community’s right to health care as well as equal treatment in schools and the military. The messages expressed in these posters and flyers illustrate community-building strategies still relevant today.
Flier advertising the off-Broadway play My Pet Homo that premiered in 1990 at the Cooper Square Theater in the heart of East Village in New York City. Getty Research Institute, 2023.M.58
Dream of Darkness
In the upcoming horror game Dream of Darkness, players will assume the role of Marina—a character based on a real-life Indigenous Nahua woman enslaved by the Spanish during the early 16th century. To develop the game, Javier Rayón is consulting the newly digitized Florentine Codex, the encyclopedic 16th-century manuscript that includes the account of the conquest of Mexico told from an Indigenous Nahua perspective.
Character concept art of Marina from the game Dream of Darkness. Photo: Jaguar Games
EXHIBITION CLOSING SOON
Alfredo Boulton: Looking at Venezuela (1928–1978)
August 29, 2023–January 7, 2024
Getty Center, Research Institute
From joropo and salsa, to boleros and rock, this playlist encapsulates Venezuelan music from the 1940s to 1960s. From Gregorio Barrios’s cover of “Alma Llanera,” paying homage to the Venezuelan plains, to Alfredo Sadel’s “Diamante Negro,” dedicated to one of the country’s most important bullfighters, this soundtrack brings you into the sonic world of Alfredo Boulton.
Luis Sánchez Olivares, “El Diamante Negro,” no. 2 (Luis Sánchez Olivares, “The Black Diamond,” no. 2), 1952, Alfredo Boulton. Partial donation of the Alberto Vollmer Foundation. Getty Research Institute, 2021.M.1
EVENTS
Going Viral in the Renaissance featuring Stephanie Porras
Saturday, December 2, 2023, 4 pm – 5:30 pm Getty Center, Museum Lecture Hall
What do today’s TikTok dances and Renaissance prints have in common? In this talk, Stephanie Porras describes how early modern prints invited repetition and emulation, taking advantage of new media technologies and emerging global infrastructures long before the invention of the Internet. Examining how prints and other artworks were used as models by artists working across the early modern world, Porras reconstructs how such images were copied and, in doing so, challenges assumptions about artistic invention in Renaissance art. The talk will be followed by a wine and cheese reception.
Details from St. Michael the Archangel, from left to right: Hieronymus Wierix after Maerten de Vos, St Michael the Archangel, 1584, engraving published by Adriaen Huybrechts and Hieronymus Wierix. London, British Museum; Cristóbal Vela Cobo, St Michael the Archangel, ca. 1631, oil on canvas. Museo de Bellas Artes, Cordoba; Hispano-Philippine, St Michael the Archangel, ca. 1630, ivory with polychromy and gilding. Mexico City, Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe; Limeño, St Michael the archangel with donor, ca. 1630, oil on canvas. Lima, San Pedro
Music & Design: Mid-Century Venezuela
Saturday, December 9, 2023, 3 pm Getty Center, Museum Courtyard and Lecture Hall
Join us for a live jazz performance and talk celebrating the exhibition, Alfredo Boulton: Looking at Venezuela (1928–1978). Led by musician Aaron Serfaty, the Latin jazz quartet will perform Venezuelan music of the mid-20th century. Following the performance, curators Jorge Rivas Pérez and Idurre Alonso will discuss Boulton’s use of mid-century modern and historical Venezuelan traditions in the design of his house in Pampatar on Margarita Island, as well as his legacy as an important intellectual in Latin America.
Following the talk, guests are welcome to view the exhibition and enjoy complimentary bites and a hosted bar.
Pampatar (la casa) (Pampatar [the house]), ca. 1954, Alfredo Boulton. Partial donation of the Alberto Vollmer Foundation. Getty Research Institute, 2021.M.1
NEW FOR RESEARCHERS
Joseph Cornell letters to Susanna De Maria Wilson, 1963-1968, undated
American artist Joseph Cornell (1903-1972) was a pioneer in collage and assemblage art. His assemblages were crafted from items discovered in book shops and thrift stores, artfully arranged in the setting of simple shadow boxes. In his correspondence, the envelopes, and letters themselves bore a distinct visual character. This is exemplified in the letters Cornell sent to Susanna De Maria Wilson, the wife of sculptor Walter De Maria, who also worked as an assistant to Cornell.
Joseph Cornell letter to Susanna De Maria Wilson, 1968, Getty Research Institute, 2014.M.30
PUBLICATIONS
East Asian Aesthetics and the Space of Painting in Eighteenth-Century Europe
Isabelle Tillerot Translated by Chris Miller
This volume offers an insightful look at how East Asian notions of space transformed Western painting. It is the first critical account of how European imports of East Asian textiles, porcelain, and lacquers, along with newly published descriptions of the Chinese garden, inspired a revolution in the role of painting in early modern Europe. With particular focus on French interiors, Isabelle Tillerot reveals how a European enthusiasm for East Asian culture and a demand for novelty transformed the dynamic between painting and decor.
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