Norway (Ululand) (detail), from Book of the Marvels of the World, about 1460–1465, Master of the Geneva Boccaccio. Colored washes, gold, and ink on parchment. Getty Museum
Table of Contents
NEWS & STORIES
7 weird things people believed about the world
Way before Lord of the Rings or Alice in Wonderland, there was the Book of the Marvels of the World: a collection of fantastical tales about supernatural beings from far-off lands.
Read on to find out what werewolves in Eurasia, and supernatural holes in Ireland tell us about cultural hegemony in the Middle Ages.
Ireland (Hibernia) (detail), about 1460–1465, Master of the Geneva Boccaccio. Colored washes, gold, and ink. Getty Museum
Rare, interactive books from 20th-century Russia
Reading Russian Futurist books is a participatory experinece: Poems change meaning as you read; abstract images take work to decipher.
Curator Nancy Perloff offers a close look at some of the most unique items in the Getty Research Institute’s extensive Russian modernist book collection.
Pomada (1913), features collage and imitation gold leaf. The cover art shows a winged barber above an androgynous figure that may represent a sex worker.
NEW ACQUISITION
A rediscovered Renaissance painting
Long believed to have been lost, this 16th-century painting was recently rediscovered. Getty acquired it yesterday. The painting will go on view in the coming weeks.
Stories on Ceramics: Time, Transformation, and Touch
Thursday, July 11, 12 pm
ONLINE ONLY
The exhibition Picture Worlds: Greek, Maya, and Moche Pottery brings together painted terracotta vessels from three distinct cultures. To explore what we can learn from seeing them side-by-side, three experts each select an example for close looking. Together, they address time, transformation, and touch in the depiction of mythical tales, and the powerful role these painted vessels play in the sharing of stories.
Art Break: An Armchair Traveler’s Guide to the Medieval World
Friday, July 12, 12 pm
ONLINE ONLY
Giant snails, dog-headed men, and ferocious dragons are just some of the marvels that appear in medieval accounts of locales far from Europe.
Curator Elizabeth Morrison and scholar Mark Cruse discuss accounts of distant places in the Middle Ages and what they reveal about society then and today.
Sri Lanka (Trapponee) (detail), from Book of the Marvels of the World, about 1460–1465, Master of the Geneva Boccaccio. Colored washes, gold, and ink on parchment. Getty Museum
Dancers on Film: Maren Hassinger
Thursday, July 18, 6 pm Getty Center
Join us for a screening of rare material by Maren Hassinger on the occasion of her archive being acquired by the Getty Research Institute.
Part of Getty’s African American Art History Initiative, the event will explore the artist’s ceaseless experimentation in video art, performance, and sculpture.
High school students from across L.A. present original stories that integrate text, movement, video, and music.
This is the culminating event of the Youth Theater Summer Intensive, a five-week program focused on theater arts, Greek and Mesoamerican mythologies, and themes from the exhibition Picture Worlds: Greek, Maya, and Moche Pottery.
This framed view in Guayaquil, Equador, is looking in, not out, making it feel slightly voyeuristic. But the door was open, inviting passersby to view.
I captured this on an iPhone 5 on an overcast day, which gave it a muted tone.
Have a window-framed scene “hanging” on your wall? Did you snap one somewhere else? Send us the photo! Include your name, camera used, location, and anything else you’d like to share at stories@getty.edu.
CONNECT WITH US
Subscribe to the podcast—hear artists in their own words with materials from the Getty Research Institute archives.
Social media
Follow us, learn about what we do, and tell us about your visit!
