Getty Glow-Up & "Mai" Debut
Installation view of gallery E204, "Dutch Landscapes and Interiors" The Getty Museum has reinstalled five painting galleries in its East Pavilion and opened a West Pavilion room celebrating the first Los Angeles showing of Joshua Reynolds' Portrait of Mai. The Reynolds portrait, of the first known Polynesian visitor to England, was acquired jointly with the National Portrait Gallery, London, in 2023. Gallery W102, "Joshua Reynolds and 18th-Century Portraiture" This is the year of thematic installations of L.A. museum collections. The Getty's upper-level East Pavilion galleries are now installed thematically in what I'd imagine is a preview for the whole museum after its pending year-long closure (Mar. 15, 2027 through spring 2028). "Thematic" means different things to different curators. Anyone burnt out on Geffen gray and Lucas hypercube white will find walls of plum, teal, and Prussian blue. Each room has a theme that is declared and exp...
