Have you ever heard of the comedian Brian Regan? He’s my favorite because he takes everyday things that are super relatable and makes them hilarious.
For example: feeling out of place in a conversation about art.
As someone who isn’t knowledgeable about art, I can very much relate when he jokes about walking up to a group of people, immediately realizing their conversation is well over his head, and saying, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, may I still stand here?”
(If you’re interested in hearing the entire skit, click here and start at 3:20.)
The thing is, if it’s about art, I probably don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not completely clueless. I can appreciate the time and effort and talent that goes into creating works of art. But I’m not the type to stand there contemplating it and I’m not terribly interested in learning about the different styles of art or the history of each piece.
So when my sister initially mentioned visiting both the Getty Center and the Getty Villa, I wasn’t entirely certain I would enjoy either one.
As it turns out, I enjoyed both.
The Getty Center and the Getty Villa are part of the Getty Museum, founded in the mid-1900s by oil baron J. Paul Getty. He was one of the wealthiest men in the world throughout his life and spent a large sum of money on art and antiquities. After his death, his trust was used to establish both museums as well as a research institute and conservation institute.
The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood neighborhood, on a hillside overlooking Los Angeles. Parking is just off the 405, and the museum itself can only be reached by taking a tram from the parking lot up to the complex. We arrived fairly early in the morning and fog obscured much of the view, but throughout the day we caught glimpses of the city through the low-hanging clouds.
The Getty Center contains mostly European art, including paintings, sculptures, housewares, and furniture. The most famous items are Van Gogh’s Irises and a handful of paintings by Monet. There are usually a couple temporary exhibits on display as well; for us, it was a collection of illuminated manuscripts and an exhibit entitled Porcelain from Versailles. Photos are allowed in the exhibits (and boy did I take too many) but flashes are not; pictures of some of my favorite items are below.
We spent the morning here, walking through all the exhibits but not stopping to read every sign or admire every single item, and for us that worked. However, you could easily spend an entire day here if you wanted to read and admire everything.
(By the way, the Getty Center was the filming location for the episode of The Good Place where they finally actually entered the good place.)
The Getty Villa, on the other hand, is located in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, at the base of the Santa Monica Mountains.
This was the location of Getty’s house, and the original Getty Museum was actually a gallery adjacent to his home. When his collection outgrew that space, the Getty Villa was built just down the hill. The design is inspired by ancient Roman architecture — specifically, it’s a reconstruction of the Villa dei Papiri, a residence buried by the eruption of Vesuvius — and today, the museum houses a collection of ancient Greek and Roman art, including a handful of items that are over 4000 years old!
We spent an afternoon touring the Getty Villa (not the same day as our visit to the Getty Center – I wouldn’t recommend doing both on the same day) and once again found that to be a sufficient amount of time to see everything but not read everything. Entry to both Getty museums is free, though a timed-entry reservation is required and you have to pay for parking.
The earliest known civilizations in Africa lived in a region called Nubia, located along the Nile in present-day Egypt and Sudan. A series of kingdoms known collectively as the Kingdoms of Kush flourished here for nearly 3000 years. In more recent years, many pieces of fine jewelry, among other relics, have been excavated. Some were on display here in a traveling exhibit titled Jewels of Ancient Sudan.
(For the record, I’d never even heard of Nubia. My history education was severely lacking, so it was nice to learn the history associated with the various collections.)
The Getty Villa is located just off California Highway 1, otherwise known as the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). Driving the entire highway is something that remains on my bucket list, but at least now I can say I’ve traveled part of it.
After departing the Getty Villa, we headed west on the PCH to Point Dume. Though within the boundaries of the Santa Monica Mountains National Rec Area, Point Dume is actually owned and managed by the state and requires a small parking fee. From the parking lot, a trail climbs to the top of the bluffs and circles around, providing 360° views.
It was so bizarre to be standing amongst cacti while looking out over the ocean. To me, those are two completely different ecosystems that shouldn’t be able to exist adjacent to each other. Apparently, they do.
After enjoying the views from the top, we spent a few minutes down on the beach itself. It’s been a “rule” in my family for as long as I can remember that when you’re at a body of water, no matter the temperature, you have to at least stick your hand into it. But it’d been years since I’d seen the Pacific Ocean so I decided I was going to go one step further and stick my feet in.
And finally, for lack of a better place to put it, I’m going to end my Los Angeles series with a quick blurb about food. My sister prepared most meals for us in advance, but we did eat a couple meals out.
The first was dinner at In-n-Out, a California-based fast food burger joint that people are absolutely obsessed with. The first two locations opened in Colorado a couple years ago and the drive-thru line is still often over an hour long. In fact, they had to redo the traffic pattern outside one of the restaurants because cars were backing up onto major streets.
Long story short, the bar was set extremely high. If people are willing to wait for hours, this must be a damn good burger.
Fortunately, we just had to wait a few minutes for our food (I’ll never understand why people will choose to sit in an enormous drive-thru line when it’s so much faster to just walk inside and order).
And you know what? I don’t get it.
At all.
I mean, it was a good burger, and the fries were pretty tasty. But I would not wait in line more than 10-15 minutes for it.
For my final meal in Los Angeles, my sister took me to a local favorite of hers called Porto’s, an authentic Cuban bakery and restaurant with a delicious, extensive, and relatively inexpensive menu. We shared an order of the potato balls as an appetizer and for our main course I ordered the Cuban sandwich and my sister the pesto sandwich. I also ordered a dulce de leche latte and for dessert we shared a strawberry pistachio tart and a slice of carrot cake.
It was delicious, it was far too much food for just one meal, and it was only about $30!
(And in case you’ve ever wondered, half-eaten Porto’s sandwiches are allowed through airport security.)
All in all, it was the perfect final taste of Los Angeles!
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