Monuments: Part I — The Getty Center

Join Catherine Hess for a two-part program, Nov. 1 and 15, to consider the concept of sculptural monuments. Central to the program is one of the boldest art exhibitions to appear in Los Angeles this year: MONUMENTS, co-organized and co-presented by The Brick and The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). MONUMENTS brings together a selection of decommissioned monuments–many Confederate–with contemporary artworks borrowed and newly created for the occasion. The exhibition will elicit issues that are particularly relevant to current events.

In preparation for MONUMENTS, we visit the J. Paul Getty Museum with Catherine Hess to study a selection of Old Master sculptures that take on monument-like functions as objects of glorification, propaganda, and commemoration. We will explore how composition, material, and size affect meaning.