Our Trip to the Getty Museum

Part of my recent trip west included a trip to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The last time I was there my girlfriend took me to the Getty Villa, and it was incredible. But while I was there I found out that van Gogh's Irises was at the Getty Museum and I was determined to see it!

My opportunity arrived this month, and of course I went with family in tow. When we entered the main galleries, my daughters were excited to see a large Giacometti sculpture. They were tugging on me, and shouting "Mom, Mom, it's Giacometti!" I have to say, this was a great moment. We had created sculptures inspired by Giacometti, and they were proud to be able to recognize it, and to get a closer look.

 We checked the daily schedule and my older daughter found that the museum was offering a family sketch class, so we signed up for it. The theme was nature, so we were guided through a gallery of tapestries to sketch, and then out into the gardens of the museum. It was great fun, and the museum provided sketch books, drawing and watercolor pencils for us all to keep. It was such a great experience and so generous of the museum. Bravo Getty!

And yes, I did get to see van Gogh! Along with other great painters like  Pissarro, Degas, Renoir, Cezanne and Monet. It was a great day for art, family and children. I can't stress enough how enriching a trip to a museum can be! Make time to visit and enjoy it with children.

The Completed Giacometti Sculptures

Here are some of the completed Giacometti sculptures. The children really took to this project and were so productive. If the stages are messy, tactile and fun, I think we can accomplish anything!

Our sculptures grouped together and compared with the master.

Heavy Walker

Tall Female

 Arms Wide Open

Low and Lazy

Giacometti Sculptures

My students and I worked as sculptors and created figures inspired by Alberto Giacometti. We talked about how the figures made us feel. They are tall, lonely, and held to their bases with heavy feet. They are textural and monochromatic. I showed them photographs of the artist with his works and they could see how he looked like his artwork. We then talked about the process of casting a metal sculpture and one of my students wanted to know why we weren't going to do our sculptures that way. Since my studio doesn't have the capacity for a foundry, I made things up to them by letting the paint their sculptures with metallic acrylic paint.

We each started with an 8" square base of corrugated cardboard and four 12" lengths of light garden wire to create an armature. I've seen this lesson done with pipe cleaners as well, but I just couldn't cover them up! We began by placing the legs onto the base where we thought our figure should stand, and then poked the wires through the base, bent about a 1/2 " of wire flat long the bottom, and taped it there. These two lengths of wire became the bottom of the torso and legs. The third length became the arms, and the fourth was shaped into the head, neck, and upper torso. Next we took large pieces of aluminum foil and molded them around the wire armature to flesh out the figure's shape. The final stages were to wrap the foil with strips of plaster gauze to harden and solidify the sculpture and then to add a coat of acrylic paint. The children got to choose from copper and bronze. The final projects are coming up on my next post!