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Westside Landmarks of Art
Westside Landmarks of Art
Journey to two famous museums: one grand in scale and reputation; the other, an intimate modern building with a small, yet robust collection. In between the two is one of the most impressive sculpture gardens in North America.
This trip, accessible by the 761 Rapid Bus, can be connected from the 720 Rapid Bus on Wilshire Boulevard or from the Orange Line in the San Fernando Valley.
The Getty Center (1) can easily be a full-day excursion with its vast art collection, gardens and outdoor sculptures. A must-see here is van Gogh’s famous Irises, located in the West Pavilion at the far right hand corner of the grounds. The Pavilion hosts traveling and special exhibits on the first and basement floors, with the permanent collection of impressionists on the second floor.
The Getty Center breaks that mold of traditional art viewing with outdoor tours of the gardens and the museum’s architecture. The Museum Store sells a wide array of art posters and books for your personal collection — but browsing here can be just as rewarding. Grab lunch at one of the two cafes or The Restaurant (reservations recommended).
A short, 10-minute bus ride south will lead you to UCLA’s Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden (2). Get off at the Sunset/Hilgard stop and walk onto the UCLA Campus via Charles E. Young Drive East, which parallels Hilgard Avenue, going southbound. Within a few minutes, you will see the 15-foot Tower of Masks by Anna Mahler on the street median. Once there, the garden is a little beyond and to the right.
The sculpture garden is a comfortable place for students and teachers to enjoy the weather and relax between classes. Sculptures can be found throughout the garden, but are sometimes only visible when walking by at certain angles. At the northwest corner of the park, in front of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Center, is Richard Serra’s massive steel environmental sculpture, T.E.U.C.L.A., which you can walk around and within. Some other famous sculptures at the garden are by Alexander Calder, Joan Miro, Henry Moore and Jacques Lipchitz.
While you're on UCLA's campus, you'll also want to check out the Fowler Museum (3). Its exhibitions, which are free of charge, emphasize non-Western cultures with art pieces, artifacts and an array of audiovisual presentations. Collectively, the museum’s exhibitions serve up a dose of academia for visitors who truly want to experience the campus.
From the same bus stop, another short 10-minute-or-less southbound ride will take you to the corner of Wilshire and Westwood Boulevards and the Hammer Museum (4). Its permanent collection, located on the east side of the building on the second floor, includes paintings by such masters as Rembrandt, Cezanne, Pissaro, Monet and van Gogh, as well as the famous portrait by John Singer Sargent, “Dr. Pozzi at Home”.
In addition to classic works of art, the Hammer has an impressive contemporary collection and often has the hippest traveling and special exhibitions in town. Occasionally, late night parties there are open to the public and always recommended by locals.
Nearby, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) (5), with the largest art collection in the West, has a cafeteria (kids’ menu) and a wide range of exhibits. Check out the contemporary collection where the sculpture is much more challenging than a Rodin — although they have plenty of those too. You might decide to make this the last stop of the day, since the museum is open until at least 8 p.m., the cafe stays open for dinner and admission is free after 5 p.m. every day. Closed Wednesdays.
You definitely won't want to miss the Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM), the latest development in the momentum of art and architecture that has consumed LA in the past three decades. Opened in February 2008, BCAM boasts architecture by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano, six galleries and 60,000 square feet of exhibition space, bringing contemporary art into the fold at the encyclopedic LACMA in a whole new way.
