I have always wanted to see the Getty Villa since it reopened. It had been closed for nine years after the Getty Center was built, a series of gleaming white buildings high on a hill overlooking Los Angeles. The Villa is a much smaller facility, located in Pacific Pallisades, a re-creation of the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum. In the book “Blink” there is the story of the “Kouros” which, according to the placard on the sculpture, is either a great treasure or a five million dollar fake. So I wanted to see that sculpture, because of its notoriety, and the museum itself, but the idea of looking at other antiquities was not something I would normally be that excited about. How wrong I was! Standing face to face with these ancient figures carved from marble was to be in the presence of something very powerful. Perhaps more so because of the scarring and other damage - something that heightens their unimaginable age even more. One of the joys of visiting either of the Getty museums is that photography is allowed, in most cases, unlike many other museums. I find this wonderful for two reasons. First, as a photographer I see the world most clearly through the lens of a camera, and enjoy looking at objects and framing the parts of them I find most interesting, or framing them to include or exclude other objects around them. Second, I study the sculptures or paintings as best as I can when in the museum, but I treasure the ability to bring home photographs of them to look at long after first impressions of the artworks have faded. I was moved by being face to face with this sculpture from antiquity, and although I read the placard, it has completely slipped my mind who he is and how old he is. I think it may be a seated Zeus. But the power of this sculpture, and of other statues I saw this day, still stay with me.
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