California

The central purpose of my recent trip to California was to join my brother on his college-searching tour.  While his three older siblings, myself included, attend(ed) college in the south, he has his sights elsewhere.  So we saw five schools in the LA and San Francisco areas and, well, it made me want to go back to college.  

Anyway, since I was along for the ride, we did squeeze in time for a trip to the Getty Center, which was stunning.  I guess I always just thought about it as a normal old museum, so I was really blown away when we got up there.  It was not a normal old museum!

To be honest, we barely looked at the art, skimming through the galleries in search of another balcony or outdoor area to get another look at the gardens and the building and the view.  The view! It was a perfect trip for the first day in LA, since the geography of the area is extremely confusing to us East Coasters, and this view kind of pulls it all together.  Evan was the ideal tour guide, of course!

While in San Francisco, I demanded a trip to SF MOMA, a really high quality modern art museum that we worked with a lot when I was at the Guggenheim.  I knew they had a fantastic collection, and after practically ignoring the art at the Getty, felt that a good dose of modern art would be appropriate.  I was not disappointed - the museum was beautiful and the collection rivaled some of the best, particularly their contemporary collection.  

They also had the Richard Avedon retrospective up, the same one I saw in Amsterdam in March.  This was a very welcome second visit - the exhibition is one of the best I've seen, probably the best in photography, and the disappointment that it never came to New York (this is its last stop) was, well, very disappointing. If you are in or near San Francisco, I would recommend running, not walking to this exhibition. I'd actually go ahead and recommend making a trip to San Francisco to see the exhibition, especially since the city itself is such a wonderful place to visit.  So is LA, but don't worry, the Getty isn't going anywhere, so just make sure you get there eventually!