TRANSCENDENT ART
Intricate and ethereal art on display
at the Getty and LACMA.
The Getty Center
Julia Margaret Cameron, Photographer
October 21 — January 11, 2004
More than 110 rare photographs by British photographer
Julia Margaret Cameron have been loaned to the Getty from
two major English museums: The National Museum of
Photography, Film, and Television, and The National Portrait
Gallery. Cameron, who came to photography in midlife, quickly
excelled in the art form, which offered Victorian women a
rare opportunity to achieve professional recognition. She was
intent on creating a magical and almost fairytale world in her
photographs, and her images were very popular in her day. She
achieved the softfocus and dreamy effect her images are
renowned for by overexposing the film and constructing
eccentric tableaus, such as dressing a friend as the May Queen.
She snapped portraits of many famous Victorians, including poet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and writer Lewis Carroll.
 The Getty
The Making of Furniture
October 7 — To Be Announced
This exhibition demonstrates how 18thcentury French furniture
was made as part of the museum’s popular “Making of ” series, which
explores the historical techniques behind various art forms.This most
recent incarnation of the “Making of ” series focuses on the “Toilet and
Writing Table” by furniture maker JeanFrançois Oeben.Three copies
of the original table, in varying stages of completion, attempt to demystify
the construction of this ornate piece. The first model shows the
basic components of the table, with the joints cut and held apart so they
are visible. The second example shows the undulating forms of the
table’s wood carcass before it becomes covered with an intricate marquetry
veneer. Marquetry is a wood inlay technique that often results
in delicate and ornate patterns.The third shows the progression of the
cutting of the marquetry on the table’s aprons and legs, as well as the
production of the mounts for one leg.Also on display are period drawings
for later pieces of furniture, marquetry designs, the interior of a
furnituremaking workshop, and maps locating wellknown woodworking
shops in 18thcentury Paris’ furnituremaking district.
 The Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art
October 5 — January 4, 2004
A vast and unique collection of Buddhist paintings, sculptures,
textiles, and ritual implements has been gathered under
one roof by LACMA curators.The exhibit is an effort to illustrate
Buddhist teachings as well as demonstrating through art
the intense meditational process monks embark upon in order
to reach enlightenment.
The exhibition aims to reveal the connections between
the process of Buddhist monks’ intense meditative path and
the religious works of art the monks have created. A variety
of teaching tools has been implemented to help museumgoers
grasp the complex religious concepts and imagery
depicted in the art objects. Also, as part of the exhibition,
Tibetan Buddhist monks from the Ganden Shartse
monastery in India will be creating an onsite religious sand
painting known as a Chakrasamvara Sand Mandala.There are
over 160 objects from Tibet, Nepal, Mongolia, India, and
China displayed in this show.
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