Manet at the Getty Center

There is an amazing exhibit at the Getty Center of some of the later works of Édouard Manet. He was a provocateur and a dandy, the Impressionist generation's great painter of modern Paris. This first-ever exhibition to explore the last years of Manet's short life and career reveals a fresh and surprisingly intimate aspect of this celebrated artist's work. Stylish portraits, luscious still lifes, delicate pastels and watercolors, and vivid café and garden scenes convey Manet's elegant social world and reveal his growing fascination with fashion, flowers, and modern femininity.  It is getting rave reviews.  I spent the day at the Getty Center, and saw the exhibit and it is everything they say it is.  What is fascinating are some of the clever ways they have made note of the exhibit.  These are the stairs leading to the second floor galleries where the exhibit is, and I didn't really see what they had done, until I looked at the photograph I took!  This is brilliant - they made a huge enlargement of the face of one of his paintings, then cut that into strips, and glued them to the risers of the stairs!  Seen as a whole, you see the face in one of the paintings as you go up the stairs!