On my last trip to the USA a month ago, I went to the Getty Center in Los Angeles and to Gap Corporate Headquarters in San Francisco, and saw great art at both. At the Getty, I had heard there was an Bernini exhibition, which I didn’t think would be that interesting not knowing much about Bernini. When I got to the Center, I realized there was some amazing sculpture in it. I joined a guided tour, all high tech with the tour leader having a microphone headset and the particpants all with headphone headsets. The tour was truly from the guide’s context: we started by entering a side door into the last room to see some masterworks, then jumped around from room to room but all linked with an fantastic narrative, The sculpture was truly amazing, not just for the detail in cloth, lace, hair and skin that looked like real people covered in marble dust, but also for the amazing “speaking likeness” as if they were just about to talk. A truly amazing cultural treasure, and returning soon to Italy. There are some pictures here and then this article has pictures with audio narrative from Getty staff (click the link).

I flew up to San Francisco for Agile Open California, hosted by Gap at San Bruno. While there was some interesting modern art including a life size giraffe (in a 3 story high atrium) that you could view from various angles as you climbed a staircase next to it, one attendee was an artist called Elizabeth McClellan who is a traditional artist, but who was using her skills in an fascinating way as a visual facilitator. Elizabeth created half a dozen visualizations of sessions and discussions capturing key ideas and images in what were truly modern works of art, but with a strong practical focus. On an IT project, I could see key planning meetings or other sessions being captured in this way, and the posters remaining as reminders of project culture that could be displayed both as art and project statements.

Oh, and there was some other very tasty LA art, a magnificent gigantic blended iced mocha I consumed for brunch while sitting al fresco opposite the Spanish styled clock tower in Westwood