The Getty throws a lavish party for PST ART: L.A. arts and culture this week

The Getty threw a lavish party last Saturday night to mark the start of PST ART. Guests dressed in cocktail attire were invited to roam the museum after hours while the lights of the city glittered like a mystical dreamscape below. VIPs included artists and celebrities such as Olafur Eliasson, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Betye Saar, Ahmed Best, Nancy Baker Cahill, Tiffany Shlain, Ken Goldberg and Maria Shriver, as well as museum executives including CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust Katherine E. Fleming, director of the Getty Foundation Joan Weinstein, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Johanna Burton and departing Hammer Museum director Ann Philbin. There were various food stations with fancy bites like Korean chicken, fish tacos, turkey burgers and empanadas, as well a dessert kiosk featuring cotton candy and cheesecake disguised to look like rocks (a neat science-of-food trick). Champagne and wine flowed, as did odd purple cocktails made with vodka or gin.

Guests packed the PST ART shows, but I had already seen them, so I took my date, who happened to be my 8-year-old daughter, to the upper level of the West Pavilion, where the Impressionists can be found. It was 9 p.m., and we were completely alone with Van Gogh’s “Irises.” I whispered to her all I knew about Van Gogh, how I read his letters and fell in love with his thoughts on color when I was in my 20s, how carefully he applied his paint, how remarkable and misunderstood he was, how he painted “Irises” in a hospital after a depressive episode. She listened and nodded and we stared at the painting in silence together. I felt lightheaded in its presence — with the warmth of her hand in mine. It was a near-perfect moment.

I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt. Ashley Lee and I have got you covered when it comes to L.A. arts and news this week.

“Irises,” by Vincent Van Gogh in the Impressionists Gallery at the Getty Museum.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Best bets: On our radar this week

1. “Jay DeFeo: Trees”
Times art critic Christopher Knight notes the recent opening of this exhibition, which highlights the Bay Area-based artist’s nature-inspired drawings upon returning home in 1953, after more than a year spent in Europe and North Africa. Featured with these works is a selection of the late artmaker’s photographs of trees captured in Northern California during the early 1970s, when she began focusing on black-and-white photography, as well as a selection of archival materials outlining the artist’s long-lasting fascination with the great outdoors. Through Jan. 12. Laguna Art Museum, 307 Cliff Drive, Laguna Beach. lagunaartmuseum.org

2. The 24 Hour Plays
I’m excited that the theatrical equivalent of an all-nighter — in which writers, directors and actors create six new short plays written, rehearsed and performed in just 24 hours — is back in Los Angeles for a fall edition, after a sold-out event this past spring. Among the performers slated to participate in the two-hour presentation of these debut pieces are Constance Zimmer, Chris Parnell, Gillian Jacobs, Natasha Leggero, Zoe Lister-Jones, Benjamin Earl Turner and George Salazar, plus writers from “This Is Us,” “Veep” and “Reasonable Doubt.” 7 p.m. Monday. Hudson Theatres, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd.. 24hourplays.org

3. Cold Blue Music Presents an Evening of Solos … and More
Times classical music critic Mark Swed flags this virtuosic showcase from what he describes as “the longtime, invaluable L.A. new music record label.” The program — spanning works for piano, solo double bass, solo viola and voice with just-intonation National Steel guitar — includes performances by Vicki Ray, John Schneider, Alma Lisa Fernandez and Christopher Roberts, plus an L.A. premiere by John Luther Adams, a world premiere from Peter Garland and a short recorded work by the late composer and instrument builder Chas Smith. 8 p.m. Tuesday. Monk Space, 4414 W. 2nd St. brightworknewmusic.com

— Ashley Lee

The week ahead: A curated calendar

Kerry Butler, from left, Laura Bell Bundy and Marissa Jaret Winokur in “Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now.”

(Bruce Glikas)

TUESDAY
Primary Trust The West Coast premiere of Eboni Booth’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about a bookstore worker in upstate New York who finds his life transformed after being laid off.
Through Oct. 20. La Jolla Playhouse, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive, La Jolla. lajollaplayhouse.org

Teen Apocalypse Trilogy Three of Gregg Araki’s cutting-edge 1990s films — “The Doom Generation” (Tuesday), “Nowhere” and “Totally F— Up” (Wednesday) — screen with the director and star James Duval in person to celebrate the release of a new Criterion Collection box set.
7:30 p.m. Tuesday; 7 p.m. Wednesday. Vidiots, 4884 Eagle Rock Blvd., Eagle Rock. vidiotsfoundation.org

WEDNESDAY
Beyond Fest XII This year’s iteration boasts new titles above and beyond what one might expect at a genre festival, including “Anora,” “The Brutalist,” “A Real Pain,” “Nightbitch” and “The Apprentice,” as well as a 30th anniversary screening of “Speed” and in-person tributes to Al Pacino, Sam Raimi, Shane Black, Jennifer Kent and Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
Through Oct. 9. Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Ave., Santa Monica; Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood; Los Feliz Theatre, 1822 N. Vermont Ave., Los Feliz. beyondfest.com

THURSDAY
Mama, I’m a Big Girl Marissa Jaret Winokur, Kerry Butler and Laura Bell Bundy, three original stars of the musical “Hairspray,” reunite 20 years later for an evening of Broadway music and stories.
7 and 9:30 p.m. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. thewallis.org

Culture news and the SoCal scene

“Clarkston,” co-starring Sean Luc Rogers as Chris and Michael Sturgis as Jake, is being presented by the Echo Theater Company in Atwater.

(Cooper Bates)

The fragile beauty of human relationships is explored in the West Coast premiere of playwright Samuel D. Hunter’s “Clarkston” at the Echo Theater Company in Atwater Village. The play explores the developing bond between Chris and Jake, two co-workers at a Costco in Clarkston, Wash. Chris knows the ropes of the city and the store, Jake is a newbie — an openly gay, recent college grad from Connecticut. In his review, Times theater critic Charles McNulty notes, “‘Clarkston’ hints that some of our most instructive relationships may be the most transitory.”

Times art critic Christopher Knight has his work cut out for him now that PST ART is in full swing. He hit the ground running with a rave review of “Olafur Eliasson: OPEN” on view at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA through July 6. The show features nine recent paintings and 18 light installations, 11 of which, Knight notes, were made for the exhibition, which comprises “a visually, conceptually and perceptually thrilling survey of the Berlin-based, Icelandic Danish artist’s work from the last 20 years.” Read all about why, here.

The Odyssey Theatre is currently staging the 2017 play “Kill Move Paradise,” by James Ijames, which is about four Black men in an afterlife purgatory. Ijames is also the author of “Fat Ham,” which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2022 and was staged at Geffen Playhouse earlier this year. Charles McNulty loved “Fat Ham” but did not feel that the Odyssey’s production of “Kill Move Paradise” hit the mark. “There’s no denying the communal passion and commitment involved, but the artistry seems secondary to the activism,” McNulty wrote of the play,

Rumors that the the PST ART-sponsored fireworks display by artist Cai Guo-Qiang on Sept. 15 at the Los Angeles Coliseum did not go as planned reached The Times on the evening of the show. The Art Newspaper’s Jori Finkel reports that the event “took a dangerous turn with actual collisions, as debris from the fireworks struck several guests — a few of whom needed first-aid treatment.”
Getty spokesperson Alexandria Sivak declined to specify how many attendees were harmed or in what ways, but she sent a statement acknowledging multiple injuries.

Yes, those are pumpkins you see lined up in front of your local supermarket. The holiday season is officially upon us, and with it a glut of exciting holiday shows to start adding to your already crowded calendar. Here’s another: Jennifer Hudson, the youngest female EGOT winner ever, will perform a special holiday show on Dec. 18 at Walt Disney Concert Hall as an addition to the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 2024/25 season. You can expect spirited tracks off Hudson’s new album, “The Gift of Love.”

And last but not least

I recently stumbled across this news story about a 4-year-old boy who accidentally smashed a 3,500-year-old jar at an archaeological museum in Haifa, Israel. The parent’s first thought, according to the article, was, “It wasn’t my child that did it.” A thought all parents can surely relate to. It’s what I think when my kid accidentally knocks over a pyramid of apples at the grocery store. But a Bronze Age jar. OMG.