Join us for an evening to consider the art and legacy of Benjamin Patterson.
Variations on a Theme: Benjamin Patterson’s Scores
March 6 at 5pm at the Getty Center.
www.getty.edu/calendar/var...
Join us for an evening to consider the art and legacy of Benjamin Patterson.
Variations on a Theme: Benjamin Patterson’s Scores
March 6 at 5pm at the Getty Center.
www.getty.edu/calendar/var...
1. Performance of Benjamin Patterson’s Paper Piece at the Fluxus Festival, Hypokriterion Theater, Amsterdam, 1963, photographer unknown. Used by permission of Fondazione Bonotto. 2. Variations for Double Bass, 1961, Performed by the artist at Kleinen Sommerfest/Après John Cage, Galerie Parnass, Wuppertal, 1962, possibly by Rolf Jährling.The Museum of Modern Art. The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection Gift. © Copyright Benjamin Patterson. Photo Credit: Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY 3. Printed score of Paper Piece in English, 1960, Benjamin Patterson. Getty Research Institute, Jean Brown Papers, 890164, box 39, folder 33. © The Estate of Benjamin Patterson. 4. Audio sampler of Benjamin Patterson’s Paper Piece, 1960, Benjamin Patterson. © The Estate of Benjamin Patterson. Score sampler developed by Michael Gallope and produced by Greg Albers. 5. Performance of Benjamin Patterson’s Paper Piece at the Fluxus Festival, Hypokriterion Theater, Amsterdam, 1963, photographer unknown. Used by permission of Fondazione Bonotto. 6. Excerpt of Paper Piece performed by Benjamin Patterson, Ben Vautier, Alison Knowles, Eric Andersen, Willem de Ridder, Bengt af Klintberg, Philip Corner, Dick Higgins, Emmett Williams, and Geoffrey Hendricks, in Malmö, Sweden, 1992, Benjamin Patterson. © The Estate of Benjamin Patterson. 7. Handwritten score of Paper Piece in English on paper, 1960, Benjamin Patterson. © The Estate of Benjamin Patterson.
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Learn more about Patterson’s Paper Piece and more experimental scores:
www.getty.edu/publications...
The score was intentionally ephemeral. The used ripped and crumpled paper did not hold monetary value. Nothing was created except an experience shared between the participants and audience. That was its value. It was art, and it was life.
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Paper Piece is a musical score featuring experimental notation. It was designed to create complex new music that anyone could perform, with materials that are readily available (like paper) and simple instructions. Shake, break, tear, crumple, rumple, bumple, rub, scrub, twist, poof, and pop!
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Aligning with Fluxus goals, Benjamin Patterson created Paper Piece in 1960.
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Fluxus was an avant-garde art movement from the 1960s and ’70s formed by an international network of artists, composers, poets, and designers. They blended disciplines to challenge elitist art with humor, spontaneity, and "anti-art" sentiments. In the minds of Fluxus artists, art—in all aspects—needed to change. They challenged the process of making art, what art can be, and championed a collision of art and life.
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Benjamin Patterson was an accomplished double bassist, composer, artist, and a founding member of Fluxus.
Benjamin Patterson was an accomplished double bassist, composer, artist, and a founding member of Fluxus.
03.03.2026 23:36 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Making music with…paper?
Have you ever made music…with paper?
In 1960, founding Fluxus member Benjamin Patterson conceived of the score, Paper Piece.
From the Argentinian women’s magazine “Idilio,” Stern collages photographs together to outwardly express the internalized struggles of women. How do you interpret them? [🧵2/2]
www.getty.edu/news/grete-s...
Black-and-white collage made by artist Grete Stern. The artwork features a woman falling from the sky in between two brick walls. She is falling on a small patch of grass.
Weird objects? We got you covered.
Step into the mind of photographer Grete Stern. These works might look normal at first, but take a closer look—these women are in precarious positions. [🧵1/2]
Additional Images:
- View of the Crowd as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Addresses Civil Rights Demonstrators at 40th Street and Lancaster Avenue, Philadelphia (detail), August 3, 1965, John W. Mosley. Charles L. Blockson. Afro-American Collection, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia
Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955-1985 brings together works by 100+ activists, photographers, painters, graphic designers, and multimedia artists, whose images fueled empowerment and propelled social change.
🎟️ gty.art/bam
View from below of activist and law professor Kathleen Cleaver standing on stage at a microphone. She wears all black, including a leather trench coat adorned with buttons and pins. Her hair is styled in a rounded afro, and her face is brightly lit by stage lights against a completely black background.
Smith's Kathleen Cleaver at Fillmore East (1971) is on view at the Getty Center through June 14, 2026.
📷 gty.art/3MSd7F1
“Beuford Smith and his camera were inseparable. His extraordinary sense of composition looked effortless; his images were always humanistic, often ironic, all pure genius."
"When he captured the perfect shot, Beuford would say he was given a gift. But the gift is ours, his collection of fine arts photographs endures.” -Herb Robinson
Remembering Beuford Smith 📸
Photographer, member of the New York-based Kamoinge Workshop, and a founding editor of The Black Photographers Annual, Beuford Smith was an artist whose work opened up worlds of possibility for other Black creatives.
“The political situation is greater than the artistic situation. A picture can express a thousand words but action is supreme” —Emory Douglas
Dive into the details of this work and the history of the Black Panther Party in a full Smart History video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD9g...
Lithograph print of a young Black boy holding a newspaper that reads "All Power to the People" in one hand and another rolled up newspaper that reads "The Black Panther" in the other. He has his mouth open signaling that he is speaking. There is a weapon tied to his back. The background is a bright blue gradient.
Emory Douglas was the Black Panther Party's Minister of Culture. He was also a commercially trained artist who created this lithograph print in 1969.
The artwork features a young boy holding a newspaper with a call for democracy and action—spreading the news of revolution.
A book signing follows this talk.
Chronicles of Ori: An African Epic will be available for purchase both before and after the program.
📖 gty.art/Ori
Tune in Sunday, March 1, 2026, for Creator/Creation, a conversation between Harmonia and Getty curators Larisa Grollemond and Beth Morrison.
🎟️ Register to attend this free event in person at the Getty Center or online at gty.art/4bdeibi.
We're in the studio with nationally renowned Afro-Cuban American artist Harmonia Rosales, whose #paintings are featured alongside medieval #manuscripts that visualize Biblical narratives of the creation of Earth in Beginnings: The Story of Creation in the Middle Ages.
27.02.2026 01:17 — 👍 32 🔁 8 💬 2 📌 0Many of the photographs in this exhibition were! Commercial photography was a massive part of the Black Arts Movement.
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The above image is from the B-Boys series, which documented upstart hip-hop dancers.
Oh, and on great portraits? Simpson says it's about "choosing the backdrops, getting the light ready, and trying to get to know something about the person."
📸 Read more: gty.art/3MOTf5t
Two African American men dressed to the nines in fedoras and white suites pose for a photograph, the taller man's arm resting on the shorter man's shoulder.
What are the secrets to taking a great portrait?
Coreen Simpson captured images of Black culture and daily life during the struggle for civil rights in the 20th century. She began her photography career while working as a freelance journalist.
Organized by the #NationalGalleryOfArt, Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955-1985 brings together works by 100+ activists, photographers, painters, graphic designers, & multimedia artists, whose images fueled empowerment & propelled social change.
On view now through 6/14/26. gty.art/bam
Two young marchers at Selma face the camera. They painted their faces white and boldly wrote "vote" on their foreheads. The face paint communicates the march’s goal: voting rights for African Americans. The facial expressions of the men, one of lighthearted joy and another more serious, portray the conflicted moods of the Selma March.
#Photography was a strong tool in this movement: an art form, organizing force, & means of building community.
Through bold experimentation, action, & commitment to social change, artists centered Black experiences, transformed public spaces, & created art that invited reflection & connection.
A young girl in a checkered dress stands with her hands pressed against a shop window labeled "Capitol Children's Shop." Behind her, a man crouches with a camera, capturing the scene.
Uniting around civil rights movements of the mid-20th century, writers, musicians, & visual artists explored how their work could celebrate Black culture & promote dignity, hope, & freedom. Their efforts to make & support art rooted in history & identity became known as the Black Arts Movement.
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Two people analyze a binder of slides. Text reads: New ways of working to protect cultural heritage. Read full story getty.edu/news
Archivists 🤝 conservators
Getty is working to bring these two historically siloed fields together to enrich collaboration and solve problems. gty.art/4tI2DIX
According to medieval astrology, Pisces season is a bad time for taking medicine for the feet and anything to do with fire. [4/4]
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