Medieval artists created dazzling light-filled environments with gold, crystal, and glass evoking the layered realms of the divine. Long associated with divinity, light also occupied a central place in scientific inquiry. Today we tend to separate science from religion, but for medieval people these disciplines were firmly intertwined. Focusing on the arts of western Europe, this exhibition explores the ways that the science of light was studied by Christian, Jewish, and Muslim philosophers, theologians, and artists during the “Long Middle Ages” (800–1600). To convey the sense of wonder created by moving light on precious materials, several contemporary artworks are placed in dialogue with historic objects. Special installations by Helen Pashgian and Charles Ross extend Lumen throughout the Museum.

Lumen Higher Ed Curricular Resource

Lumen Higher Ed Video

How did medieval thinkers explain the cosmos, the natural world, the movement of the planets, and the philosophy of the world? Join experts to explore a manuscript from 1277 that captured key ideas about how everything worked.

Charles Ross: Spectrum 14

September 10, 2024 - Ongoing
Getty Center, Museum Entrance Hall

Charles Ross’s Spectrum 14 is a calibrated array of prisms that cast a dazzling display of luminous color across the Museum’s rotunda. Bands of spectral lighttraverse the space in relation to the sun, which follows a slightly different arc through the sky every day. Over time, the work changes in response to Earth’s rotational orbit, connecting us to the premodern experience of astronomical observation and calculation that defined cycles of days, seasons, and rituals. This project was commissioned for PST ART as part of the Getty exhibition Lumen: The Art and Science of Light.

Lumen: Helen Pashgian

August 6–January 26, 2024
Getty Center, North Pavilion

Helen Pashgian’s Untitled (Lens) challenges human perception. The feelings evoked by this meditative sculpture and light installation could be likened to those inspired by medieval sacred spaces that, like Pashgian’s work, use light to take the viewer utterly beyond the outside world, energizing and focusing the mind, and creating transformative experiences.