https://www.getty.edu/calendar/variations-on-a-theme-benjamin-pattersons-scores/
Variations on a Theme: Benjamin Patterson’s Scores
Performance & Talk
Friday, Mar 6, 2026
5pm
Getty Center
Museum Lecture Hall
Free
Tickets are free, but required for event entrance. Your event ticket will also serve as your Center entrance reservation. Please note, there is a fee for parking.
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About
Join us for an evening to consider the art and legacy of Benjamin Patterson (1934–2016), a postwar experimentalist of sound and performance. A classically trained double bassist, Patterson increasingly developed an antiauthoritarian sensibility in response to his surroundings: his history is regularly framed by a rift with tradition as a co-founder of the Fluxus movement, which enabled a much needed psychic break from professional barriers created by de facto segregation. Yet Patterson maintained a love of classical music alongside that of experimental music, pushing back against the idea of a clean break. This program will consider the depth of Patterson’s artistry by enacting and documenting live performances of work created before Fluxus: String Music (1960) and Paper Piece (1960). Our goal is to center his postwar integrationist sensibility within his art practice.
The conversation will be available on the Getty Research Institute YouTube channel following the event.
Visit the Getty Research Institute’s Exhibitions and Events page for more free programs.
Learn about Benjamin Patterson’s Paper Piece (1960) in The Scores Project: Essays on Experimental Notation in Music, Art, Poetry, and Dance, 1950-1975, available for free online.
Event Categories and Location List
Talk
Performance
Getty Center
Speakers
julia elizabeth neal
Assistant Professor, History of Art, University of Michigan
Valerie Oliver Cassel
Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Sean Griffin
Musician
Scott Worthington
Musician
