As you might expect, the Getty has a sizable slate of free PST Art exhibitions this fall, and this one is easily the largest and most notable. “Lumen” takes a multi-faith approach to how astronomy and optics impacted art and religion in the Middle Ages—in other words, you’ll find illuminated Hebrew Bibles and a Byzantine chandelier alongside an Islamic astrolabe from the 1200s and a 12th-century manuscript that documented how monks used constellations to tell time.
The Getty ties some contemporary pieces into the exhibition, as well, including Fred Eversley’s purple-hued parabolic lens and one of Anish Kapoor’s void-like Vantablack sculptures. These current-day pieces extended outside of the gallery, as well: You’ll find a fuzzy, meditative sculpture from Light and Space artist Helen Pashgian in the museum’s north pavilion, as well as Charles Ross’s array of rainbow-scattering prisms in the entrance hall.
Make sure to scope out an eye-popping pair of shows in the west pavilion, too: “Abstracted Light: Experimental Photography,” which features abstract prints from artists like László Moholy-Nagy and Man Ray, as well as “Sculpting with Light: Contemporary Artists and Holography,” a collection of portraits and landscapes that appear to float within their frames. Both are open through November 24.