The J. Paul Getty Trust 2010 Report

 
During this report period, nearly every department at the Getty Research Institute (GRI) was involved in developing the Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945–1980 initiative, a collaborative survey of the history of Los Angeles art that has expanded to include more than 60 Southern California museums and nonprofit art galleries.

Robert Alexander, John Reed, Wallace Berman, Juanita Dixon, and Walter Hopps in the alley next to the Ferus Gallery, ca. 1957, Charles Brittin. Charles Brittin papers. (GRI) As the culmination of a nine-year research initiative organized by the GRI, Pacific Standard Time encompasses two GRI-curated exhibitions. The exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950–1970 (October 1, 2011–February 5, 2012), presents a focused examination of painting and sculpture produced in Southern California from the late 1940s to the early 1970s, while the exhibition in the GRI gallery, Greetings from L.A.: Artists and Publics 1950–1980 (October 1, 2011–February 5, 2012), uses the Research Institute’s Special Collections of photographs, ephemera, correspondence, and artwork to examine how artists communicated with their publics. The Museum exhibition also draws from new archival sources in Northern and Southern California, New Mexico, New York, Washington state, and Europe that were located by the GRI curatorial team over the course of the research initiative.

Both exhibitions offer a fundamental reappraisal and reinterpretation of postwar Los Angeles art. In the years following World War II, almost everything of consequence in American art was seen, and is largely still seen, as emanating from New York. This bias has colored historical narratives to such a degree that most accounts of postwar modernism neglect artists working in Los Angeles. As a result of the Pacific Standard Time research initiative, the GRI expects that many preconceived notions about American modernism, and about art produced on the West Coast, will be changed dramatically.

A performance and public art festival component, with key curatorial direction provided by the GRI, is scheduled for 10 days in January 2012. Planners are considering recreating several historic performances such as Judy Chicago’s Atmospheres, which featured fireworks and other pyrotechnics in public spaces, and Mark di Suvero’s 1966 Peace Tower, a massive collaborative antiwar art installation.

The GRI will also publish a book, Pacific Standard Time: Los Angeles Art, 1945–1980, an incisive reconsideration of postwar American art history from a West Coast perspective, and the first-ever scholarly survey of Southern California art. This comprehensive book investigates ideas and catalogues key moments from the period, and uses photographs and rare materials from the GRI and other archives to bring the era to life.

As part of Pacific Standard Time, the GRI’s Modern Art in Los Angeles program—an ongoing series of conversations that explore the history of art in Los Angeles from 1945 through 1980—brought Los Angeles-based artists Peter Alexander, Helen Pashgian, and De Wain Valentine to the Harold M. Williams Auditorium in May. The artists discussed their pioneering experimentation with industrial processes and materials, which began in the late 1950s and early 1960s. These conversations and other related programming form a large part of Pacific Standard Time, which uses first-person accounts to contextualize the exhibitions.

Development and Collaborative Initiatives

During its inaugural year, the GRI’s new Department of Development and Collaborative Initiatives found support for several programs and collaborations.

Walter H. Horne. Mujeres listas para recivir a Rábago (Women ready to receive Rábago), 1911, Gelatin silver photographic postcard. (GRI) Edison International provided funding to mount the exhibition A Nation Emerges: The Mexican Revolution Revealed at the Los Angeles Public Library in September 2011. This exhibition makes a major contribution to Los Angeles’ celebration of the bicentennial of Mexico’s independence and the centennial of the Mexican Revolution.

To address budgetary and technological challenges, the Kress Foundation provided funding for an international meeting of librarians and scholars initiated by the GRI as part of “The Future of Art Bibliography” project. This meeting, held in New York in April, explored innovative ways to facilitate global art historical research.

The GRI Collections Council supported Special Collections acquisitions that focused on 20th-century rare books from Japan. These included four books on architecture from the Koyosha publishing house; Koishi Kiyoshi’s New Techniques for Shooting and Producing Photographs (1936); and E-hon/Picture Book (1956) by Tanikawa Shuntaro, one of Japan’s most beloved poets.

Digitization

A page from “Mexique,” ca. 1864–66, assembled by Louis Falconnet. Digitized 2010. (GRI) As part of a commitment to collect, preserve, and disseminate important works of cultural heritage to a global audience, the GRI has greatly increased digitization of its vast collections of rare and unique research materials. During this report period, the GRI digitized more than 12,000 rare photographs from China, Mexico, and the Middle East, including the Jacobson Collection of Orientalist Photography (1843–1920), the Pierre de Gigord Collection of Photographs of the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey (1852–1950), and numerous rare 19th-century albums. Runner in the Nuremberg civic festival from Schembard Büch, ca. 1500s. Hand-colored manuscript. Digitized 2010. (GRI) In addition, the GRI digitized hundreds of rare festival books, including a manuscript on the Schembart carnival in 15th- and 16-century Nuremberg.

The GRI is depositing copies of digital collections with online services such as ARTstor, the Internet Archive, and Calisphere, all of which aggregate digital collections for easy access.

In spring 2010, the GRI was invited by the Library of Congress to join the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) project. The Union List of Artist Names—a Getty vocabulary database with over 125,000 records—is now part of the VIAF, which contains more than 10 million records from institutions all over the world.

Scholars and Research

Visiting scholar Ya-Hwei Hsu discusses her paper at the conference “Traces–Collections–Ruins: Towards a Comparative History of Antiquarianism,” held June 3–4, 2010 at the Getty Center and Villa. During the 2009/2010 scholar year, 29 scholars and fellows engaged in research related to the theme The Display of Art, which included subjects such as the history of museums and the relationship of conservation and interpretation to display. Scholars met weekly to present their research and participate in discussions with invited guests, including the directors of the Art Institute of Chicago and Harvard Art Museums and curators from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Villa scholar projects included the display of mythological sculpture in late antique Rome and the creation of antique mural forgeries in the early 20th century.

In its first year, the GRI’s research agenda grew to include 14 multiyear research projects—all of which share the goals of creating multidisciplinary conversations around unique special collections materials, and generating new art historical knowledge.

Projects such as “Art on Screen,” “Display of Art in Roman Palaces, 1550–1750,” and “Los Angeles Architecture 1940–1990” hosted intensive workshops and advisory committee meetings, while other projects such as “Digital Mellini” and “Critics and Curators: Lawrence Alloway, David Antin, and Marcia Tucker” brought visiting scholars to the GRI to work with each of the research project teams.

The exhibition Printing the Grand Manner: Charles Le Brun and Monumental Prints in the Age of Louis XIV, explored 17th-century reproductive engravings, while the projects “Art of Alchemy,” “British Sales 1780–1800: The Rise of the London Art Market,” and “German Sales 1930–1945: Art Works, Art Markets, and Cultural Policy” laid the groundwork for research, programming, and publications to come.

Special Collections

Zakarīyā ibn Muhammad Qazwīnī. Mass of the Earth Divinely Supported in Kitāb al-’ajā’ib wa al-gharā’ib (Book of Wonders and Oddities), Azerbaijan, 1553, Gift of Lawrence J. Schoenberg. (GRI) The GRI welcomed important donations of archives, manuscripts, prints, and rare books from the 16th to the 21st centuries.

Lawrence J. Schoenberg donated an illustrated manuscript by al-Qazwini, featured in the GRI exhibition Migrations of the Mind: Manuscripts from the Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection. Marianne Gourary donated a two-volume set of 18th-century fireworks prints.

Highlighting the GRI’s growing collection of James Ensor prints and the important Ensor painting at the Getty Museum, Dr. Richard A. Simms, the first chair of the GRI Collections Council, donated a hand-colored print, The Gendarmes, followed by 11 more prints by Ensor in honor of Jim Wood. Significant gifts of gallery archives included the Knoedler-Kasmin Gallery in London and papers from Los Angeles gallerists Betty Asher, Patricia Faure, Riko Mizuno, and Rolf Nelson. The donation of William Krisel’s papers enhanced the GRI’s special collections of materials on mid-century Southern California architecture.