• Plan your visit

    The Thrill of the Chase: The Wagstaff Collection of Photographs

    March 15–July 31, 2016

    Getty Center

    Butterflies

    Butterflies, 1935, Man Ray, carbro print. The J. Paul Getty Museum. © Man Ray Trust ARS-ADAGP

  • Mrs. Herbert Duckworth

    Mrs. Herbert Duckworth, 1867, Julia Margaret Cameron, albumen silver print. The J. Paul Getty Museum

  • Bananas and Orange

    Bananas and Orange, 1927, Edward Weston, gelatin silver print. The J. Paul Getty Museum. © 1981 Arizona Board of Regents, Center for Creative Photography

  • Mineral Baths, Big Sur, California

    Mineral Baths, Big Sur, California, 1967, Edmund Teske, gelatin silver print. The J. Paul Getty Museum. © Edmund Teske Archives/Laurence Bump and Nils Vidstrand, 2001

  • Rita de Acosta Lydig

    Rita de Acosta Lydig, negative 1913; print 1914, Baron Adolf De Meyer, gelatin silver print. The J. Paul Getty Museum

  • The Beech Tree

    The Beech Tree, about 1855-1857, Gustave Le Gray, albumen silver print. The J. Paul Getty Museum

  • Playing Kung Fu in the Park

    Playing Kung Fu in the Park, 1975, Larry Clark, gelatin silver print. The J. Paul Getty Museum. © Larry Clark, courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York

  • Ball Dress

    Ball Dress, 1952, Robert Frank, gelatin silver print. The J. Paul Getty Museum. © Robert Frank

The Thrill of the Chase: The Wagstaff Collection of Photographs

March 15–July 31, 2016, Getty Center

/ Plan your visit

Samuel J. Wagstaff Jr. was an influential art curator, patron and collector. In 1973, with the assistance of his lover Robert Mapplethorpe, Wagstaff came to believe that art photography was significantly undervalued. Over the next decade, he assembled one of the most important private collections of photographs in the world, which helped raise the profile of the medium and the price of photographic works. When he sold his collection to the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1984, it became the cornerstone of the Museum’s newly formed Department of Photographs.

This exhibition presents a selection of Wagstaff’s collection that spans the history of photography, from neglected French photographers of the 1850s to modernists Man Ray and Edward Weston to late 20th-century photographers Larry Clark, Joel-Peter Witkin, and Peter Hujar.

RELATED EVENTS

TALK
What Sam Saw

In this illustrated lecture about seeing, art historian Eugenia Parry, a colleague of Sam Wagstaff, considers the rarity of Wagstaff's independent eye, his pioneering choices, and how collecting photography extended his own spiritual quest. Free; advance ticket required.
Tuesday, May 17, 7:00 p.m.
Getty Center: Museum Lecture Hall

Learn more and reserve tickets

TOURS
Curator’s Gallery Tour

Paul Martineau, associate curator of photographs, the J. Paul Getty Museum, leads a gallery tour of the exhibition The Thrill of the Chase: The Wagstaff Collection of Photographs. Meet under the stairs in the Entrance Hall.
Tuesday, June 2, 2:30 p.m.
Getty Center: Museum galleries

Exhibition Tour

This tour provides an overview of two photography exhibitions: Robert Mapplethorpe’s classic and controversial work and the historic and contemporary photographs collected by his lover, Sam Wagstaff. Meet at the Information Desk.
Tuesday–Sunday, May 3–July 31, 2:30 p.m.
Getty Center: Museum galleries

MOBILE TOUR

Mobile Gallery Icon
Take an in-gallery audio tour and learn more about Samuel Wagstaff and his collecting habits from photographer and friend Gerald Incandela.

Pick up a GettyGuide® iPod free of charge in the Museum Entrance Hall.

PUBLICATION

Publications are available in the Getty Museum Store, by calling (310) 440-7333, or online at shop.getty.edu.

RELATED EXHIBITION

Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Medium
Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Medium

Samuel Wagstaff supported Robert Mapplethorpe throughout his career. This major retrospective exhibition mixes Mapplethorpe's most iconic images with lesser-known photographs.
March 15–July 31, 2016
Getty Center

Image Credit: Self-Portrait,1985, Robert Mapplethorpe, gelatin silver print. Jointly acquired by the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, with funds provided by the J. Paul Getty Trust and the David Geffen Foundation. © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation

Plan your visit