The J. Paul Getty Trust 2010 Report

 
In January 2010, Michael Brand resigned from his position as director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. While his tenure at the Getty was relatively brief, his impact will be long felt. Michael was responsible for resolving the Getty Museum’s antiquities issues with Greece and Italy, and forging a positive relationship with our Italian colleagues. As a result, this year saw the arrival to the Getty Villa one of the most important works of ancient art from Italy, the magnificent Chimaera of Arezzo, and the signing of an agreement with Sicily for a number of cultural collaborations. Michael’s idea of a Getty Museum that could step outside its Western traditions to inspire new ways to interpret our collections was further realized this year with a groundbreaking exhibition at the Getty Villa showcasing works from Aztec culture. We thank Michael for his vision and commitment to excellence and wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

During the period of this report, we also said farewell to Mark Leonard, senior conservator in the Paintings Conservation department for 26 years. Over the course of that time, he worked on many of the most important works in the Museum’s collection, as well as countless masterpieces from institutions around the world. Mark retired from the Getty in December 2009, and he takes with him our best wishes as he renews his career as an artist.

The Collection

The Museum’s newly renovated North Pavilion galleries for sculpture and decorative arts benefit greatly from new interactive displays and audio guide recordings, both in the galleries and on the Getty’s website, which allow visitors to explore objects in the collection in greater depth. After several months of renovation, the Museum’s North Pavilion galleries featuring sculpture and decorative arts reopened in May 2010 with an innovative cross-collection reinstallation that presents the Museum’s medieval and early Renaissance treasures in a newly designed setting of glass, bronze, and travertine. Our collection of stained glass; an intricate 17th-century display cabinet from Augsburg; and a recently acquired masterpiece, the 12th-century Limoges enamel relief Christ in Majesty, have all found their new homes in these renovated spaces, their display enhanced by interactive features within the gallery.

Cover: Entrance to the Jardin Turc (detail), 1812, Louis-Léopold Boilly. Oil on canvas. The J. Paul Getty Museum. Following a successful purchase at auction, Louis-Léopold Boilly’s exquisite painting Entrance to the Jardin Turc took its place as an anchor in the splendid gallery of 19th-century Neoclassical and Romantic paintings from France, a room that also includes works by Jacques-Louis David, Théodore Géricault, and Eugène Delacroix.

This monumental vase by Jean-Désiré Ringel d’Illzach is the centerpiece of a new gallery installation in the Museum’s West Pavilion. Vase, 1889, Jean-Désiré Ringel d’Illzach. Bronze and copper. (JPGM)To our important body of Symbolist sculptures from France and Belgium, which includes works by Paul Gauguin and Georges Minne, we added this year a monumental bronze vase (nearly nine feet tall) by Jean-Désiré Ringel d’Illzach. While its shape reflects antique forms, its surface is a dazzling array of Symbolist motifs, featuring natural materials, and insects, which are cast in metal.

Portrait of a Young Woman Reclining, 1897–1898, Gustav Klimt. Black chalk. (JPGM) The Department of Drawings continued making significant strides to expand the Museum’s collection of 19th-century drawings from Germany and Austria, pushing beyond our traditional end date of 1900 with the addition of two works by Gustav Klimt from the early 20th century. Another area of focus was drawings from England, with acquisitions of works by Richard Parkes Bonington, Charles Sell Cotman, and Charles Samuel Keene.

For the past decade, the Department of Manuscripts has successfully developed its collection of Italian illuminations, and this year added a key work, a large choir book cutting by the Master of the Murano Gradual, Saint Jerome in His Studio. Additionally, an early 16th-century Ethiopian Gospel book, Unknown, Saint John from a Gospel Book, Ethiopian, about 1480–1520. Tempera on parchment. (JPGM), Ms. 105, fol. 173v with highly original imagery of prophets and saints was also purchased–an important addition to the collection that helps raise our small holding of eastern Mediterranean and African illumination to a critical mass for display.

The Department of Photographs continued to focus on contemporary Asian photography, acquiring several works by Chinese, Japanese, South Korean, and Singaporean artists. This year also set a record for donations to the collection, with more than 1,000 donated objects. Many of these were in honor of the department’s 25th anniversary, and were acquired through an energetic campaign spearheaded by Dan and Mary Solomon, members of the Museum’s Photographs Council. Others were a result of purchases by the Photographs Council and individual donations by council members, including a large group of photographs by Manuel Alvarez Bravo donated by Dan Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser.

Additionally, in December 2009, we completed our search for a new head of the Department of Photographs, naming Judith Keller to the position of senior curator. Judy had been serving as acting head since Weston Naef’s retirement earlier that year. She is widely recognized as one of the most knowledgeable, experienced, and highly respected curators of photography in the museum world.

Exhibitions

The Chimaera of Arezzo, the subject of an exhibition at the Getty Villa from July 2009 to February 2010. The Chimaera of Arezzo, Etruscan, about 400 B.C. Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici Toscana–Museo Archeologici Nazionale, Firenze. A wide variety of noteworthy exhibitions was presented at both the Getty Villa and the Getty Center this fiscal year.

The Aztec Pantheon and the Art of Empire at the Getty Villa brought several important works from Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, including this colossal Head of Coyolxauhqui, which dates to the late fifteenth/early sixteenth century and was found near the Templo Mayor in Mexico City. The exhibition set a new record for visitorship at the Getty Villa, drawing an average of 1,200 visitors each day.

Reproduction authorized by the National Institute of Anthropology and History.
  The loan of the Chimaera of Arezzo from the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Florence launched a series of Italian initiatives at the Getty Villa that resulted from the historic agreement signed in 2007. This focused installation was followed by the first exhibition of non-Western art at the Getty Villa–The Aztec Pantheon and the Art of Empire–described by Christopher Knight of the Los Angeles Times as “…the most impressive show the Getty Villa has organized since reopening.” Timed to coincide with Los Angeles’ celebration of the bicentennial of Mexican independence, this exhibition featured several significant loans from Mexico as well as a special loan from the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence: the Florentine Codex, which returned to the Americas for the first time in four centuries. The exhibition attracted a record number of visitors to the Getty Villa over the course of its 15-week run. For their support of the exhibition, we are grateful to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Among the 22 exhibitions that were on view at the Getty Center, many highlighted original scholarship, a critical criterion of our exhibitions program.

Seated Female Nude, about 1660, Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn. Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash, corrected with white gouache on ivory laid paper, laid down on cream laid card. The Art Institute of Chicago, Clarence Buckingham Collection. Photography © The Art Institute of Chicago More than a decade in the making, and with loans from the most important collections of Old Master drawings in the world, Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils: Telling the Difference presented the finest works by Rembrandt alongside those of his students, allowing visitors the opportunity to understand what distinguishes a Rembrandt from a non-Rembrandt. Seated Female Nude, about 1660–62, Aert de Gelder. Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash, corrected with white gouache. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, inv. no. R1 (Koenigs Collection) This acclaimed exhibition, along with its accompanying catalogue, will have a lasting impact on Rembrandt scholarship. Similarly, The Spectacular Art of Jean-Léon Gérôme will be remembered for offering visitors a new perspective on an artist who was overshadowed at the end of his career by Impressionism, post-Impressionism, and the modernist avant-garde.

Following the 2008 acquisition of Irving Penn’s Small Trades, all 232 works were put on view together for the first time in an exhibition in the Museum’s Center for Photographs. It was Mr. Penn’s desire to keep this collection of photographs intact as one body of work. Sadly, he passed away on October 7, 2009, just four weeks after the opening of the exhibition. We were pleased that his son, Tom Penn, was able to attend the opening, and that he was touched by the beautiful installation of this unique series of photographs.

A collaboration with the High Museum of Art in Atlanta brought the exhibition Leonardo da Vinci and the Art of Sculpture to the Getty Center for its only West Coast presentation. The decision to reduce the scale of the exhibition to fit into our more intimate suite of drawings and sculpture galleries in the West Pavilion was a great success, and the presentation of the three newly restored Rustici sculptures from the Baptistery in Florence in our double-height skylit gallery was a revelation. The exhibition was extremely well received, drawing the highest number of visitors to an exhibition since the opening of the Getty Center in 1997.

Education

Handling sessions at the Villa have proved popular with visitors of all ages.This fiscal year, the Museum’s Education department introduced a number of new initiatives.

Mark Bradford, the inaugural artist in the Education department’s new Getty Artists Program.Seeking to create a deeper connection between students and the Museum’s collection, the department launched a pilot program aimed at supporting multiple visits to the Getty. Complementing the department’s existing efforts to bring students to the Museum for a single visit, this new program goes one step further by taking our educators into schools to facilitate discussions about art and museums, both before and after class visits to the Getty. In its first year, the department worked with four schools. Next fiscal year, we hope to expand this program to include additional schools and reach many more students.

At the Getty Villa, the department introduced handling sessions to allow Museum visitors the opportunity to hold replica objects along with the materials and tools ancient artists used to create works, thereby providing a closer look and better understanding of the objects on view in the galleries. Over the course of the year, more than 12,000 visitors took part in these sessions.

In July, the Getty Artists Program launched as an expanded effort to involve contemporary artists in the Museum’s Education programs. For this first year, we were honored and delighted to engage artist Mark Bradford, a 2010 MacArthur Fellow, who chose to focus his program on K–12 teachers with 11 lesson plans he called Open Studio. Each lesson plan was created by a different artist and provides free online arts activities that teachers can use in their classrooms. Catherine Opie, Kara Walker, and Carrie Mae Weems were among the distinguished artists who took part in the project.

Performing Arts

In October 2009, the Museum completed its first season of Saturdays Off the 405, a monthly outdoor music series aimed at attracting younger audiences. The series built a loyal and diverse following, averaging between 2,000 and 3,000 attendees each evening. The offering of free parking after 5:00 p.m., introduced this fiscal year, helped this program immensely, particularly engaging those discovering the Getty for the first time.

Culture Clash presents Aristophanes’ Peace. From left to right: Ric Salinas, Herbert Siguenza, and Richard Montoya. Photo: Craig SchwartzThe year’s Annual Outdoor Theater Production at the Getty Villa took a comedic risk with Culture Clash’s interpretation of Aristophanes’ Peace. Rarely performed, this bawdy satirical social commentary was amplified by the Los Angeles-based Latino comedy troupe, who freely adapted this ancient play for modern times. The critically acclaimed result introduced a number of new audiences to the Villa’s outdoor theater program and reinforced the Museum’s commitment to directors and translators who continually reinterpret classical theater for a modern age.