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Robert Irwin's Central Garden at the J. Paul Getty Center Jennifer Kay Zell Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College

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Robert Irwin's Central Garden at the J. Paul Getty Center Jennifer Kay Zell Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Master's Theses Graduate School 2007 The ra t of perception: Robert Irwin's Central Garden at the J. Paul Getty Center Jennifer Kay Zell Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses Part of the Landscape Architecture Commons Recommended Citation Zell, Jennifer Kay, "The ra t of perception: Robert Irwin's Central Garden at the J. Paul Getty Center" (2007). LSU Master's Theses. 2742. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/2742 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Master's Theses by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE ART OF PERCEPTION ROBERT IRWIN‘S CENTRAL GARDEN AT THE J. PAUL GETTY CENTER A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Landscape Architecture in The School of Landscape Architecture by Jennifer Kay Zell B.S., California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, 1993 December 2007 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This paper was created with the support of several individuals. My family provided general encouragement and the time necessary to follow my curiosity. I want to thank my committee members and specifically Cathy Marshall for her high expectations. I also want to acknowledge the support of my classmates who have reminded me that success is had only through hard work and persistence. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ ii ABSTRACT .........................................................................................................................v INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1: A CASE STUDY .........................................................................................6 1.1 Context .................................................................................................................6 1.2 Site Analysis ........................................................................................................7 1.3 Project Background and History ..........................................................................8 1.4 Genesis of the Central Garden Project ...............................................................10 1.5 Design, Development and Decision-Making Process ........................................11 1.6 Role of Landscape Architect ..............................................................................17 1.7 Maintenance and Management ..........................................................................21 1.8 User/Use Analysis ..............................................................................................22 1.9 Peer Reviews ......................................................................................................22 1.10 Criticism ...........................................................................................................26 1.11 Limitations .......................................................................................................27 1.12 Generalized Features and Lessons ...................................................................27 1.13 Future Issues/Plans...........................................................................................28 1.14 Project Information ..........................................................................................28 CHAPTER 2: THE WORK OF ROBERT IRWIN ..........................................................30 2.1 Background ........................................................................................................30 2.2 Lines ...................................................................................................................34 2.3 Dots and Disks ...................................................................................................37 2.4 Scrim ..................................................................................................................39 2.5 Site-Generated ....................................................................................................41 2.6 Teaching .............................................................................................................43 2.7 Recent Work ......................................................................................................44 CHAPTER 3: MODERNISM ...........................................................................................48 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................49 3.2 Coherence ..........................................................................................................51 3.3 Reason ................................................................................................................55 3.4 Timelessness ......................................................................................................57 CHAPTER 4: POSTMODERNISM .................................................................................61 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................62 4.2 Contingency .......................................................................................................65 4.3 Organic Reality ...................................................................................................68 4.4 Fragmentation .....................................................................................................71 4.5 Postmodern Landscape Architecture ..................................................................76 iii CHAPTER 5: ANALYSIS ...............................................................................................78 5.1 Geometry.............................................................................................................80 5.2 History................................................................................................................84 5.3 Plants ...................................................................................................................86 5.4 Phenomenal Presence..........................................................................................88 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................91 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................93 APPENDIX A: TRANSCRIPTIONS .............................................................................101 APPENDIX B: RECORDED DIALOGUE ....................................................................140 VITA ................................................................................................................................150 iv ABSTRACT In this study of The Central Garden at the J. Paul Getty Center was found evidence that the Central Garden designed by Robert Irwin is a postmodern garden. Beginning with an evaluation and description of the individual elements and conditions of the garden, the study then explores the larger body of artistic work produced by Irwin. This investigation also extrapolates how the ideas of modernism and postmodernism have been applied to past works of landscape architecture. The precedents provide a basis for interpretation and analysis of the Central Garden. Direct observation of visitors at the Central Garden provided evidence of the garden‘s success as a perceptual work of art. Evaluating the Central Garden by how it choreographs and conditions individual perceptions is important in understanding the work as a postmodern garden. The J. Paul Getty Center is an ideal venue for a comparison between modern and postmodern forms. At the center clear evidence can be seen of the contrasting ideologies between the phenomenal and conditional concerns of Robert Irwin in the Central Garden and the Euclidian timelessness expressed in Richard Meier‘s Getty Center buildings and site layout. The Central Garden is a postmodern garden because it abandons classic geometric order and presents instead a formal and organizational structure similar to what postmodern theorist and architect Robert Venturi describes as a difficult whole. The garden displays an internally coherent organization and an order not derived from the architecture. Irwin also recombined past garden types into a new composition. The Central Garden does not present an artistic conception to be translated by the user nor does the garden design imply a pure or universal form. v INTRODUCTION The Central Garden at the J. Paul Getty Center in Los Angeles may be considered a postmodern garden. This study argues for the placement of the Central Garden as a postmodern garden within history. During the past decade since its public opening, the Central Garden has been critiqued within the discipline of landscape architecture and garden history by landscape architects and historians, who specifically apply the values and structures of modernism. Due to such limited strictures
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