The : Research, Conservation, and Collections

n March 3, 2012, at a meeting sponsored by the Academy at The Getty Center, Fellows James Cuno, President and Chief Executive Of½cer of the J. Paul Getty Trust, and OThomas W. Gaehtgens, Director of the , spoke about the institution’s exhibitions and collections, its global art restoration and conservation efforts, and its research program. The presentations served as the Academy’s 1982nd Stated Meeting. The meeting also featured the of½cial Induction of sixteen previously elected Academy members. The following is an edited transcript of the presentations.

Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Summer 2012 27 the getty center: research, conservation, and collections

and around the world. We are, of course, examine people on arrival or on departure. committed to building collections. Thomas We allow them to make their way as they will talk to you about the Research Insti- wish, all the while providing them with in- tute’s collections, and I will say a few words formed access to different levels of compre- about the Museum’s collections. hension or appreciation of works of art. We have made two recent acquisitions. But we do even more than that. We also The ½rst is a ½fteenth-century Florentine bring exhibitions to the museum to com- drawing, Portrait of a Young Man, from about plement our collections. We are not an en- 1470. The artist is thought to be Piero del cyclopedic museum in the sense of having Pollaiuolo, though this attribution is not cer- representative examples of all the world’s tain. In the virtually life-sized drawing, the cultures under our roof, as the British Mu- subject’s gaze and the fact that his shirt is seum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and buttoned on the wrong side make it a very the Art Institute in Chicago do. Rather, we convincing drawing of someone viewing feature exhibitions from elsewhere, often himself in a mirror. If this is true, then the in connection with a project that we have drawing is not only an early portrait but a undertaken with another program at the very early self-portrait, completed at the museum. The Center’s four programs– dawn of self-awareness, as the Renaissance Research, Conservation, Foundation, and is known. Museum–work together in a collaborative Our second recent acquisition is a paint- process to deepen the impact of the Getty in ing by Edouard Manet. The year it was com- the world. In the case of the exhibition Gods pleted, 1863, was the year Manet emerged as of Angkor: Bronzes from the National Mu- James Cuno a leading innovator in French painting, the seum of Cambodia, the Conservation Insti- James Cuno is President and Chief Executive year he painted Olympia and Le Déjeuner sur tute developed, with others, a conservation Of½cer of the J. Paul Getty Trust. He was elected l’herbe. This particular painting is a portrait laboratory in Cambodia to conserve the a Fellow of the American Academy in 2001 and of a young woman, Madame Brunet. You sculptures. The bene½ts of that work are serves as a member of the Academy’s Commission may think it’s wonderful, and so do we. being shown in our galleries. The Aztec Pan- on the Humanities and Social Sciences. Madame Brunet, however, did not; she re- theon and the Art of Empire, an exhibition jected it. Fortunately, it stayed with Manet at the , explored Aztec monu- The Getty and Its Role in the World and his studio until later in his career, and ul- ment-building in relation to ancient Greek timately came to the Getty. and Roman pantheons. Comparing these thought I would begin by introducing you We have two sites for the Museum, the civilizations, equivalent not in date and time I to the Getty and its range of commit- Getty Center and a site in Malibu, which but in mentality, puts the ancient Mediter- ments here and abroad. Thomas will take houses our ancient Mediterranean collec- ranean world into richer context. The exhi- you more deeply into the programs he di- tion. But we do not just build our collections bition Holy Image, Hallowed Ground: Icons rects within the Getty Research Institute. and present them in our galleries. We also from Sinai was the result of a collaboration The Getty Center, which opened in 1997, in- provide extraordinary settings in which to between the Foundation and the Conserva- cludes the Research Institute, the Museum, see works of art. In this sense, there is a con- tion Institute in Sinai. Their work in the the Conservation Institute, the Foundation, text for seeing art in the Museum, and there monastery where the icons were housed led and the of½ces of the Trust. The Center is is a means for connecting with the world to the generous loan of the icons to the Getty perched high on a hill overlooking Los An- when you are here. We not only build our Museum, presenting a bit more of the world geles, Santa Monica, Marina del Rey, and collections, but we teach from them. We to our visitors in Los Angeles. San Diego (on a clear day). But it is not have the rich responsibility of connecting We don’t just do exhibitions. We also con- meant to be up on a hill, except in the phys- with all our visitors, whether they come with serve works of art that are in our collection ical sense. It is meant to be deeply embedded specialized knowledge or with no knowl- or that come to our collection from else- in the lives of all who come to the hill, or edge, whether it is their ½rst visit or their where in the world. Working with our part- who are reached by the Getty in Los Angeles thirty-½fth. One of the great glories of mu- ner colleagues in Italy or in Eastern Europe, seums is that, unlike universities, we do not for example, we conserve works that then

28 Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Summer 2012 grace our galleries for a period of time so that Our work is not just in Europe or with surveying and documenting the current con- we can share the bene½t of our work with European paintings; it’s elsewhere in the ditions of archaeological sites. A geographic our larger public. We engage not only in world, too. It’s not just with moveable ob- information system (gis), written in Arabic applied conservation but in pure scienti½c jects, but includes things that do not move and English, allows you to learn about the research, both in the Museum and in the at all–works in Germany, for example, or sites as well as their present conditions. Be- Conservation Institute. King Tut’s tomb. We collaborate with local cause two of the greatest threats to archaeo- Our work abroad includes a project in conservators not only on the scienti½c analy- logical sites are rapid urban development Ghent, Belgium, where the Foundation has sis but also on the execution of conserva- and looting, the gis allows Jordanian of½- supported the recent renovation, restora- tion. And it is not just in the Mediterranean cials to observe the current state of archae- tion, and conservation of the ½fteenth-cen- world, but in Western China: in Dunhuang, ological sites and monitor changes from day tury Northern European painting The Ghent the Getty has worked with others for to day. They can also use it as a means of Altarpiece. One of the most important paint- decades in the execution of conservation, planning how to protect the site. So when a ings in the history of art, its conservation is the analysis of preventative conservation, highway is developed between one city and part of a program supporting the education of a new generation of conservators working We not only build our collections, but we teach from on panel paintings. Panel paintings were the primary medium for painters in Europe them. We have the rich responsibility of connecting from the later Middle Ages to the earliest part of the Renaissance, and the expertise for with all our visitors, whether they come with special- conserving them was being lost as a genera- ized knowledge or with no knowledge. We allow our tion of conservators was retiring or dying without a new generation taking its place. So visitors to make their way as they wish, all the while the Foundation identi½ed a number of ex- providing them with informed access to different lev- perts in the ½eld, at the Metropolitan Mu- seum, at the Prado Museum, and at the site els of comprehension or appreciation of works of art. in Belgium, among others. It brought these senior conservators together with younger and the site planning to accommodate in- another, it can be designed to go around that conservators to transfer their knowledge to creased tourist interest in the great caves in site rather than through it. The gis is now the next generation, to perpetuate the ability the farthest northwest region of China, lo- available as a website and software that are to conserve panel paintings. As another ex- cated on the Silk Road. If you were a traveler provided for free and can be adopted by ample, a team is working on a Dürer panel leaving China to embark on a journey along other countries. Iraq is currently adopting painting from the Prado’s collections. the Silk Road–into an unfamiliar world, un- the software, and that is but one example. A website largely supported by the Getty sure if you would return–on your way out, Most recently, I joined Thomas, Deborah Foundation allows viewers to see the under- you would stop at the cave temples to say Marrow, and other colleagues on a trip to drawing beneath the painted surface of The a few prayers. On the way back, having India to look at two of the projects that we Ghent Altarpiece via infrared reflectogram.1 achieved success in your journey (and hav- have been engaged in there. Two hours out- The website allows you to see how the artist ing survived), you would pause to pay grati- side of Jodhpur is a Mughal fort in the town builds the painting from an initial drawing tude. We are working not only to preserve of Nagaur. The fort was a mess, so twenty that guides the picture to completion. You sites such as this one, but most important, to years ago we awarded a ½rst grant to plan, can zoom in on the painted surface, then publish the results of our work so that a col- and a second to execute, its conservation. move beneath it with x-rays and with the in- lection of best practices can go on to influ- The fort’s extraordinary wall system has frared technology. We are very pleased by ence the work of others after this project is now been preserved, restored, and strength- this feature and encourage you to visit the completed. ened. After restoring the built structure, we website. Our work is not just conservation in a teamed up with colleagues at the Courtauld physical sense. In Jordan, we are developing Institute of Art to preserve the paintings in- 1 “Closer to Van Eyck: Rediscovering the Ghent the Middle Eastern Geodatabase for Antiq- side. The building is a palace of mirrors with Altarpiece,” http://closertovaneyck.kikirpa.be/ uities (mega-Jordan), a rich platform for paintings that date from the seventeenth #home.

Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Summer 2012 29 the getty center: research, conservation, and collections

and early eighteenth centuries. The paint- ous situation in Tunisia, Jordan, and Syria. bition began as a research project dedicated ings were in terrible condition, and a great Fortunately, we have been able to transport to ½nding, recovering, and preserving the deal of mirrored glass had to be preserved as Syrian conservators out of Syria to Rome, archives of artists, dealers, collectors, muse- well. Twenty years of work went into this and back to Syria again, in the education ums, and galleries, to ensure that this explo- building, and a book was published docu- process. And we are not just in Europe and sive moment in the history of art in Los menting all the work done by Deborah, head the Mediterranean but in Africa, where one Angeles is saved for posterity. of the Foundation, and colleagues including project trained museum management pro- To promote the conservation of the Eames Tim Whalen, head of the Conservation In- fessionals and photography conservators to House, we engaged in a kind of guerrilla ac- stitute, and the preservation architect from preserve the great legacy of photography in tivity, bringing together unlikely supporters India who was employed in the project. Africa. and interested individuals to promote the There were also local craftsmen who knew The also supports pro- project. Ice Cube (a rapper whose discogra- how the walls were built and therefore how grams that connect art historians. For many phy I’m sure you all have) studied architec- to preserve them. The published results re- decades, art historians have tended to focus ture, and he particularly liked the Eames veal best practices to be adopted by others on their own specialized ½eld and to be in House and the principles employed in devis- concerned with the conservation of Mughal the company of only their fellow specialized ing that great structure. So he helped dem- forts. art historians. The Foundation aims to bring onstrate the public interest in our projects. But we don’t just work on structures people from a range of ½elds together. For I have given you a snapshot of the Getty, abroad. We conserve buildings here in Los example, Thomas, Deborah, Tim, and I met and Thomas will discuss aspects of our work Angeles. The next project of the Conserva- with colleagues at Nehru University in Delhi more deeply. We strive to do good work here tion Institute is the Eames House, an icon of as part of a program the Getty has funded and around the world, in terms of both re- mid-century modernism in Los Angeles. to introduce art historians in India to art his- search and applied conservation as well as The house is sixty years old, and you can torians with other specialties. Art history presentation to our publics, scholarly and imagine how the metal frames for the win- scholars in India could ½nd themselves otherwise. It is an obligation we feel we have dows, or the elements of the wall systems, studying only the history of Indian art, so because the legacy of artistic creation in the have suffered over time. We are now begin- the program brings in art historians who world is common to all of us, and we want to ning to understand how we can preserve, specialize in Greek or Roman, medieval be an important part of that legacy. and not distract from, the beauty of this European, or contemporary American art, great house. among other disciplines. With that comes Our work is not just the execution of con- not only new subject matter but different servation but the training of a new genera- methodologies for studying the history of tion of conservators. I mentioned our pro- art. Scholars visit for a few months and then gram that trains conservators of panel paint- are replaced. The exchange is a way to recog- ings. We have a similar program for conserv- nize that we live in a world without borders. ing mosaics, called mosaikon, which is We bring a community of scholars together operating in the eastern part of the Mediter- in India, or take them from India to interna- ranean world, from Tunisia through Syria. It tional conferences that might occur in South has not been an easy time to be involved in America or North America. this region, but the Getty has bene½ted from The Foundation also encourages the pub- the training of these conservators, who have lication of scholarship in print or digital the great responsibility to steward the safety form (and even as an app), and it invests lo- of the legacy of ancient Rome as contained cally in Los Angeles. After taking you around in these mosaics. Many mosaics are on-site; the world, I am bringing you back to the some have been lifted and put into museums Paci½c Standard Time exhibition here at the due to a loss of knowledge of conservation Getty Center. We funded the publication of and a decline in training of½cials to protect a number of books and digital media show- archaeological sites. The program is being ing works of art by Los Angeles artists in the undertaken in Rome because of the precari- postwar period, from 1945 to 1985. The exhi-

30 Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Summer 2012 As part of its mission, the Getty Research One of our aims is to support and develop Institute (gri) “creates and disseminates the discipline of art history. Our Scholars new knowledge through its expertise, its Program invites researchers from all over active collecting program, public programs, the world to work on an annual research institutional collaborations, exhibitions, pub- topic. In 2011, the topic was the Display of lications, digital services, and residential Art. This year, we are working on Artistic scholars program.” The gri is not the only Practice. Next year, the subject will be Color. Getty program involved in research–the We try to bring together scholars from dif- Conservation Institute and the Museum also ferent backgrounds. Lectures, colloquia, and carry out research, and the Foundation sup- perhaps even exhibitions or publications de- ports research ½nancially–but the Research velop from the year, half-year, or three Institute provides the general art-historical months the scholars spend at the gri. We research component. host about ½fty scholars annually. Some of Our research facilities include, ½rst of all, them are delegated to the program from the a library. This library is probably one of the Museum and from the Conservation Insti- best art history libraries in the world. With tute. The gri oversees the administration of more than a million volumes of books and all these Getty scholars. periodicals–no other library in the ½eld of Given that art history is largely a Western art history has this amount of materials–it discipline, most of our visiting scholars are is exceptional not only for its size, but also from Europe, the United States, and Canada. for the quality of the collections. That does Of the 803 scholars that have received resi- not mean that we do not miss a book from dential Getty scholarships since 1985, 410 Thomas W. Gaehtgens time to time, but we try to ½ll the gaps. We have come from the United States and 393 Thomas W. Gaehtgens is Director of the Getty have 3,500 periodicals and 5,500 collections from other countries. The program is still Research Institute. He was elected a Fellow of the of manuscripts and personal archives from very Western-oriented, and we are endeav- American Academy in 2011. artists, art historians, collectors, architects, oring to change that. The challenge is not and art dealers. Our collections are rich only the discipline’s Western focus, but also The Getty Research Institute’s Global for contemporary art, especially since the that our resources are predominantly West- Commitment to Research Projects and launch of the Paci½c Standard Time initia- ern. We have to expand our collections to Resources tive. Collections embrace audio, video, and represent the artistic traditions from other ½lm as well as two million photographs in countries and to reflect this new global s Jim explained, the Getty is not only a the Photo Study Collection. world. We have begun to take on this enor- A museum, but consists of four institu- Our Special Collections contain rare books, mous challenge. In October 2012, for exam- tions that work together: the Museum, the photographs, architectural models, draw- ple, we will hold a symposium in Beijing on Conservation Institute, the Foundation, and ings, sketchbooks, and more than 12,000 lin- the subject of artistic exchanges between the Research Institute. Everything depends ear feet of archives. To give you an example, China and the West. Additionally, we will in- on the cooperation of these four entities. we have the agendas of the artist Man Ray, vite sixteen students and eight professors to Though this relationship between the four in which you can ½nd appointments for our Summer Research Academy, bringing Getty programs is often not well under- “Lunch with Picasso” or “Dinner with Western professors and students together stood, this arrangement provides a unique Gertrude Stein.” We conserve rare photo- with colleagues from other cultures. To sup- opportunity for research and for the devel- graphs, as well as nearly 68,000 rare books, port such programs, we work closely with opment of public initiatives. The programs including materials from the ½fteenth cen- the Getty Foundation. work closely together. Here on the hill, the tury to the present. The gri is a treasure Another focus is our digitizing initiative. president, vice presidents, and four directors trove of material for studying the history of In the past few years, we have digitized an have lunch every Monday to talk about poli- art. impressive 2.6 million images. The seven cies and initiatives in a collaborative spirit.

Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Summer 2012 31 the getty center: research, conservation, and collections

thousand books we have digitized are not The Getty vocabularies form another im- The Getty Research Institute is also en- suf½cient, but we will do more to increase portant project. Consider this example: the gaged in a number of research projects, this number. Though we face limitations in Mona Lisa is also known as the Portrait of Lisa including: the Art of Alchemy; Art on staff and resources, we will continue to dig- Gherardini, La Gioconda, and La Joconde. All Screen; Book Art of the Russian Avant- itize books and share them on the Internet, these different descriptions have to be linked Garde; The Display of Art in Roman Palaces, so that they can be consulted and read all for a computer search to recognize all the 1550–1750; German Sales, 1930–45: Art over the world, especially where scholars variable titles used for the Mona Lisa. Even Works, Art Markets, and Cultural Policy; may not have access to this art-historical lit- more important, the vocabs can be used all Los Angeles Architecture, 1940–1990; Orien- erature. We are currently developing a proj- over the world because they are being trans- talist Photography; Paci½c Standard Time; ect that will revolutionize the discipline of lated into numerous languages. The Re- Printmaking in the Age of Louis xiv, 1660– art history: together with the Avery Archi- search Institute continues to develop this 1715; Surrealism in Latin America; and The tectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia essential tool. Future of Art Bibliography. How do we come up with all these re- The Getty Research Institute creates and disseminates search projects? We conceptualize them by looking for ways to make our collections ac- new knowledge through its expertise, its active collect- cessible to the public. We ½nd scholars ing program, public programs, institutional collabo- who can help us and invite them to work on these projects. For instance, The Display of rations, exhibitions, publications, digital services, and Art in Roman Palaces was launched because residential scholars program. One of our aims is to we have a large number of inventories of Roman palaces. Los Angeles Architecture support and develop the discipline of art history. will be a major exhibition next year at the Getty Museum. Paci½c Standard Time is the University, the Frick Art Reference Library, Another research tool is the Provenance initiative that started with the collections of and the Thomas J. Watson Library of the Index, a vast database of inventories, sale the gri and, as Jim mentioned, is funded by Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; catalogs, and collection catalogs. Take for the Foundation; we participated in curating the Biblioteca de la Universidad de Málaga example a beautiful painting by Rubens at the exhibition at the Getty Museum. In two in Málaga, Spain; the Institut national the Getty Museum, The Entombment, which weeks, the Paci½c Standard Time exhibition d’histoire de l’art in Paris; and the Univer- should really be called Lamentation, com- will travel to Berlin. sitätsbibliothek Heidelberg in Heidelberg, pleted circa 1612. When the Getty bought We are trying to incorporate a global focus Germany, we are digitizing the entire litera- this painting from a catalog, no one knew ex- into our work. We will not give up our past ture of the history of art before 1923. (Be- actly what had happened to it before 1868. in art history as a Western discipline, but cause 1923 is the American copyright date, On the surface of the picture is the number will expand it to include the topic of encoun- we cannot digitize material published after 146, and if one types Rubens and 146 into the ters between different cultures. Because of that year.) We are bringing all this literature search boxes of the Getty Research Prove- our location in California, with close prox- into a portal so that readers can access it nance Index, one learns that this painting imity to Mexico, Latin America is of sig- whether they are in Peru, Germany, Russia, was in the collection of Gaspar de Haro y ni½cant interest to us, and we have a major or China. From the beginning, the project Guzmán in Spain, from 1600 to 1653. This collection of Latin American art historically has focused not only on Western art history database documents the painting’s entire relevant photographs and other materials. but also on art from China, India, Brazil, and history up to the nineteenth and twentieth Furthermore, the gri holds scholarly re- other countries. We plan to launch this dig- centuries, demonstrating how important sources on Chinese art, and we are trying to ital library on May 31, 2012. In a couple of this resource is for the art market, for the art be more involved in India, the Near East, years, it will certainly be a major tool to con- collector, and for those who are interested in and Africa, as you can see from our exhibi- duct art historical research. the reception of paintings. It is a vital tool for tions. art history in general.

32 Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Summer 2012 Members Gather at the Getty Center

Managing the abundance of material on the gri’s website is a challenge. Because our website has 32,000 pages, it is dif½cult to ½nd what one is searching for. Making all our material accessible to the outside world Jesse Choper (UC Berkeley is impossible, but we are trying to make a School of Law) and Winslow signi½cant number of our resources avail- Briggs (Carnegie Institution able to our many online visitors. From May for Science) 1, 2009, to February 27, 2012, we had more than 2.6 million visits to the website, includ- ing 1.7 million from the United States, 131,911 from England, and signi½cant numbers from other Western countries. Outside the West, the numbers diminish. There were 27,956 visits from Mexico and 18,823 from India. That we have 17,723 online visits from Brazil probably reflects the fact that the Getty Foundation and the Research Institute Lothar von Falkenhausen traveled to Brazil to develop a new initiative, (University of California, which the Foundation is funding, to connect Los Angeles), Thomas the international art-historical community Gaehtgens (Getty Research with that of Brazil. By contrast, online visits Institute), and Thomas Levy from Japan totaled only 17,312; from Russia, (University of California, San Diego) 17,405; from China, 14,711; and from Taiwan, 10,079. We still have a lot of work ahead of us to move Western art history into the global present. We have to make our vast resources accessible to scholars in other countries, where these resources may not exist. As a philanthropic institution, we are proud to provide free access to our materials. The maps and statistics I have shown in this pre- sentation indicate where more engagement Deborah Marrow (The Getty is needed in the future. Foundation), Louise Bryson (J. Paul Getty Trust), and © 2012 by James Cuno and Thomas W. Bill Viola (Bill Viola Studio) Gaehtgens, respectively

To view or listen to the presentations, visit http://www.amacad.org/events/ statedmeetings/GettyCenter.

Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Summer 2012 33