A WORLD of ART, RESEARCH, CONSERVATION, and PHILANTHROPY | Winter 2019 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

A WORLD OF ART, RESEARCH, CONSERVATION, AND PHILANTHROPY | Winter 2019 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

theGETTY Winter 2019 TABLE OF President’s Message 3 n November 4, 1922, British archaeologist Howard CONTENTS Carter started his workday at a cluster of ancient New and Noteworthy 4 Ostone huts in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, the principal burial place of New Kingdom pharaohs. Although most other Conserving and Managing the Tomb of Tutankhamen 8 archaeologists considered the site exhausted, Carter dis- agreed and had ordered his crew to examine the soil beneath Conserving Canvas 12 the huts; plus his financial backer, amateur Egyptologist Lord Carnarvon, had given him one last season to find something Rediscovering a Renaissance Masterpiece: 16 really spectacular. Carter soon did: his crew had just discov- Pontormo’s Visitation ered a step cut into bedrock, the first of 16 leading down to the sealed, treasure-filled Tomb of Tutankhamen. A West Coast Center for African American 20 The tomb is now one of the most popular tourist sites in Art History the world, even though its constant flow of visitors has cre- ated numerous conservation concerns. Visitors damage the Book Excerpt 25 walls where they can reach them. Their breath raises humid- ity and carbon dioxide levels, thereby increasing the pos- New from Getty Publications 26 sibility of microbiological growth. Dust and lint from their clothing settles on the walls, obscuring the wall paintings From The Iris 28 and requiring cleaning that leads to cumulative loss. In 2009 officials at Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities became New Acquisition 29 so alarmed that they reached out to the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) for help with conservation and ongoing man- Getty Events 30 agement. In our cover story, the GCI’s Neville Agnew and Lori Wong review the collaboration that ensued, touching on Jim Cuno Exhibitions 34 the impressive team of experts involved, the nature of their research—the most thorough study of the tomb since Carter’s counterparts so that traditional techniques get passed down, From the Vault 35 time—and the solutions they devised to safeguard this mag- rather than lost forever. As you’ll discover in a story detailing nificent cultural heritage site now and in the future. the initiative, inaugural projects include the conservation of Leaders of the 16th-century Parish Church of Carmignano, Anthony van Dyck’s Equestrian Portrait of Charles I at the Italy, also reached out to the Getty for conservation help, National Gallery in London and the first major technical as you’ll read in another feature. Although the church’s examination and conservation of Thomas Gainsborough’s Renaissance altarpiece Visitation—a masterpiece by Jacopo The Blue Boy at the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and da Pontormo—underwent a complex conservation process in Botanical Gardens. 2014, the church itself still direly needs restoration. Church Another new Getty initiative focuses on a fundamental leaders asked Bruce Edelstein, coordinator for graduate yet under-researched field: African American art history. programs and advanced research at New York University in Launched last September by the Getty Research Institute Send correspondence and address Editor Art Director Florence, and Davide Gasparotto, senior curator of paint- (GRI), the ambitious African American Art History Initiative changes to ings at the Getty Museum, to organize an exhibition that has already enabled the acquisition of the archive of pioneer- Jennifer Roberts María Vélez Getty Communications would raise support for the church’s conservation. Our story ing artist Betye Saar. Over the next five years, as you’ll read, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 403 Designer explores the resulting international traveling exhibition, one the program will establish a dedicated curatorship in African Los Angeles, CA 90049 Jessica Robinson that opens at the Getty on February 5 and features the panel American Art History, a bibliographer with a specialty in the Email: [email protected] painting Visitation, its preparatory drawing, and other out- subject, annual research graduate and post-graduate fellow- Contributors standing works by Pontormo. ships, a program to conduct oral histories of notable African The conservation of paintings on canvas, the material American artists, and partnerships with institutions already Neville Agnew Carly Pippin Lori Wong favored by artists worldwide since the late 15th century, is committed to studying this field. Kellie Jones, MacArthur fel- On the cover: In one of three scenes depicted on the north wall of the burial chamber in the Tomb of Tutankhamen, Ay, Tutankhamen’s successor, James Cuno Jennifer Roberts Chelika Yapa also being advanced by the Getty. The Foundation recently low and professor in art history and archaeology at Columbia performs the “opening of the mouth” ceremony on Tutankhamen, who is launched Conserving Canvas, an international grant that University, is helping to shape the initiative together with an Amy Hood Alexandria Sivak depicted as Osiris, lord of the underworld. Photo © J. Paul Getty Trust supports the care of paintings on fabric as well as projects advisory committee of leading scholars, artists, curators, and © 2019 J. Paul Getty Trust Julie Jaskol Valerie Tate that bring together senior conservators and their younger champions of African American art.

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almost every aspect of the Getty, brought clarity, Other major Getty Foundation ini- vision, and selfless dedication to her work, and tiatives overseen by Marrow include the made loyal professional friends around the world.” Online Scholarly Catalogue Initiative In December Marrow stepped down from the (2008–2014) to help museums transi- Foundation, and she will officially retire in January tion their collections into readily shared 2020 after taking a year-long sabbatical. She will digital formats; Keeping It Modern, then assume the title of director emerita of the which focuses on the preservation of Getty Foundation. 20th-century architecture around the “It has been an honor and a privilege to work world; and Connecting Art Histories, an with so many global arts organizations and people effort to bring together international Tessa Murdoch Receives Getty Rothschild Fellowship around the world, and to witness the contributions scholars for sustained intellectual For 40 years, Dr. Tessa Murdoch has specialized in the history of decora- of our grantees in advancing the international exchange. tive arts, particularly the sumptuous luxury craftsmanship of Huguenot understanding of the visual arts,” says Marrow. Marrow has guided the Trust’s artists—Protestants who followed the teachings of John Calvin and “It will be very hard to leave the Getty, but it has philanthropic activity since 1989, whose persecution during the rule of Catholic monarch Louis XIV pro- been gratifying to work with the many talented col- and joined the Getty in 1983 as pub- voked one of the largest migration waves of the early modern period. leagues at all the Getty programs. Together we have lications coordinator. She began her Murdoch will now focus on a book about Huguenot refugee art and accomplished so much.” career at the Philadelphia Museum of culture from the Reformation to the 18th century, having been recently One of Marrow’s proudest achievements was the Art and taught art history at universi- awarded the third Getty Rothschild Fellowship. creation of the Getty Foundation’s Multicultural ties in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and The fellowship offers art historians, museum professionals, and con- Undergraduate Internship program, which over 26 Southern California. Marrow holds a BA servators the opportunity to study at both the Getty and at Waddesdon years has dedicated more than $13 million in grants cum laude and PhD in art history from Manor in Buckinghamshire, England. The manor was built by Baron to support some 3,300 internships at 160 local arts the University of Pennsylvania, and an Ferdinand de Rothschild to display his outstanding collection of 18th- institutions. In recognition of her dedication to the MA from the Johns Hopkins University. century French decorative arts, English portraits, and Dutch Old Master Getty and its mission, the Board of Trustees has Her original scholarly research area paintings, and is managed by the Rothschild Foundation on behalf of the renamed the internship program in her honor as is 17th-century European art and National Trust. the Getty Marrow Multicultural Undergraduate patronage, though she says that over Murdoch, who has held positions at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Internship program. her decades at the Getty she learned so the Museum of London, and the Smithsonian at the Cooper Hewitt Getty Foundation Director Deborah Marrow The Foundation’s largest initiative during much that she has turned from a spe- Museum of Design, considers the fellowship “a once in a lifetime oppor- to Retire Marrow’s tenure was Pacific Standard Time, which cialist in European art into a generalist tunity” to revisit and share four decades of research. “Building on the As director of the Getty Foundation for almost awarded approximately $28 million in grants to in the history and conservation of art knowledge of world-class collections, I will present the artistic achieve- three decades, Deborah Marrow has overseen dozens of cultural institutions across Southern from around the world. ments resulting from the Huguenot diaspora for the widest possible nearly 8,000 grants in more than 180 countries in California. The first PST iteration, Art in L.A. Over the past year, Marrow stew- readership,” she says. the areas of art history, conservation, museums, 1945–1980, told the story of the Los Angeles art arded the arrival of two new grantmak- Her book will explore the extraordinary international networks and professional development. She has guided scene. A second iteration, PST: LA/LA, extended ing initiatives. The first, Conserving resulting from the diaspora of an estimated 500,000 refugees from the Foundation to promote diversity in the arts that unprecedented collaborative model to fund Canvas (page 12), is advancing conser- France in the late 17th century, focusing on Huguenot silversmiths in and to connect scholarly communities around exhibitions and scholarly research focused on vation knowledge about paintings on Northern Europe and North America. The political, economic, and social the world so they can work on common cultural Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with canvas; the second, the Paper Project, context for this historical phenomenon is relevant for the 21st century, issues. She has also served as acting director of Los Angeles. In addition to generating attention to is strengthening the skills of prints and given the scale of the current refugee crisis. The book will be funded by the Getty Research Institute and twice as interim a little-studied field, PST: LA/LA involved nearly drawings curators. “I know that with the the Gilbert Trust and produced by the Victoria and Albert Museum. president of the Getty Trust. 2.8 million participants, supported 4,080 jobs, dedication and energy of my colleagues, The fellowship, administered by the Getty Foundation, provides “No one has contributed more to the life and and generated $430 million in economic output these initiatives, and all the great work housing, resources, and a stipend to one scholar each year, with time split mission of the Getty than Deborah,” says James across Southern California, according to a report of the Getty Foundation, will continue equally between the Getty and Waddesdon Manor. Past recipients are Cuno, president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty prepared by the Los Angeles County Economic unabated,” Marrow says. David Saunders, a foremost expert in conservation science, and Thomas Trust. “She has provided inspiring leadership in Development Corporation. P. Campbell, a former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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Keishia Gu Joins the Getty Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, The J. Paul Getty Museum has appointed Keishia Gu as head of education, a role that California; St. Brendan’s Community encompasses leading educational efforts at both the Getty Center and Getty Villa. Gu School, Birr, Ireland; Technische brings 20 years of K–12 and university teaching and administrative experience to the Universiteit Delft Auditorium, position, and was most recently the director of admissions and enrollment at Geffen Netherlands; the School of Mathematics Academy at the University of California, Los Angeles. at the Università degli Studi di Roma “We are delighted to welcome Keishia to the Getty Museum,” says Lisa Clements, “La Sapienza,” Rome, Italy; Collegi assistant director of Education, Public Programs, and Interpretive Content. “Keishia Universitari at the Università degli Studi excels at connecting high-level strategic planning, processes, and partnerships to di Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino, Italy; and the very individual educational outcomes of access, inquiry, and growth. Her thoughtful Engineering Building at the University approach is a good match for the quality and character of our educational programs, of Leicester, England. The Gateway Arch, since these programs span kindergarten through university institutional initiatives, St. Louis, Missouri, was also selected. teen programs, and on-site education for school groups and visitors.” The grant for the National Schools of Over the course of her career in Los Angeles, Gu has created programs that cov- Art of Havana is particularly important, ered diversity and inclusion strategic planning for the Independent School Alliance given the site’s architectural significance for Minority Affairs; led a college partnership initiative to create a seamless and as one of the first major cultural projects supportive education pathway for students at KIPP LA public charter schools; and built in Cuba following the country’s administered school policies related to academic integrity, curriculum, and socio- 1959 revolution. Another notable grant is emotional development at Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences. As a teacher, she for Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer’s produced a culturally relevant curriculum to engage diverse learners through the international fairground complex in Above: Simon Bobak (left) and Aline creation of signature classes utilizing art, hip-hop music, classic literature, and Lebanon, which highlights the struggle Genbrugge complete a surface Report on the Foundation’s Panel Paintings Initiative philosophy. to conserve sites ravaged by war and refinement after repairs. Image A report recently made available by the Getty Foundation pro- “I could not be more delighted to have joined the Getty Museum,” says Gu. “The decades of neglect. Other projects focus courtesy Aline Genbrugge vides an overview of its Panel Paintings Initiative, a decade- Getty is known for its expansive collection, dedication to research and scholarship, on modern materials and techniques not Opposite: Oscar Niemeyer’s Museum long grantmaking program to train the next generation of of Lebanon, Rashid Karami Interna- and is a beacon of art and culture in Los Angeles and beyond. I see museums as yet addressed by earlier grants, such as tional Fairground, Tripoli. Photo panel paintings conservators before the current experts among the most powerful academic tools—as communicators of culture and history— Eero Saarinen’s Gateway Arch, built with © UNESCO Beirut Office retire. The report summarizes key training and conservation

and I recognize artists as catalysts for social change.” an ingenious double wall of carbon steel Below: The Gateway Arch, St. Louis, projects, including the restoration of Leonardo da Vinci’s and stainless steel. Missouri, in fall. Photo: NPS Adoration of the Magi (1481), Albrecht Dürer’s Adam and Eve A feature article exploring the work (1507), Peter Paul Rubens’s The Triumph of the Eucharist enabled by these grants will appear in a (1626), Hubert and Jan van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece (1432), future issue of The Getty magazine. and Giorgio Vasari’s Last Supper (1546). New Keeping It Modern Grants The report also highlights the initiative’s positive out- The Getty Foundation has now completed comes over the past 10 years. Among its accomplishments: the five years of grantmaking for Keeping It skills gap has been closed, since a new generation of conserva- Modern, an initiative dedicated to pre- tors is now prepared to undertake complex structural treat- serving significant architecture of the ments of panel paintings. Grants awarded by the Foundation 20th century around the globe. Since have allowed participants at all career levels to work on some the program launched in 2014, grants of the most significant masterpieces in the history of Western have supported 54 international projects art. These individuals have also created stronger professional that have helped to advance conserva- networks through international workshops supported by the tion practice. In October the Foundation Foundation, and have more resources in the form of open- announced 11 new grants, including the access digital publications and new translations of important first Keeping It Modern projects awarded historical texts critical to the field of panel paintings conser- for the conservation of buildings in vation. Meanwhile public projects have brought the work of Cuba, Lebanon, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the initiative to an even wider audience—through museum Georgia, and Ireland. exhibitions as well as innovative digital applications that pro- The 2018 buildings selected for vide open access to key artworks and artists, such as the Ghent funding are: The National Schools of Altarpiece and the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. Art of Havana, Cuba; Rashid Karami To read or download the report, visit the Getty Foundation’s International Fairground, Tripoli, website. Lebanon; the History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo; Chess Palace and Alpine Club, Tbilisi, Georgia; Salk

6 7 By Neville Agnew Senior Principal Project Specialist and Lori Wong Project Specialist Getty Conservation Institute

ince ancient Egyptians believed so pro- foundly in the afterlife, one might imagine Sthat the boy king Tutankhamen (ruled 1332–1323 BCE) was luckier in death than dur- ing his time on earth, which was probably shorter than 20 years. Not only did his mummy survive the depredations of tomb robbers, the bane of royal graves throughout pharaonic history, but so did his grave goods, although archaeological evidence suggests that attempts were made to rob his tomb. Ironically, it appears that a flood, ordinarily the destroyer of a subterranean tomb, saved it from being plundered. Flood debris bur- ied the entrance soon after it was sealed, and the tomb was lost to memory for more than 3,000 years. When the tomb was discovered by archae- ologist Howard Carter and his patron Lord Carnarvon in 1922, the media frenzy that fol- lowed was unprecedented, and continues to this day. Carter and his team took 10 years to clear the tomb, so great was the density of objects— golden treasures that Carter himself described as “wonderful things.” Carter must be credited for the pioneering documentation and stabilization of the tomb’s contents. These incredible grave goods, now on display in Cairo, continue to draw dense crowds, and Tutankhamen exhibitions travel the world. If, as according to the ancient CONSERVING Egyptians, a man dies twice—first when his soul AND MANAGING THE leaves his body and a second time after the death of the last person who speaks his name—the boy king Tutankhamen will outlive us all. While the objects Carter’s team so assidu- TOMB OF ously catalogued and stabilized were housed and secured, the tomb itself became a “must-see” attraction for visitors willing to pay an extra fee. Since its discovery, the tomb of Tutankhamen has been open to the public and has been heavily visited. The tomb still houses a handful of original TUTANKHAMEN objects, including the mummy of Tutankhamen himself, the quartzite sarcophagus with its gran- ite lid on the floor beside it, the gilded wooden The project team undertakes wall painting conservation in the tomb of Tutankhamen’s outermost coffin, and the wall paintings of the burial chamber. Photo: Lori Wong burial chamber.

9 Concerns for Preservation tourism industry caused by the turmoil for sustainable maintenance and visita- The great demand for entry to the small of recent years. Undoubtedly, visitor tion of the tomb. Because the project tomb gave rise to concerns among numbers will swell again when stability allowed for unprecedented study of the Egyptian authorities about the condi- is reestablished, and when they do, the tomb and its wall paintings, its findings tion of the wall paintings. It was thought tomb’s inherent fragility will remain a have provided a deeper understand- that the brown spots—microbiological concern. ing of tomb construction and decora- growths on the burial chamber’s painted tion practices from the New Kingdom. walls—were growing, threatening to Conservation Planning The findings have also shed light on engulf the paintings. “Your last chance to These concerns prompted a multi- the tomb’s condition and the causes of see Tutankhamen’s tomb,” read a news year collaboration between the Getty its deterioration, and have helped the blog from The Guardian. “Visitors are Conservation Institute (GCI) and development of measures to counter causing so much damage to the tomb Egyptian authorities. In 2009 Egypt’s ongoing risks. of Tutankhamen that Egypt’s Supreme Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Council of Antiquities wants to close it and the GCI initiated a collaborative Implementing the Plan and open a replica instead.” project principally focused on the inte- Tutankhamen’s tomb is simple in com- The apprehension over the impact grated conservation and management parison with other royal tombs in the of visitors on the tomb is well founded, of the tomb and its wall paintings, to valley. With only four chambers, it is since visitors introduce humidity and ensure a sustainable future. The GCI one of the smallest. (In contrast, the carbon dioxide, as well as dust and lint. already had considerable experience tomb of the sons of Ramesses II, KV 5, Humidity promotes microbiological working in Egypt on the Tomb of Queen the largest in the valley, has more than On the east wall of the burial growth, and may also physically stress Nefertari project in the Valley of the 130 chambers and is still being exca- chamber, Tutankhamen’s mummy to mechanical damage caused by visitors. Newly under magnification and then mounted in cross the wall paintings when the amount of Queens (1986–1992) and on the plan for vated.) Even for a tomb of a historically is shown lying in a shrine mounted designed barriers now restrict visitor access in section. Analytical investigation confirmed that on a sledge, being drawn by 12 water vapor in the air fluctuates. Carbon the conservation and management of insignificant king, its diminutive size men in five groups. The men wear these areas. Further losses can be connected to the spots were microbiological in origin, but con- dioxide creates an uncomfortable atmo- the Valley of the Queens Project (begin- is unusual, as is its location in the main white mourning bands over their physical interventions on the paintings, such as cluded that they were dead, and thus no longer a brows. The last pair, distinguished sphere for visitors themselves. But per- ning in 2006). As with all GCI site proj- valley rather than in the neighbor- by their shaven heads and different dusting. The installation of a filtered air supply threat. Because the spots have penetrated the paint haps even more harmful has been the ects, intensive study and documentation ing Western Valley, where other 18th dress, are the two viziers of Upper and exhaust ventilation system in 2015, and the layer, they were not removed, since this would and Lower Egypt. Photo: Carleton physical damage to the wall paintings. of the condition were the first order Dynasty rulers, including his successor, Immersive Media Studio, Carleton implementation of recommendations to limit harm the wall paintings. Close examination of the condition of of business, with the wall paintings a the pharaoh Ay, are buried. University visitor numbers, will help control humidity and The project was completed in the fall of 2018. A the surfaces shows an accumulation of focus, given the claims of their perilous These circumstances tend to con- carbon dioxide levels and also mitigate dust intru- bilingual maintenance manual for the installations damage, including scratches and abra- state. The GCI—mandated to investigate firm the widely accepted belief that sion. These measures will lessen the need for in the tomb was provided, together with training sion in areas close to where visitors have the tomb’s actual condition—went on after Tutankhamen’s untimely death, dusting, thus helping reduce risk of damage to the for SCA personnel. Also offered: recommendations access, and from inadvertent damage to carry out the most thorough study the tomb was hastily adapted from one paintings. for visitor numbers and management that include likely caused by film crews with equip- since Carter’s time. The team of experts already under construction. This might Wall painting stabilization was undertaken, guidelines for filming inside the tomb. ment operating in the burial chamber’s included an Egyptologist to conduct also explain why only the burial cham- including paint flaking stabilization, plaster Looking forward, a symposium is planned for tight spaces. Dust is also a serious prob- background research; environmental ber was decorated; the other cham- repairs, dust removal, and reduction of coatings early 2019, during which the project will be pre- lem in the tomb. The visitors constantly engineers to investigate the tomb’s bers were left with the bare rock walls from previous treatments. (Past treatments were sented. A monograph will be published, as well as pouring through carry dust on their microclimatic conditions; microbi- exposed. Also, technical inconsistencies not always based on thorough understanding of the a book for the general public. Conservation work shoes and clothing that settles on the ologists to study the brown spots; in the paintings were observed from paintings’ conditions and the causes of their dete- at other heavily visited sites, meanwhile, can be floor and horizontal surfaces. A more documentation specialists, architects, wall to wall, including differences in rioration.) Condition monitoring protocols were informed by what was learned in Tutankhamen’s serious consequence is that the dust and designers to upgrade the tomb’s setting-out technique and the omission also established to better evaluate future changes. tomb. forms a gray veil on the uneven surfaces infrastructure; scientists to study the of a ground layer on one of the walls— Another major concern has been the mystery “This project has greatly expanded our under- of the walls, obscuring the brightness of original materials of the wall paintings; again suggesting haste in the tomb’s of the brown spots that mar the painted surfaces. standing of one of antiquity’s best-known sites,” the paintings and necessitating cleaning, and conservators to carry out condition preparation. Other tombs do not show the same phenomenon, says Tim Whalen, John E. and Louise Bryson which increases the risk of paint loss. recording and treatment and to train The paintings were in relatively and the spots were already present when Carter Director of the Getty Conservation Institute. “It’s The effects of high humidity (a con- local conservators. stable condition, apart from localized first entered the tomb. Egyptian authorities won- also representative of the kind of collaborative cern for the paintings), excessive carbon The objectives of this collaborative flaking and loss of paint. Flaking was dered if the presence of visitors was causing spots effort the GCI undertakes with colleagues to cre- dioxide, crowding, and poor presenta- project were to conserve the paintings; especially prevalent with the black and to grow, so research was conducted to identify the ate a model of practice that can be shared and used tion have also made for an unpleasant improve environmental conditions; red pigments on the east and west walls, microorganisms and determine if they posed a at other sites around the world. So much cultural visitor experience as tides of humanity upgrade the infrastructure (lighting, but not on the north and south walls. continued risk to the paintings. A comparison of heritage is at risk, and without the engagement of flow in and out of the tomb. Like the walkways, viewing platform, and ven- Because of this irregularity, the flak- the spots with historic photographs from the mid- skilled professionals, it will disappear. That’s why golden treasure that the tomb formerly tilation) and presentation (signage ing was likely due to inconsistencies 1920s showed no new growth. To confirm this find- we partner with conservation colleagues interna- held, ticket sales have been a golden and interpretive materials); undertake in the materials used and their appli- ing, DNA and chemical analyses were undertaken tionally to expand the body of knowledge needed egg—at least prior to the collapse of the training of staff; and devise a program cation. Other losses were attributed and physical samples of the spots were examined to care for our shared cultural legacy.”

10 11 By Carly Pippin Communications Specialist Getty Foundation

CONSERVING Canvas

ver since the late 15th century, the majority of It took until the 1980s for museum conservators to begin paintings worldwide have been painted on canvas. reevaluating the invasive nature of canvas lining. They ulti- EArtists switched over to this material—historically mately decided to steer away from the practice, ushering in a made from woven hemp or flax fibers—because it offered a new era of minimal intervention focused on altering existing cheaper, lighter-weight, and more portable alternative to artworks as little as possible. wooden panels. Today canvas is ubiquitous, with museums Although minimal intervention is still considered best across the globe displaying masterpieces on canvas, whether practice, it has come at a price. A growing number of conser- Old-Master paintings or modern or contemporary artworks. vators have little, if any, experience with lining, a once-rou- The Huntington’s senior paintings development activities: conservation treatments University in New Haven. Additional grants will conservator Christina O’Connell To advance the care of these paintings, the Getty tine structural conservation procedure. And those who do positions an Hi-R NEO 900 Haag- of paintings (ranging from Old Master to 20th- follow and are expected to expand the initiative’s Foundation recently announced Conserving Canvas, an are nearing the end of their careers. As a result, many con- Streit microscope to study The Blue century works), seminars, training residencies, international scope. In the meantime, several of Boy. The microscope, designed for international grant initiative dedicated to both the conser- servators feel unprepared to line the select paintings that ophthalmology and hand surgery, workshops, and a major symposium. the inaugural projects are already underway. vation of paintings on fabric supports and the continued would benefit from the practice. They have also expressed a is on loan from Haag-Streit USA. “Conservators need a broad range of experience Photo: The Huntington Library, Art training of conservators. lack of confidence in their ability to conserve the many lined Collections, and Botanical Gardens so that when they encounter a painting best served The National Gallery, London paintings waiting in storage to be repaired. by a major structural treatment, it is not an insur- At the National Gallery, a Getty grant is supporting For a Painting to Survive, So Must Its Canvas “Through extensive dialogue with experts around the mountable hurdle,” says Laura Rivers, associate the conservation of Anthony van Dyck’s Equestrian Over the centuries, to protect canvas paintings from dam- world and here at the Getty, we’ve learned that conser- paintings conservator at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Portrait of Charles I. This monumental painting age, the people who cared for these works undertook a vators are eager to understand the full range of current “Through hands-on practice, as well as conversa- on canvas portrays the king as the divinely chosen practice called lining. Lining involves securing the canvas treatment options available for canvas paintings,” says tion and exchange, conservators around the world ruler of Great Britain. Over the past 133 years, the support by attaching another canvas to the back, a process Antoine Wilmering, the senior program officer at the Getty will be better able to care for the paintings in their painting has rarely been off-view, so it comes as no thought to create a stronger surface more resistant to rips Foundation who oversees Conserving Canvas. “These collections.” surprise that the lining has begun to show signs and tears. options may include lining or relining a canvas, removing The Getty Foundation launched Conserving of wear. Old tears in the canvas have lifted at the Although a lining could sometimes improve a painting’s a lining and its adhesives, tear mending with needle and Canvas with grants awarded to seven institutions edges, and surface cracks, which indicate that the longevity, it could also be injurious. Early conservators used thread, or any other type of intervention.” across the United States and Europe: the Fine painting has been rolled in the past, now disrupt adhesives such as honey and sturgeon glue—derived from To ensure that traditional techniques get passed on, Arts Museums in San Francisco; the Huntington the image. the bladder of the sturgeon fish—to adhere one canvas onto Conserving Canvas is funding projects that bring senior Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens “This majestic painting reflects van Dyck at another, unfailingly attracting vermin unless pesticides conservators together with their younger counterparts to in San Marino; Statens Historiska Museer in the height of his powers,” says Larry Keith, head of were also applied. Other caretakers used hot, handheld irons share knowledge. The initiative is also enabling the profes- Stockholm; Stichting Restauratie Atelier Limburg conservation and keeper at the National Gallery and wax-resin adhesives to fuse two canvases together, a sional dissemination of historical and current treatment (SRAL) in Maastricht; the National Gallery in in London, who is overseeing his institution’s risky maneuver that could accidentally melt the paint layer. approaches. Grants are supporting a variety of professional London; the University of Glasgow; and Yale Conserving Canvas grant. “We are quite thrilled

13 at the prospect of relining this painting The University of Glasgow thanks to Getty Foundation support, and A Getty grant to the University of Glasgow is to bringing it back into the public eye.” supporting a series of object-based workshops The complex conservation inter- designed to foster interdisciplinary communica- vention—led by experienced National tion among pairs of conservators and curators. Gallery conservators—is allowing Since both groups are concerned with the care museum professionals from a variety of of collections at museums, the workshops are institutions to work together to remove providing an opportunity to gain a common and replace the current lining. understanding of the canvas paintings under their “Lining must be handled with great stewardship. sensitivity, a modern understanding of The program began in June 2018 with a two- the science of the materials and their day workshop that enabled experienced paintings behaviors, and extensive craft skill,” says conservators to meet with early-to-mid-career Keith. “The idea of cross-pollinating conservators. Together they examined and dis- these kinds of skills and giving people cussed the appearance, condition, treatment exposure to work done in a museum history, and options for structural conservation environment is a very positive develop- treatments of paintings from the collections of ment for the field.” the Hunterian, the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS), and Glasgow Museums. The Huntington Almost 50 years of painting conservation in At the Huntington Library, Art the United Kingdom was represented among Collections, and Botanical Gardens, the participants of the workshop, the eldest Project Blue Boy, the first major techni- two attendees having taught many of the other techniques such as tear mending; mist lining Above: Conservators at the Stichting Restauratie Atelier Limburg (SRAL) cal examination and conservation of assembled conservators. As one trainee reported, (the addition of an adhesive to a lining that, once prepare the back of a canvas for Thomas Gainsborough’s The Blue Boy, the gathering resulted in “a holistic meeting of dry, is activated and pressed onto the painting); mist lining. Image courtesy SRAL began this past September. The canvas minds and the sharing of a breadth of knowledge reweaving (the patching or sewing together of Opposite: Equestrian Portrait of is among the most famous paintings in from the historical to the structural regarding the torn threads using surgical wire); and loose/strip Charles I, 1637–1638, Anthony van Dyck. © The National Gallery, the Huntington’s collection, having been paintings under discussion.” lining (the hammering of a full lining or fabric London on display for nearly 100 years without Among the paintings examined were the strip to a frame to remove tension from the origi- interruption. Despite the artwork receiv- Hunterian’s Lady Maynard (1760) by Sir Joshua nal canvas). ing the best of care, conservation treat- Reynolds and The Abdication of Mary Queen of Even before Conserving Canvas was ment is now necessary to address lifting Scots (1765–1773) by Gavin Hamilton; Glasgow announced, voices from the field affirmed the and flaking paint, the accrual of layers of Museums’ John McCall of Belvidere and Family timeliness of the initiative. In a May 2018 article varnish on the painting’s surface, and the (1765–1769); and NGS’s Rabbi with Cat (1912) for AIC News, a publication of the American separation of the painted canvas from its by Natalya Goncharova and Soldier in a Wood Institute for Conservation, Jim Coddington, support lining. (1911) by Mikhail Larionov. Following further former Agnes Gund Chief Conservator at To ensure the best possible out- workshops, participants will complete individual the Museum of Modern Art, and Christina come, a Getty grant is bringing highly residencies in Scotland to perform conservation Young, head of technical art history at Glasgow respected conservation experts in 18th- treatments on the five selected paintings. University, summarized a need to address the century British canvas paintings to the practice of structural conservation of paintings. Huntington to finalize the treatment Looking Ahead “The time is ripe [for paintings conservators] plan for the painting—a process that While some inaugural Conserving Canvas proj- to more fully engage with recent research; to includes determining the best approach ects are underway, others are yet to begin. These develop new research initiatives that can truly for addressing the separation between include the conservation of François Boucher’s validate current practice; and to introduce new, the original canvas and its aged support Over the course of a year, O’Connell is awareness of what it takes to pre- Vertumnus and Pomona (1757) at the Legion of more refined, materials, techniques, and theories lining. A cohort of outside conserva- undertaking a technical examination serve treasured works of art, as well Honor (part of the Fine Arts Museums in San for these treatments,” they concluded. tors has been invited to participate in and analysis that will include magnified as involving worldwide colleagues in Francisco) and a major international symposium The Getty Foundation looks forward to par- the process; however, they aren’t the investigation using a special Haag-Streit the treatment to share expertise,” says on the conservation of canvas paintings, orga- ticipating in this movement and partnering with only ones able to observe the treatment. surgical microscope, paint stabilization, O’Connell. “It is a win-win. The con- nized by Yale’s Institute for the Preservation of institutions around the world to advance the care Visitors can watch the Huntington’s surface cleaning, and the removal of servation field gets stronger, and non- Cultural Heritage, to be held at Yale in October of paintings on canvas. senior paintings conservator Christina non-original varnish and overpaint. specialists can better understand how 2019. Forthcoming grant-supported seminars O’Connell work on the painting as part “Project Blue Boy is remarkable in ongoing care keeps artworks safe for the at SRAL and Statens Historiska Museer will of a dedicated in-gallery experience. that we are giving the public greater enjoyment of future generations.” offer training in modern canvas conservation

15 By Chelika Yapa Getty Staff Writer in conversation with Davide Gasparotto Senior Curator of Paintings, J. Paul Getty Museum

n 1527, Florence expelled the ruling Medici completed in Florence in 2014, has led to new family and established itself as a republic. Just insights into the painting and its modello, as well Itwo years later, though, it was under siege by as other works by Pontormo, including the Getty’s imperial forces fighting to return the Medici family celebrated Portrait of a Halberdier and the exqui- to power. While the republic struggled to make its site, recently rediscovered Portrait of a Young Man last stand for freedom, the people of Florence suf- in a Red Cap, on loan from a private collector. fered greatly. Says Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty “The city was blockaded from receiving food Museum, “The Visitation is the pride of the Parish and supplies, some 36,000 people died primarily Church of Carmignano. We are honored to sup- of starvation, and others were sickened by regular port the church’s conservation efforts while giving outbreaks of the plague,” says Davide Gasparotto, our visitors the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to senior curator of paintings at the J. Paul Getty see this mesmerizing masterpiece, together with a Museum. group of outstanding works from a short but pro- Yet in the midst of this crisis, life somehow lific period in Pontormo’s life.” went on—merchants sold their wares, and artists such as Jacopo da Pontormo kept painting. A proud The Genesis of the Exhibition Florentine who rarely left the city, Pontormo Buildings that house great Renaissance artworks was not about to flee. “He sought commissions are often as old as the artworks themselves. That from fellow Florentines who chose to stay,” says is true of the church where the Visitation is sited, Gasparotto. “And his works reflect responses to which is in urgent need of restoration. Church the siege in interesting ways. Some of his portraits leaders asked Edelstein and Gasparotto to organize preserve the sitter’s image for posterity, and others an exhibition to raise support for the conserva- depict handsome young men in new military fash- tion of the Parish Church as well as the former ions ready to defend the republic. His devotional Franciscan convent of San Michele Arcangelo. paintings, meanwhile, offered solace to the faithful Both curators were enthusiastic about taking the as they prayed at their altars for deliverance from Visitation on its first-ever international tour to strife, hunger, and disease.” create awareness of how cities like Carmignano, REDISCOVERING A One such devotional work, the Visitation (c. though small and off the tourist path, are rich in art 1528–1529), anchors the international traveling and architecture—while also helping raise aware- RENAISSANCE MASTERPIECE exhibition Pontormo: Miraculous Encounters, ness of the church’s conservation needs. co-curated by Gasparotto and Bruce Edelstein, “By building an exhibition around the coordinator for graduate programs and advanced Visitation, which depicts a miraculous encounter, research at New York University in Florence. A Bruce Edelstein and I endeavored to create ‘mirac- Opposite from left: The Visitation (de- tail), about 1528–1529, Pontormo. great masterpiece of Italian Renaissance painting, ulous encounters’ of a sort among Pontormo’s Oil on wood panel. Parrocchia di San the Visitation has captured the imagination of art devotional paintings, portraits, and preparatory Michele Arcangelo a Carmignano (Prato). Su concessione della So- historians over the centuries. With its surprisingly drawings, to illuminate his genius and creative PONTORMO’S VISITATION printendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e modern elements, it has also inspired contempo- process,” says Gasparotto. The painting depicts the Paesaggio per la Città Metropolitana di Firenze e per le Province di Pistoia rary artists including the influential video artist Biblical story of the Virgin Mary’s meeting with her e Prato. Image © Antonio Quattrone, Bill Viola. cousin Saint Elizabeth; both are sharing the news Florence The exhibition reunites the Visitation, an that they are expecting sons. The Virgin Mary is Study for the Visitation (detail), exceptional loan from the Parish Church of pregnant with Jesus, and Saint Elizabeth, signifi- about 1528–1529, Pontormo. Black chalk, traces of white chalk, Carmignano, Italy, with its modello (a study that cantly older and childless for many years, is preg- squared with red chalk. Gallerie degli is also a finished drawing) from the Gallerie degli nant with Saint John the Baptist. The cousins hold Uffizi, Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe, Florence. Image © Roberto Uffizi in Florence. Also on view are several por- one another while two handmaidens gaze outward, Palermo / Gabinetto Fotografico delle traits and studies Pontormo created between 1528 engaging the viewer. Gallerie degli Uffizi / Su concessione del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività and 1530. Scientific analysis of the Visitation con- The exhibition was jointly organized by Culturali e del Turismo ducted in 2013, prior to its magnificent restoration three museums: the Uffizi Gallery, where it was

17 Art historians date the painting to 1528–1529, based on stylistic evidence rather than documents. “We assume that the Visitation was painted a few years after the artist’s famous Entombment of Christ in the church of Santa Felicita,” says Gasparotto. The existence of the painting was first recorded in 1677, indirectly by Giovanni Cinelli, an author of a guidebook on Florence, who mentions a modello he sees in the private collection of Andrea Pitti in Florence. Cinelli notes that this modello is for a painting in a villa owned by the Pinadori family near Carmignano. At some point, probably in the early 18th century, the Visitation was moved to the altar of the Parish Church of Carmignano. The opening in the stonework of the altar in the Parish Church does not match the size of the paint- ing—a clear indicator that it was not intended for presented as Incontri miracolosi: of the Sistine Chapel in the 1990s, 159 centimeters). Infrared reflectogra- the painting. Much later, a dedication was added Pontormo dal disegno alla pittura, from notes Gasparotto. Before restoration, phy reveals that the squares in the mod- to the altar displaying the Visitation. Still, scholars May 8 to July 29, 2018; the Morgan Michelangelo’s painted scenes seemed ello correspond directly to the squares do not know the painting’s original intended loca- Library & Museum in New York, where somber; after they were cleaned, in the underdrawing of the painting. tion. The fact that it ended up in a peripheral spot it was titled Pontormo: Miraculous though, extremely bright and rich colors “The precision of the underdrawing that may have been the result of the siege of Florence. Encounters, from September 7, 2018, to emerged, fulfilling once again the art- you can see from the infrared reflec- Perhaps the painting was intended for a church January 6, 2019; and the Getty Museum, ist’s intent that the frescoes could be tography is very typical of Florentine that was destroyed during the conflict. In 1529, where it goes on view February 5 and viewed from a distance of some 60 feet. painting, as opposed to say, Venetian many buildings just outside the city walls were runs through April 28, 2019. “I am sure that Pontormo studied the painting, where you would never see razed by the Florentines themselves to protect the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, as well as such precise drawing on the panel’s sur- Above: Portrait of a Young Man in depiction, Pontormo’s sources of inspiration city from the Imperial troops surrounding them. a Red Cap (Carlo Neroni?), about New Insights into the Artist’s Michelangelo’s famous panel painting face,” says Gasparotto. 1530, Pontormo. Oil on wood panel. for this highly original composition include a “Pontormo was a giant—an extraordinary Collection of Mr. and Mrs. J. Tomilson Creative Process Doni Tondo (1505–1506), which is now Typically, artists of the era used a Hill. Image courtesy Shepherd medieval mosaic from the Baptistery of Florence. painter and a superb draftsman whose work An altarpiece, the Visitation had been in the Uffizi,” Gasparotto adds. cartoon (a full-scale drawing), rubbed Conservation, London Created circa 1280–1285 by an unknown master, influenced artists into the 20th century,” says damaged by the ravages of time, clean- Other details that emerged following the reverse side with a substance such this mosaic also depicts the Visitation, show- Gasparotto. “This exhibition illuminates new ideas Opposite from left: Study for the Visi- ings, and soot from the burning of restoration give the Visitation an almost as charcoal, and traced it onto the gesso tation, about 1528–1529, Pontormo. ing the cousins Mary and Elizabeth embracing about his creative process and how the original- Black chalk, traces of white chalk, candles. The complex restoration of surreal quality. Visible now are the (plaster) on the panel. In contrast, squared with red chalk. Gallerie degli outside Zechariah and Elizabeth’s home as their ity of his compositions transformed devotional this panel painting—oil paint on poplar miniscule images of two men, possibly Pontormo enlarges the modello by Uffizi, Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle attendants look on, as Edelstein’s research has and portrait painting in Florence. Pontormo: Stampe, Florence. Image © Roberto wood—was completed in 2014 by con- Joseph and Zechariah, the husbands of transferring the composition square Palermo / Gabinetto Fotografico delle pointed out. Miraculous Encounters is a rare exhibition, not to servator Daniele Rossi in Florence. The Mary and Saint Elizabeth, seated on a by square onto the panel, drawing free- Gallerie degli Uffizi / Su concessione Another important influence was Albrecht be missed.” del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività brilliant colors of the women’s robes palace bench near a donkey. According hand. “Pontormo’s beautiful modello Culturali e del Turismo Dürer’s prints, which were extremely popular and other details that had long been lost to the Gospel of Luke, the Virgin Mary shows an advanced stage of his creative in Italy in the early 16th century, particularly The Visitation, about 1528–1529, were at last revealed. and Joseph traveled to Hebron, in the process, where he has more or less Pontormo. Oil on wood panel. Par- in Florence. “Pontormo was a huge admirer of The exhibition catalogue, Miraculous “The painting had been covered hill country of Judea, where they stayed decided on everything—the door, the rocchia di San Michele Arcangelo a Dürer,” says Gasparotto. “I’m sure he saw or Encounters: Pontormo from Drawing to Painting Carmignano (Prato). Su concessione in layers of discolored varnishes in the home of Saint Elizabeth and stairs, the other building,” explains della Soprintendenza Archeologia, maybe even owned a copy of Dürer’s print of four edited by Bruce Edelstein and Davide Gasparotto, and repaintings,” says Gasparotto. Zechariah. Another detail that became Gasparotto. “You can see the great Belle Arti e Paesaggio per la Città powerful female figures—Four Naked Women. He is available for purchase online. Metropolitana di Firenze e per le “Following its restoration, we can fully visible is the tiny figure of a woman attention to the draping of the pro- Province di Pistoia e Prato. Image © was impressed by the monumental articulation Pontormo: Miraculous Encounters is gener- appreciate the incredible beauty and hanging laundry, a commonplace activ- tagonists’ robes that was very much his Antonio Quattrone, Florence of the four figures in space.” ously supported by Janine and J. Tomilson Hill. richness of the colors—the nuances of ity that allows the viewer to better iden- trademark. Yet, he changed some details Infared reflectography of the Additional support is provided by the Foundation the pinks, blues, greens, and oranges, tify with the scene. when painting, continuing to elaborate Visitation. Su concessione della So- A Possible Patron and Other Clues for Italian Art and Culture (FIAC). printendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e and how their interplay gives the overall Scientific analysis done prior to on the composition.” Paesaggio per la Città Metropolitana Pontormo’s brilliant color palette may owe some- The Pontormo traveling exhibition is intended composition an almost abstract pat- conservation showed conclusively di Firenze e per le Province di Pistoia thing to Bonaccorso Pinadori, an apothecary to support conservation of the Parish Church tern.” Art historians understood much that Pontormo used a technique called The Artist’s Sources of Inspiration e Prato. Image © Teobaldo Pasquali who regularly sold him pigments and was likely and the former Franciscan convent of San Michele more about Pontormo’s palette after the “squaring” to transfer his black chalk Though thoroughly modern in its the original patron of the painting. Though the Arcangelo in Carmignano, Italy. Please visit Vatican’s conservation-restoration of modello to the panel, which measures perspective, with a zooming-in of the Visitation is famous today, little information pontormo.it for more information. Michelangelo’s frescoes on the ceiling approximately seven by five feet (207 by four women that nearly abstracts their exists about its origins.

18 19 A West Coast Center for African American Art History

n the early 1960s, Los Angeles rivaled New York as a major center for contempo- rary art. Larry Bell, Billy Al Bengston, Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, and other IFerus Gallery artists seized national attention for “Cool School” work inspired by LA’s abundant light and space; African American artists such as Melvin Edwards, William Pajaud, Charles White, and Betye Saar, meanwhile, created assemblages and other groundbreaking pieces animated by the civil rights movement. This latter group, largely marginalized by white galleries and museums, found a supportive audience in the many African Americans migrating to LA for its economic opportunities and ethos of social acceptance. Alternative exhibition spaces sprung up in homes, churches, busi- nesses, and artist-owned galleries like Gallery 32 and the Brockman Gallery, and soon traditional venues took notice. The Dickson Art Center at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), presented an exhibition of African American work in 1966; muse- ums around the country, and the world, eventually followed. And yet, some 60 years later, many consider African American art an under- researched and under-funded field. As Betty Saar, now 92, recently told the Los Angeles Times, “It’s taken a long, long time for the art world in general to figure out that there are African American artists. And it still has a long way to go.” The Getty Research Institute (GRI) wants to change that. Joining other institu- tions’ efforts, in October it launched the African American Art History Initiative, an ambitious program to establish the GRI as a major center for the study of African American art history. The initiative’s first action was to acquire Saar’s archive—which ranges from 1926, the year she was born, to the present, covering her entire life as an artist. Drawing on an initial allocation of $5 million, the GRI will roll out many more plans over the next five years, all developed in consultation with senior consul- tant Kellie Jones, MacArthur fellow and professor in art history and archaeology at Columbia University, together with an advisory committee of leading scholars, art- ists, curators, and champions of African American art. That committee now includes Andrea Barnwell Brownlee, director of the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art; art historian Andrianna Campbell; Erin Christovale, curator at UCLA’s Hammer Museum; professor Bridget Cooks; Tate Modern curator Mark Godfrey; Getty Trustee Pamela Joyner; Richard Powell, the John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art & Art History at Duke University; Katy Siegel, the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Endowed Chair in Modern American Art at Stony Brook University; and LA-based artist Gary Simmons. Jones previously crossed paths with the Getty as curator of Now Dig This!: Art Black Girl’s Window, 1969, Betye & Black Los Angeles, 1960–1980, an exhibition at the Hammer presented through Saar. Wooden window frame with painted pasted paper, lenticular print, the Getty’s initiative Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945–1980. Jones’s two-year daguerreotype, and plastic figurine. term began in July, and she has already been featured in the initiative’s first public Collection of Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. Gift of Candace King Weir through The Modern Women’s Fund, and Committee on Painting and Sculpture Funds. Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los By Jennifer Roberts Angeles, California Editor, Getty Magazine

20 Getty, the first of which, conducted by Kellie Jones and Judith discussion with the California African American Wilson, brought together avant-garde artists Senga Nengudi, Museum, Art + Practice in Los Angeles, and the Maren Hassinger, Ulysses Jenkins, and Barbara McCullough, Studio Museum in Harlem. Recent Getty Medal collaborators in the 1970s and 1980s in LA. The second event, winner Thelma Golden is director and chief led by Damon Willick and Carolyn Peter, explored Gallery curator of the latter. The Getty Museum, too, 32 and featured its founder Suzanne Jackson as well as will mount exhibitions of African American art, Saar and Timothy Washington. Peabody also recently pub- including 21 recently acquired photographs from lished Consuming Stories: Kara Walker and the Imagining of Gordon Parks’s photo essay for Life magazine American Race, an examination of Walker’s powerful, contro- about a young Brazilian boy. The Museum has also versial work and what it reveals about how Americans think committed to building a collection of photographs about race over time and in different creative media. by African American photographers. A partnership with the Oral History Center at The Betye Saar Papers the University of California, Berkeley, will yield Saar’s archive adds to the GRI’s existing African American one-on-one interviews with 15 long-practicing holdings representing material from Ed Bereal, Mark artists—capturing details of their childhoods, for- Bradford, Harry Drinkwater, Melvin Edwards, Benjamin mative experiences, and all the raw material that Patterson, Adrian Piper, Lorna Simpson, and Kara Walker. scholars rely on. 0n the list so far: David Driskell, program: on December 4 at the Getty Center she spoke about “The Betye Saar Papers” is the GRI’s first complete African Fred Eversley, Richard Mayhew, Howardena the global reaches of Latin American and African American American archive, however, and was chosen as the initiative’s Pindell, and Betye Saar. performance artists—among them Senga Nengudi and Adrian foundational acquisition for several reasons. “In addition to the experts at the Oral History Piper—during the 1970s. Her talk was the inaugural Thomas “For one, Saar is a Los Angeles-based artist, so her archive Center, we’ve partnered with scholars of African and Barbara Gaehtgens Lecture and was sponsored by the immediately connects with the GRI’s strengths in LA-based American art and history to help us capture these Betye Saar, Work Journal, 1973. Getty Research Institute Council. work,” says Peabody. “One of our goals is to build deep col- Courtesy of the artist and Roberts out, make it do, or do without’ was a common say- important stories,” says Peabody. “Ultimately, we Aside from the Betye Saar acquisition and talks like lections that speak to each other, so that when scholars come Projects, Los Angeles, California ing during my childhood,” Saar says. “As time went will have full transcripts of each oral history ses-

Jones’s, plans for the initiative include: acquiring more here to look at one artist or subject, they will find they are Opposite: Kellie Jones. Photo: Rod on, my saving turned into collecting, and collecting sion that scholars can use in their research.” African American archives; hiring both a dedicated curator to organically connected to a number of different collections. McGaha then evolved into the medium I use to create my Looking forward, the Getty Scholars Program develop research projects, publications, and exhibitions about Also, Saar has been a practicing artist for many decades now art. Little did I know back then that my frugal roots will include two dedicated fellowships reserved African American art and a full-time bibliographer to help and has influenced so many people—not only assemblage art- would develop into a profession with such a creative for scholars working on African American art trace written histories and create resources for researchers; ists, but artists who have gone in many different directions. outlet. I’ve taken great pride in preserving these history. These fellowships will enhance the exist- offering annual graduate and post-graduate research fellow- Her reach is really profound, and in that way, this is a great items for some 80-plus years—items such as my ing Scholars Program, which welcomes scholars ships; conducting oral histories of notable African American collection for us.” early childhood drawings, all the way through to the working across art historical topics. This year, for artists, scholars, critics, collectors, and art dealers—especially Andrew Perchuk, the GRI’s acting director, adds, “Betye art ledgers that I continue to use on a daily basis. I instance, scholar Renée Ater, associate professor those belonging to Saar’s generation, whose stories have gone Saar is one of the most innovative and visionary artists of our am very pleased that the Getty Research Institute emerita at the University of Maryland, is respond- largely untold; and partnering with historically black col- era. Her pioneering assemblages and large-scale installations, shares my desire for ‘saving things’ and that it is ing to the theme of “monumentality” by research- leges and other institutions already working to bring African grounded in unique materials and African American history, providing a home for many of my collections so that ing the concerted effort to memorialize the painful American artists into the larger narrative. Those partnerships have affected audiences nationally and internationally. She they will be accessible by scholars, the arts commu- history of slavery in the US. And artist in residence will lead to conferences and joint exhibitions, and the GRI will also played a large role in Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A., nity, and the generally curious alike.” Theaster Gates, a University of Chicago profes- also support them in the pursuit of their own research proj- 1945–1980.” Saar’s artwork, as well as her oral history, con- (See p. 24 for more about Saar’s personal and sor whose practice extends to revitalizing African ects and initiatives. tributed to numerous exhibitions supported by that initiative. professional life.) American neighborhoods, is exploring radical phi- Jim Cuno, president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, Saar’s archive includes documentation of her prolific lanthropy through the built environment. sees the initiative as a strong commitment both to African artistic production and her notable works in diverse media: Partners and Scholars “The GRI is unique in that it supports the full American art history and to art history in general. “The study sketchbooks of ideas, concepts, and Saar’s travels; prints and The GRI is already fleshing out the initiative’s lifecycle of scholarship in-house, from collecting of African American art history is fundamental to a com- drawings; book illustrations and commercial graphics, as well broad goal of fostering partnerships, something important primary materials, to bringing in schol- prehensive understanding of American art history,” he says. as profuse documentation of her assemblages and installa- Jones finds particularly exciting. “In partnering ars who activate those materials in their research, “Similar to the commitment we made to expand research into tions. The archive features annual files on all aspects of Saar’s with other institutions, we are creating community to channeling the new knowledge that scholars Latin American and Latin art in the last few years, the Getty is projects: exhibitions, catalogues, brochures and posters; led- through scholarship,” she says. “So many educa- generate into books, exhibitions, digital projects, once again focusing attention on an under-researched area of gers of works created with records of exhibitions, galleries, tional possibilities, at all levels, can come out of and public programs,” says Peabody. “As a result, art history.” museums, and collectors; letters, artist’s statements, and doc- this work.” we are uniquely positioned to make a significant Rebecca Peabody, head of research projects and programs umentation on the circle of artists with whom Saar worked. Spelman College, which has just launched the contribution to African American art history. In at the GRI, is playing a central role in pulling together the ini- Also included: a vintage photograph album depicting Saar’s Atlanta University Center collective for the Study five years’ time, I expect that we’ll see the results tiative’s many pieces. An Americanist long focused on under- family and friends. of Art History and Curatorial Studies, will partner of all that we’re planning now. After that, I hope represented narratives in American history, she had already The archive’s richness is a fortuitous consequence of Saar’s with the Getty Trust in the course of establishing we can continue indefinitely with this incredibly organized two oral histories/public conversations at the modest upbringing during the Depression. “‘Use it up, wear it that collective. Meanwhile collaborations are under important work.”

22 23 BOOK EXCERPT

worker, created income with a series of greeting cards. But she also became increasingly interested in the fine arts, and enrolled at California State University, Long Beach, earning a teaching credential and studying printmaking. Of Saar’s early prints, Jones notes, “Visible are a number of thematic threads and art-making strategies that she would continue to explore common object a looter or a voyeur might throughout her career, including the centrality of images of find is almost invariably a book: a comfort women, alternative spiritual practices and cosmologies, and and a solace to those whose lives were in the collision of textures. Saar experimented with a wide vari- danger. ety of graphic techniques but favored etchings and serigraphs This book is not all about comfort, but at because she could do them more easily from home.” root about something more surprising in the Saar began creating assemblages in the 1960s, combining innovation-obsessed twenty-first century: it her own drawings, prints, and etchings with found materials reveals over and over again how continuity in a particular method of communication, sourced from family albums as well as flea markets and swap despite its staid overtones, fuelled creativ- meets. Like many of her artist peers working in Los Angeles ity. Bertolt Brecht once stridently argued at the time, she was profoundly affected by the Watts rebel- that “reality changes; in order to represent lion in 1965 and the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968. it, modes of representation must change.” She addressed the personal and societal effects of race in What was popular in the past is no longer early assemblages like Black Girl’s Window (1969), and intro- popular; people today are not the people of duced innovative materials such as leather, fur, yarn, plastic yesterday. It is of course a truism that tastes skulls, and poker chips in works like Ten Mojo Secrets (1972). and fashions change, but “the book” man- aged to defy Brecht’s assumption for two Betye Saar in her studio, 1975. Her deep interest in mysticism and cross-cultural spiritual Courtesy of the artist and Roberts thousand years without any hint that it was practice can be seen in dozens of her large-scale assemblages, Projects, Los Angeles, California. an outdated communication tool. It accom- Photo: Richard Saar including the shrine-like Mti (1973) and Spiritcatcher (1977). modated Baroque, or Barbizon, or Bauhaus, She worked from a vast collection of found objects and or—for that matter—Brechtian at its ease. images, some of which include derogatory and racist images Art, science, technology, religion, politics, of African Americans. In one of her most politically potent social life, philosophy, entertainment—all and groundbreaking works, The Liberation of Aunt Jemima were encompassed. About the Artist: Betye Saar (1972), she recast the stereotypical figure of the Mammie, the Writing, without whose invention In her book South of Pico: African American Artists in Los Southern black nanny and domestic servant, as an empow- there would have been no books, was rev- erenced from the beginning. The ancient Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s, Dr. Kellie Jones writes, “In the ered woman by combining this persistent symbol of black Egyptians, whose word for the script we call 1950s, what did it take for a woman to become an artist, espe- female servitude (including the referenced Aunt Jemima from hieroglyphics translates as “words of God,” cially in a postwar environment in which more women than the pancake mix box) with a Black Power fist and a toy rifle. believed it had been given to them by a god- ever before were trained in the profession, yet were denied Saar was at the center of an animated Los Angeles art dess, the Chinese that a dragon had come access to careers and professorships?” Jones’s answer lies in scene in the 1970s, collaborating and exhibiting with estab- from heaven with characters on its back. her ensuing profile of Betye Saar. lished artists such as Charles White as well as with younger, The first books also acquired a distinctive Betye Brown (Saar) was born in Watts in 1926, but soon experimental artists who coalesced around nascent galleries, esteem. An inscription on the great library moved to Pasadena, a “nurturing space for black communities, including Suzanne Jackson’s Gallery 32 and Dale and Alonzo at Alexandria, founded in 3000 BCE, read: especially creative ones,” as Jones describes it. She attended Davis’s Brockman Gallery. She organized exhibitions of black “The nourishment of the soul; or, accord- ing to Diodorus, the medicine of the mind.” Pasadena City College from 1945 to 1947, then transferred to women artists and became active in the feminist art move- And there is an all-pervading sadness so UCLA, graduating in 1949. “Saar recalled that at both institu- ment, serving on the board of the nonprofit Womanspace many years later when, at the end of one of tions, African American students were guided away from the with artist Judy Chicago. She was the subject of major exhi- the poems in Victor Hugo’s L’Année terrible fine arts toward craft and design, and were blocked from cam- bitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Paintings contain a world of informa- (1872), the communard who has brought pus art clubs,” Jones writes. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1975, the Studio The Art of Reading tion about religion, class, gender, and power, destruction to a Parisian library responds to After college, Saar supported herself as a social worker and Museum in Harlem in 1980, and the Geffen Contemporary at but they also reveal details of everyday life, multiple lines of almost delirious homage to did small interior design jobs and graphic work for commu- MoCA in 1990. An Illustrated including the practice of reading. For art and the book with, “Je ne sais pas lire.” nity businesses. Connecting with Curtis Tan, an artist work- In recent years, Saar’s stature has continued to grow, and book lovers alike, The Art of Reading explores the relationship between books, the artist, and This excerpt is taken from the book The ing commercially for enamelware companies, she learned her work is in the collections of important museums around History of Books Western painting. Art of Reading, published by arrangement to create her own enamel jewelry and decorative objects. the world. Following a major exhibition at the Fondazione in Paint with Thames & Hudson, Ltd., London. She sold this work at holiday gift fairs held at the Biltmore, Prada in 2016, in October an exhibition that includes her Picture the forlorn and melancholy © 2018 Jamie Camplin and Maria Ranauro. Ambassador, and other top hotels, and at one event met her work opened at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. Jamie Camplin and scene of dead or wounded Russian soldiers First published in the United States of future husband, ceramist and fellow vender Richard Saar. As In 2019 she will be represented in an exhibition organized by Maria Ranauro on the battlefields of the Crimean War. In America by Getty Publications, Los Angeles. they raised three daughters, Saar, having resigned as a social LACMA that will travel to the Morgan Library in 2020. the knapsack of each sad figure, the one All rights reserved.

24 25 NEW FROM GETTY PUBLICATIONS

Getty Publications produces award-winning titles that result from or complement the work of the J. Paul The Central Collecting Point in Munich meticulous attention to the official systems, Getty Museum, the Getty Conservation Institute, the Getty Research Institute, the Getty Foundation, and A New Beginning for the Restitution and frameworks, and bureaucratic enterprise of Getty-led initiatives. These books cover a wide range of fields including art, photography, archaeology, Protection of Art the Munich CCP in the years from 1945 to architecture, conservation, and the humanities for both the general public and specialists. 1949. She uncovers the stories of the people Iris Lauterbach who worked there at a time of lingering Translated by Fiona Elliott political suspicions; narrates the research, Order online at shop.getty.edu. Introduction by James J. Sheehan conservation, and restitution process; and investigates how the works of art were At the end of World War II, the US Office returned to their owners. of Military Government for Germany and Bavaria, through its Monuments, Fine Arts, Getty Research Institute Sam Francis his survival; his five-decade career was an and Archives division, was responsible for 320 pages, 6 5/8 × 9 3/8 inches The Artist’s Materials energetic visual exploration that took him the repatriation of thousands of artworks, 238 b/w illustrations around the world. looted by the Nazis in the countries they ISBN 978-1-60606-582-2, hardcover Debra Burchett-Lere and Aneta Zebala Francis’s idiosyncratic painting practices had occupied. With the help of the US Army, US $79.95, UK £60.00 have long been the subject of speculation massive numbers of objects were retrieved American artist Sam Francis (1923–1994) and debate among conservators and art from their wartime hiding places and inven- brought vivid color and emotional intensity historians. Presented here for the first time toried for repatriation. to Abstract Expressionism. He was described in this volume are the results of an in-depth This fascinating history documents the as the “most sensuous and sensitive painter scientific study of more than 40 paintings, story of the Allies’ Central Collecting Point of his generation” by former Guggenheim which reveal new information about his (CCP), set up in the former Nazi Party head- Museum director James Johnson Sweeney. creative process. The data provides a key quarters in Munich, where the confiscated Francis’s works, whether intimate or monu- to the complicated evolution of the artist’s works were transported to be identified mental in scale, make indelible impressions; work and informs original art historical for restitution. Iris Lauterbach presents the intention of the artist was to make them interpretations. her archival research on the events, with felt as much as seen. At the age of 20, Francis was hospitalized Getty Conservation Institute for spinal tuberculosis and spent three years 168 pages, 7 1/2 × 10 inches virtually immobilized in a body cast. For 114 color illustrations physical therapy he was given a set of water- ISBN 978-1-60606-583-9, paper colors, and, as he described it, he painted US $40.00, UK £30.00 his way back to life. The exuberant color and expression in his paintings celebrated Architecture and Design at the Museum of Drawing on rigorous archival research, Modern Art Architecture and Design at the Museum of The Arthur Drexler Years, 1951–1986 Modern Art analyzes how MoMA became a touchstone for the practice and study of Thomas S. Hines midcentury architecture.

Pierre Koenig understanding of Koenig and additional con- Arthur Drexler (1925–1987) served as the Getty Research Institute A View from the Archive text for his architectural achievements. An curator and director of the Architecture 208 pages, 8 × 10 inches examination of Koenig’s Case Study Houses and Design Department at the Museum of 116 b/w illustrations Neil Jackson shows how he presciently embraced sustain- Modern Art (MoMA) from 1951 until 1986— ISBN 978-1-60606-581-5, paper able, ecologically responsible design. A new the longest curatorship in the museum’s US $50.00, UK £35.00 In this book, Neil Jackson presents a vibrant account of the Chemehuevi housing project history. Over four decades he conceived and profile of Los Angeles architect Pierre in Havasu Lake, California, demonstrates oversaw trailblazing exhibitions that not Koenig, who lived long enough to become the special role that teaching played in the only reflected but also anticipated major “cool twice,” according to Time magazine. development of his architecture. Over his stylistic developments. From the influences of Koenig’s youth in 50-year career, Koenig not only designed During Drexler’s tenure, MoMA San Francisco and his military service dur- iconic houses but also directed their restora- played a pivotal role in examining the ing World War II to the Case Study Houses tion, ensuring that his work could be seen work and confirming the reputations of and his later award-laden years, Jackson’s and appreciated by future admirers of mid- 20th-century architects, among them study plots the evolution of Koenig’s oeuvre century Los Angeles. Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Richard against the backdrop of Los Angeles. Neutra, Marcel Breuer, and Ludwig Mies The book is anchored by Jackson’s excit- Getty Research Institute van der Rohe. Exploring unexpected sub- ing discoveries in Koenig’s archive at the 304 pages, 10 × 11 inches jects—from the design of automobiles to Getty Research Institute. Drawings, pho- 136 color and 115 b/w illustrations a reconstruction of a Japanese house and tographs, diaries, building contracts, and ISBN 978-1-60606-577-8, hardcover garden—Drexler’s boundary-pushing shows more—many of which are being published US $55.00, UK £40.00 promoted new ideas about architecture and for the first time—provide an expanded design as modern arts.

26 27 FROM THE IRIS NEW ACQUISITION

is closing. In September 2016, the light and expansive city views. With this The Link between Genocide International Criminal Court sentenced The Erich commercial commission, Mendelsohn Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, a member of had introduced an architectural a jihadist group linked to Al-Qaeda, to approach that would later be known as and Cultural Destruction nine years in prison for committing war Mendelsohn Streamline Moderne. crimes when he organized the destruc- The Erich Mendelsohn Collections, which represented the specific genius tion of shrines “above the tombs of Collections: recently acquired archives at the Getty By James Cuno of these national and religious groups.” venerated Muslim holy men and schol- Research Institute (GRI), will give President and CEO, J. Paul Getty Trust Compelling as his arguments were, his ars in Mali.” As the New York Times scholars great insights into the archi- submission was not accepted. reported, “Mr. Mahdi’s case has put a Insight into tect’s creative process and role as a Eleven years later, Lemkin intro- new focus on cultural destruction as a mentor. The link between mass slaughter of duced the concept of genocide in his war crime, or as a crime against human- a Visionary Important project documenta- human beings and attacks on cultural book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: ity. It reflects a growing belief that inter- tion from Mendelsohn’s time in San heritage was made as early as 1821 Laws of Occupation, Analysis of national law must address deliberate Architect Francisco, where he established Eric by the German Jewish poet Heinrich Government, and Proposals for Redress, attacks on a people’s heritage when they Mendelsohn Architects with associ- Heine when he wrote, “Where they published by the Carnegie Endowment are an intrinsic part of warfare, meant to ates Hans Schiller and Michael Gallis, have burned books, they will end in for International Peace. In 1945, in destroy a group’s history and identity.” Erich Mendelsohn’s Einstein was generously donated to the GRI by burning human beings.” More than a preparation for the Nuremberg Trials, “Where they have burned books, they Tower put him on the map of modern- Schiller’s and Gallis’s families in 2017. century later, in 1933, Heine’s books the four wartime powers—France, will end in burning human beings.” It is ist architects when he was only in his These latest acquisitions complement were among those burned on Berlin’s Great Britain, the United States, and time to call the destruction of cultural 30s. The astrophysical observatory, the Erich and Luise Mendelsohn Papers The Einstein Tower on the Telegrafenberg in Potsdam. Photo: J. Rendtel / Leibniz Opernplatz, presaging the murder of the Soviet Union—agreed that genocide heritage what it is: cultural genocide. named after Albert Einstein and com- 1894–1992, originally donated by their Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP). The tower was a 2015 grant project of more than six million Jews in a vicious was a war crime. They did not, however, missioned by the astronomer Erwin daughter Esther in 1988. More recently, the Getty Foundation’s Keeping It Modern initiative, which focuses on supporting and calculated campaign of genocide. include the destruction of cultural heri- Cultural Genocide and the Protection Finlay-Freundlich, was designed and in 2017, their granddaughter further innovative projects for the conservation of modern architecture. In Cultural Genocide and the tage within the definition of genocide. of Cultural Heritage is available for free built between 1917–1924 in the vicin- deepened the GRI’s Special Collections Protection of Cultural Heritage, the In 1948, the United Nations download at getty.edu/publications. ity of Potsdam, Germany, and became by donating new documentation related United States over his lifetime, leav- second in our J. Paul Getty Trust approved the Convention on the both a site to investigate the physicist’s to the restoration of the De La Warr ing his architectural imprint in seven Occasional Papers in Cultural Prevention and Punishment of the theory of relativity and a monument Pavilion, correspondence regarding countries. In England he designed the Heritage Policy series, Edward Luck of Crime of Genocide, which entered into to relativity itself. With its undulating, exhibitions on the architect, and cor- De La Warr Pavilion with partner Serge Columbia University explores the tie force in 1951. Once again, attacks on organic features, it differed in style from respondence with his wife Luise (a Chermayeff, and in the United States between genocide and the destruction cultural heritage were not included in the work of some of Mendelsohn’s mod- celebrated cellist) and with renowned he built several synagogues, the Atomic of cultural heritage. this treaty. ernist contemporaries, among them the Italian architectural historian Bruno Energy Laboratory at the University Throughout, Luck draws on the Since 2011, with the outbreak of the Dutch architects who favored strong Zevi, who wrote about Mendelsohn’s of California, Berkeley, and a house for work of Raphael Lemkin, the Polish Syrian civil war and ISIS attacks on cul- geometric lines and whom he deeply complete body of work. philanthropist Madeleine Haas Russell Jewish legal scholar credited with tural heritage, the question of whether admired. The Hans Schiller materials (cov- in San Francisco, among other projects. coining the term genocide when he the destruction of cultural heritage Mendelsohn’s use of these dynamic ering 1938–1942 and 1948–1953) and “Mendelsohn was a trailblazer who combined the Greek word genos (tribe, should be understood as an act of geno- curves—an architectural idiom that the Michael Gallis papers (covering paved the way for new architecture race) with the Latin suffix cide (the cide is again being asked. became known as Expressionism— 1948–1953) offer scholars a wider in the 20th century,” says Maristella act of killing, as in homicide). For In 2014, Irina Bokova, then director- generated much controversy among understanding of how Mendelsohn’s Casciato, senior curator of architec- Lemkin, genocide meant both the mass general of UNESCO, called the destruc- critics and the public. They considered professional practice evolved. Gallis’s ture at the Getty Research Institute. killing of a group of people and “the tion of cultural heritage “cultural it odd, eccentric, and an imbalance papers, for instance, tell an important “In pre-war Germany he was regarded destruction of the cultural pattern of cleansing” and “cultural eradication.” between individual artistic expres- story in text and images of the working as a champion of ‘functional expres- a group, such as the language, tradi- She emphasized that “protecting sion and function. Photographs of the relationship between apprentice and sionism’ imbued with vivid creativity. tions, monuments, archives, libraries, heritage must be an integral part of all tower and negative reviews circulated master. The papers also shed light on Then, through his successful career in and churches. In brief: the shrines of a peace building,” that “the destruction widely in newspapers and tabloids. But the changing demands of architectural England and Palestine, his architecture nation’s soul.” of cultural heritage is a crime against Mendelsohn continued to distinguish practice between pre-war Germany and took a technological turn, and in the In a 1933 report submitted to humanity,” and that “this is a way to his work from other modernists, for the post-war United States, as well as post-war United States, he was regarded the secretariat of the Bureau for the destroy identity. You deprive [people] of instance by integrating his buildings the development of modernist architec- as a significant figure in fostering the Unification of Criminal Law, Lemkin their culture, you deprive them of their into the streetscape rather than separat- ture on the West Coast. modernity that marks post-World War formulated two related crimes: barbar- history, their heritage, and that is why it ing them from it. The Schocken depart- After leaving Germany with Luise II American design.” ity and vandalism. Barbarity, he argued, goes hand in hand with genocide.” ment store in Stuttgart, Germany (built in 1933 to escape Nazi persecution, “consisted of destroying a national or There is still a political and legal in 1924–1926 and demolished in 1960), Mendelsohn (who was born in East religious collectivity”; vandalism “con- gap between genocide and the destruc- featured a semi-circular structure with Prussia, present-day Poland) would live sisted of destroying works of culture, tion of cultural heritage. But the gap bands of windows that added natural and work in London, Palestine, and the

28 29 GETTY EVENTS

2018 J. Paul Getty Medal Dinner At a dinner at the Getty Center on September 24, the J. Paul Getty Trust presented the annual J. Paul Getty Medal to Thelma Golden, director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem; philanthropist Agnes Gund; and renowned artist Richard Serra. Approximately 300 guests from the worlds of art and philanthropy attended the dinner, including Doug Aitken, Billy Al Bengston, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Tacita Dean, Thomas Demand, Leonardo Drew, Charles Gaines, Frank Gehry, Joe Goode, Samuel Levi Jones, Robin Coste Lewis, Ricky Martin, Kori Newkirk, Christina Quarles, and Xaviera Simmons. 5 6 1. J. Paul Getty Trust President and CEO Jim Cuno, Thelma Golden, and Getty Board Chair Maria Hummer-Tuttle 2. Betye Saar, Thelma Golden, and Alison Saar 3. Mark Bradford, Maria Hummer-Tuttle, Agnes Gund, Thelma 1 Golden, Glenn Lowry, and Jim Cuno 4. Onye Anyanwu and Karon Davis 5. Agnes Gund and Maria Hummer-Tuttle 6. Jack Shear, Monique McWilliams, Lauren Halsey, Catherine Gund, and Sadie Rain Hope-Gund 7. Catherine Opie, Ed Ruscha, Danna Ruscha, and Ann Philbin 8. Ann Tenenbaum, Gillian Wynn, and Elaine Wynn 7 8 9. Alfred Giuffrida and Pamela Joyner 10. David Lee, Nicolas Berggruen, Maria Hummer-Tuttle, Ellen Lee, Eva Hsieh, and Ming Hsieh

2

3 4 9 10

30 31 GETTY EVENTS

Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings Opening and Dinner The J. Paul Getty Museum held an opening reception and dinner on November 15 for Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings. The exhibition, on view through February 10, is the first major international exhibition of Mann’s hauntingly beautiful photographs. The exhibition was generously supported by Gagosian. 11. J. Paul Getty Trust President and CEO Jim Cuno and Sally Mann 12. Sally Mann, Catherine Opie, and J. Paul Getty Museum Director Tim Potts 13. Anna Deavere Smith and Getty Board Chair Maria Hummer-Tuttle 14. Alessandro F. and Kimm Uzielli and Barbera Thornhill 16 15. Paul and Sarah Noye Davies 16. Tim Street-Porter, Annie Kelly, and Tim Potts 17. Jim Cuno, Larry Mann, and Peter J. Taylor 18. Ronald Winston and Sally Mann 11

17 18

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32 EXHIBITIONS FROM THE VAULT

donated to the GRI by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1996, includes stock books, sales books, shipping receipts, Right: Table 3, Palace of Soviets customer ledgers, 2,000 glass negatives, and hundreds of AT THE Project, Mikhail Karasik. GETTY Lithograph from Mikhail correspondence files filled with letters to and from clients, Karasik, The Palace of Soviets: museums, scholars, and other dealers. The “Duveen Brothers Design Competition (Saint CENTER Petersburg: M. K. Publishers, stock documentation from the dealer’s library, 1829–1965,” 2006). Los Angeles, Getty meanwhile, comprises scrapbooks, photo albums, research Research Institute (2732-729). © Mikhail Karasik, 2006. On files, restoration photographs, and authentication certifi- view in MONUMENTality cates that had once formed part of the Duveen Brothers

Far right: Magritte with Easel, library, purchased in 1966 from Norton Simon by the 1988, Eileen Cowin. Silver-dye Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, bleach print. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Massachusetts. The Clark had deposited these records at the Gift of Jay Brecker. © Eileen Marks of Collaboration: Drawings in GRI for processing, cataloging, conservation, and digitization Cowin. On view in Encore: Reenactment in Contemporary Context 12 years ago. Photography February 5–April 14, 2019 The entire Duveen archive, together with the GRI’s Knoedler Gallery archive and smaller archives of dealers Pontormo: Miraculous Encounters who did business with Knoedler and Duveen, tells an even February 5–April 28, 2019 bigger story: the making of American institutional art collec- Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings tions. “The private art collections documented in the archive Through February 10, 2019 Joseph Duveen sitting for his painted portrait (Duveen Brothers Gallery, Paris), c. 1930, photographer unknown. Getty Mapping Space: Recent Acquisitions in Research Institute, Los Angeles (960015) ultimately established many of America’s great museums, Focus including the core collections of the National Gallery of Art, February 26–July 14, 2019 Artful Words: Calligraphy in Illuminated the Frick, and the Huntington,” says Sally McKay, head of Manuscripts Research Services at the GRI. Those interested in art collect- Oscar Rejlander: Artist Photographer Through April 7, 2019 ing in America will discover unique material related to the March 12–June 9, 2019 The Duveen Brothers business and marketing of American art collecting, detailed MONUMENTality provenance information about important American works of Encore: Reenactment in Contemporary Through April 21, 2019 The fascinating rise of the Duveen Brothers—an interna- art, exhibition records, and more. Conducting this research Photography tionally known art dealership that specialized in decorative will be easy: the archive has been fully digitized, thanks to March 12–June 9, 2019 Spectacular Mysteries: Renaissance arts and Old Master paintings—has been well documented, support from the Kress Foundation. Drawings Revealed most recently in Meryle Secrest’s Duveen: A Life in Art. Some of McKay’s favorite items include large-format LA #UNSHUTTERED: Teens Reframing Through April 28, 2019 A quick history of the dealership: Joseph Joel Duveen emi- presentation albums of photographs featuring paintings pur- Life in Los Angeles grated from the Netherlands to the northern English port of chased from Duveen by Huntington, Mellon, and Samuel H. Through January 20, 2019 Eighteenth-Century Pastel Portraits Hull in 1866 and established an art firm that offered Chinese Kress, among others. “These books are particularly helpful Through October 13, 2019 porcelain—all the rage in fashionable London circles and in that they show historic photographs of estates’ grounds The Renaissance Nude readily available in his homeland. Once in partnership with and interiors in the 1920s and 1930s.” Meanwhile scouts’ Through January 27, 2019 his brother Henry, Joseph Joel secured the American mar- books—in which Duveen’s staff recorded things seen and ket for Chinese porcelain and opened branches in London, overheard from staff while visiting country estates to inven- Art of Three Faiths: A Torah, a Bible, New York, and Paris. He became wealthy, supported such tory collections—not only document the collections of pri- and a Qur’an institutions as the Tate Gallery, and was knighted. But it was vate estates, they also provide an extremely candid narrative Through February 3, 2019 one of his 14 children, his namesake Joseph, who made the regarding the taste and value of the works of art, McKay says. dealership internationally famous. When Joseph took over “The Duveen firm would then use this compiled information the business at age 29, he found a lucrative niche selling Old to make future offers of purchase to the estates, and Joseph Master paintings for record prices to American millionaires Duveen would know which estates were being refurbished, including Henry Clay Frick, Andrew W. Mellon, and Henry changing style, or changing economies and in need of cash.” E. Huntington. Joseph also brought these men into his social Marcia Reed, the GRI’s associate director of special collec- Relief with Hermes, Eurydike, Underworld: Imagining the Afterlife circle and advised them about what art to purchase, what tions and exhibitions, welcomes the newly donated records AT THE and Orpheus, First century BC– First century AD, Roman. Marble. Through March 18, 2019 manor houses could best show off an enviable collection, what for the wealth of information researchers can now access. GETTY National Archeological Museum silverware should tinkle as dinner guests admired a new por- “We are also pleased that the widely dispersed Duveen mate- of Naples. On view in Under- VILLA world: Imagining the Afterlife Palmyra: Loss and Remembrance trait, even which potential wife or husband would appreciate rial has at last been reunited,” she adds. Through May 27, 2019 high art—and want more of it. The Duveen firm’s story is also documented by the two- part Duveen Brothers archive at the Getty Research Institute (GRI). The vast “Duveen Brothers records, 1876–1981,”

34 35 NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION US POSTAGE PAID LOS ANGELES, CA PERMIT NO. 32365

INSIDE Tomb of Tutankhamen Project THIS ISSUE Rediscovering a Pontormo Masterpiece

Major African American Art History Initiative

Conserving Canvas

Portrait of a Halberdier (Francesco Guardi?), about 1529–1530, Jacopo da Pontormo. Oil on canvas (transferred from wood panel). The J. Paul Getty Museum. On view in Pontormo: Miraculous Encounters

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