A WORLD OF ART, RESEARCH, CONSERVATION, AND PHILANTHROPY | Summer 2019 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Summer 2019 theGETTY n the 1960s and 1970s, women won many battles against sexism in American society. They fought for stron- TABLE OF President’s Message 3 Iger status in the art world too: Eleanor Antin, Carolee Schneemann, Sylvia Sleigh, Barbara T. Smith, and Faith CONTENTS New and Noteworthy 4 Wilding, among others, pioneered performance art and video, appropriated Western painting’s trope of the female nude, Five Breakthrough Women Artists 6 and generally shocked the art world to protest not only sex- of the 1960s and 1970s ism, but also racism and the Vietnam War. Our cover story explores these artists’ transformative work, and browses Mapping the Past 12 through the Getty Research Institute’s substantial and grow- ing archival resources related to feminism—timely reading, Out of the Ashes 16 given this summer’s 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote, not to mention the new legal threats to hard-won One Size Does Not Fit All 20 victories made by feminists decades ago. Another way the history of art is addressing modernity Book Excerpt 23 is through digital technology such as the Pompeii Artistic Landscape Project (PALP), one of four digital mapping New from Getty Publications 24 projects funded through the Getty Foundation’s Digital Art Jim Cuno History initiative. As you’ll read in our second feature, PALP New Acquisitions 26 will let scholars search, map, and display historic sites and objects in an integrated online environment—in other words, Getty Events 28 researchers will soon combine previously siloed data in one easy-to-use platform, bringing complex connections between From the Vault 31 artworks to light. Historic site Villa dei Papiri, a luxury Herculaneum retreat From The Iris 34 buried, like Pompeii, by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago, is the subject of our story by Getty Exhibitions 35 Museum curator Kenneth Lapatin. You’ll learn how excava- tors dug through 75 feet of volcanic debris during the 18th century, guided by a sophisticated archaeological plan drafted by Swiss military engineer Karl Jacob Weber; and how that team discovered many of the sculptures, frescoes, papyrus scrolls, and other ancient works now on view in the Getty Villa’s Buried by Vesuvius: Treasures from the Villa dei Papiri. Our final feature looks at how museum professionals are protecting such works of art by addressing the environmen- Send correspondence and address Editor Art Director tal conditions of their display and storage spaces. Through changes to its multiyear initiative Managing Collection Environments Jennifer Roberts María Vélez Getty Communications (MCE), Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) scientists and 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 403 Designer conservators are researching various materials of which Los Angeles, CA 90049 Jessica Robinson works of art are made to better understand their response Email: [email protected] to climatic fluctuations. MCE findings will give conserva- tors, curators, and archivists evidence-based processes and tools to empower their decision-making regarding the care of their collections. In the Getty’s spirit of sharing, the GCI has Contributors already included some of the initiative’s outcomes in an inno- Amy Hood Miles Nool vative three-phase course; the second iteration of that course launches in July. On the cover: Barbara T. Smith with Field Piece, 1971, Julie Jaskol Carly Pippin photograph by Jerry Muller. Barbara T. Smith Papers. The I hope you enjoy the stories in this issue—and that you’ll Getty Research Institute, 2014.M.14 Kenneth Lapatin Guadalupe Rivera visit us soon at the Getty Center and Getty Villa for a full slate © 2019 J. Paul Getty Trust Amanpreet Multani Anna Zagorski of summer exhibitions and programs. 2 3 NEW AND NOTEWORTHY LeRonn Brooks Begins Newly Created Role art, education, and business who volun- Southern California. The Lee Family LeRonn P. Brooks has joined the Getty Research Institute (GRI) as associate cura- teer their time and expertise on behalf Foundation supports higher education, tor for Modern and Contemporary Collections, specializing in African American of the Getty. Lee has served on the board and has provided grants to establish art. Brooks fills a position created through the Getty’s African American Art History since 2009. centers for advanced networking at Initiative, an ambitious program launched last year to establish the GRI as a major “We are delighted that David will Caltech and the National Chiao Tung center for the study of African American art history. lead the board as we embark on many University in Taiwan. Lee lives with his Brooks came to the Getty from Lehman College in New York, where he was a exciting initiatives,” says J. Paul Getty wife Ellen, who is an artist, and their faculty member in the Department of Africana Studies. His curatorial experience Trust President and CEO James Cuno. family in San Marino, California. includes organizing and curating a symposium and performance program around “His involvement with the international Lee succeeds Maria Hummer-Tuttle, On Whiteness at the Racial Imaginary Institute, an exhibition that featured artists community, his experience in higher whose tenure as chair of the Getty such as Cindy Sherman, Glenn Ligon, and Ken Gonzales-Day. He also curated Bronx: education and philanthropy, and his Board of Trustees began in 2015 and was Africa, a 2016 show at the Bronx Council that presented works from 25 local artists. strong financial acumen have served marked by the second Pacific Standard “LeRonn brings an informed, critical voice to the Getty Research Institute’s the Getty well. We look forward to his Time initiative, an exploration of Latino curatorial department and is a welcome addition to our scholarly community,” says leadership.” and Latin-American art in dialogue GRI Director Mary Miller. “I am looking forward to working with him as he helps to Lee is a co-founder and managing with Los Angeles. Hummer-Tuttle also develop our research and resources in 20th- and 21st-century African American art general partner of Clarity Partners, a oversaw the growth of the annual Getty history and connects them to our other collecting areas. I’m certain he is the best private equity firm that invests in com- Medal Dinner and the expansion of the person for the task.” Getty Board of Trustees Elects munications, media, and related tech- Getty’s development efforts with the Besides strengthening the GRI’s collections, Brooks will offer programs related David L. Lee as Chair nology companies. He chairs the Board establishment of the Patron Program, to African American art, support the GRI’s program to administer oral histories of David L. Lee began a four-year term, of Trustees at the California Institute the J. Paul Getty Founder’s Society, and distinguished figures in African American art, and collaborate with partner institu- effective July 1, as the next chair of the J. of Technology (Caltech), and also chairs other opportunities to support the work tions to digitize extant archival materials. LeRonn Brooks. Photo: Kay Hickman Paul Getty Trust Board of Trustees. The the Board of Overseers of the Keck of the Getty worldwide. Brooks received his PhD in Art History from the City University of New York 15-member group includes leaders in School of Medicine at the University of and his BA in Fine Arts from Hunter College. His articles have appeared in BOMB magazine, The International Review of African American Art, and other publica- tions. Brooks has taken part in panels and lectures around Europe and the United States, and recently led a discussion on the works of artists Charles White and Gordon Parks for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art exhibition Charles White: A Retrospective. German Sales Catalogs, Phase II During World War II, Nazis looted thousands of artworks from Jewish families and others living in conquered territo- ries across Europe. Artworks that did not make it into Hitler’s planned museum, or into the private stash of Hiter’s right- hand man, Hermann Göring, were sold at auction and are now The Getty Welcomes Miguel de Baca held in private collections, museums, libraries, and archives The Getty Foundation has appointed Miguel de Baca as senior pro- across the world. gram officer. He will oversee several strategic grantmaking initia- A free online database of 3,000 German sales catalogs tives, including Connecting Art Histories, which aims to foster new dating from 1930 to 1945—created in 2013 by the Getty intellectual exchange among scholars in regions where economic Research Institute (GRI) in partnership with Kunstbibliothek or political realities have prevented previous collaboration. of the State Museums in Berlin and the University Library Before coming to the Getty, de Baca was chair of the art and at Heidelberg—is now being used by researchers working to art history department and associate professor of modern and return these artworks to their rightful owners. The database, Adolf Hitler presents The Falconer (1880) by Austrian painter Hans Makart to Hermann Göring as a gift. The Getty contemporary art at Lake Forest College in Illinois. In 2017–18, he available via the Getty Provenance Index, is also a source for Research Institute. © The J. Paul Getty Trust was Terra Foundation Visiting Professor of American Art at the researching object provenance and art market trends. On University of Oxford. June 6 the GRI effectively tripled the database’s size by adding De Baca is active in the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship 3,147 German sales catalogs from 1900 to 1929, a time period researchers can find such valuable provenance information (MMUF) program network as both a former MMUF fellow and an that included the end of the Kaiser era, World War I, the rise as detailed object descriptions and handwritten annotations advisor to the Graduate Initiatives Program at the Social Science of the Weimar Republic, an economic collapse, and the rise of about sales prices and the names of sellers and buyers.