Getty Center
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The Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, USA, is the current home of the J. Paul Getty Museum as well as a research institute, conservation institute, grant program, and leadership institute. The museum opened on December 16, 1997.
Architecture
The Getty Center, designed by architect Richard Meier, is the flagship museum of the J. Paul Getty Trust. Its design has feng shui influences. It has a seven-story deep underground parking garage with over 1,200 parking spaces. It is located on a hill in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California overlooking Interstate 405 and is open to the public for free (although there is a charge for parking). The Getty Center is high enough that on a clear day, it is possible to see the snow at Big Bear as well as the Pacific Ocean and the entire Los Angeles basin. Much of the buildings and grounds are made of travertine. Other parts are made of white marble.
An automated, three-car tram takes passengers to and from the museum.
Collection
The museum collects and exhibits classical sculpture and art, European paintings, drawings, manuscripts, sculpture, decorative arts, and photographs. In respect to Getty's collecting intentions, the museum does not generally collect 20th or 21st century art, with the exception of photography.
In 1974, J. Paul Getty opened his first museum in a re-creation of the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum on his property in Malibu, California. In 1997 the museum moved to its current location in Brentwood, and the original Malibu museum, renamed the "Getty Villa", was closed for renovation until recently.
Now, the Getty Villa holds the Greek, Etruscan and Roman sculptures once housed in the Getty Center.
The Getty Center houses such paintings as Irises by Vincent Van Gogh and King of France and Navarre by Hyacinthe Rigaud.
Central Garden
The 134,000-square-foot Central Garden at the Getty Center is the work of artist Robert Irwin. The design of the Central Garden re-establishes the natural ravine between the Museum and the Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities with a tree-lined walkway. The walkway traverses a stream planted on each side with a variety of grasses and gradually descends to a plaza where bougainvillea arbors provide scale. The stream continues through the plaza and ends in a cascade of water over a stone waterfall into a pool in which a maze of azaleas floats. Around the pool is a series of specialty gardens, each with a variety of plant material.
The process of creating the Central Garden began for Irwin in 1992, when he started working with Harold M. Williams and Stephen D. Rountree of the J. Paul Getty Trust in consultation with Richard Meier. Irwin also worked closely with Richard Naranjo, the Getty’s manager of grounds and gardens, and the landscape architecture firm of Spurlock Poirier, in finalizing all facets of the garden.
Construction schedule
- Spring 1996 Begin grading on the reflecting pool and chadar wall
- Spring 1997 Complete grading for remainder of garden;
- Begin construction of stream
- Summer 1997 Complete construction of stream;
- Install bridges and walkways;
- Begin irrigation and first plantings;
- Complete planting and installation of final details
- December 1997 Garden completed;
- Getty Center opens to the public
Plants
(Botanical name - Common name)
- Trees:
- *Platanus acerifolia - 'Yarwood' London Plane
- *Lagerstroemia indica - 'Muskogee' Crape Myrtle
- Stream Garden:
- *Helichrysum petiolatum - Cudflower
- *Cotyledon orbiculata - no common name
- *Kalanchoe - various species
- *Tibouchina urvilleana - Princess Flower
- *Geranium psilostemon - Cranesbill
- *Cannas - no common name
- Terrace Bowers:
- *Bougainvillea - no common name
- Meadow:
- *Muhlenbergia rigens - Deer Grass
- *Festuca mairei - Maire's Fescue
- Terrace Gardens:
- *Hydrangea macrophylla - Garden Hydrangea
- *Iris species - no common name
- *Rosa species - Floribunda roses
- *Tulips, South African and Mediterranean Bulbs - no common names
- *Tropaeolum malus - Garden Nasturtium
- *Erigeron karvinskianus - Fleabane
- *Sempervivum tectorum - Hen and Chicks
- *Penstemon species - Beard Tongue
- *Salvia Species - Sages
- *Cosmos species - no common name
- Azalea Pool:
- *Three varieties of Southern Indica Rhododendron
GettyGuide™
Detailed information about the J. Paul Getty Museum’s collection at the Getty Center is provided on GettyGuide, a suite of interactive multimedia tools available at the Museum, as well as on getty.edu. At the GettyGuide stations in the Museum, visitors can get information about exhibitions, play with an interactive timeline, watch videos on art-making techniques, and more. Also available at the Museum, the GettyGuide Audio Player features commentary from curators and conservators on over 300 works of art. With GettyGuide on the Web, one may browse the Museum’s collections[link] and bookmark works of art to create a customized tour and printable map[link]. More information about GettyGuide can be found on getty.edu.[link]
Additional images
See also
Getty VillaExternal links
- [J. Paul Getty Trust official website]
- [Architecture of the Getty Center] (800 photographs categorized by location and by subject of photograph)
- [Google map & aerial photo] of Getty Center
- [Gardens of the Getty Center] (LandLiving.com)
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