Exhibitions At The J. Paul Getty Museum

A Renaissance Cabinet Rediscovered
Through August 5, 2007

This exhibition traces the study of one Getty object to determine its date and place of manufacture. The cabinet, acquired in 1971, has since the 1980s been believed to be a pastiche if not an outright fake.

However, documentary research and technical analysis undertaken by experts have revealed that the cabinet, rather than being a compromised object, is one of the most important pieces of French Renaissance furniture in the United States.

This case study of the research into the authenticity of the cabinet presents the results of scientific and visual analyses of the object, studies of related materials, archival research, and other evidence. It is a story of how new information, careful research, and evolving analytic processes can alter our understanding of the art of the past.

Casting Nature: François-Thomas Germain's Machine d'Argent
Through March 25, 2007

Casting Nature highlights the recent acquisition of a unique silver sculpture, La Machine d'Argent (1754), made by the French royal silversmith François-Thomas Germain (1726-1791). In the tradition of trophies of the hunt, the piece represents an assemblage of two game birds, a rabbit, and vegetables. The exhibition places the significance, beauty, and naturalistic virtuosity of La Machine d'Argent within the context of French mid-18th-century art, as illustrated through select loans of paintings and prints along with other works in silver and gilt bronze in the Getty Museum's collection.

From Caspar David Friedrich to Gerhard Richter: German Paintings from Dresden
Through April 29, 2007

Emerging from a partnership between the Getty Museum and the Dresden State Art Collections, this exhibition showcases a select group of paintings from the Galerie Neue Meister, one of the foremost collections of German art from 1800 to the present. Not a traditional survey, 18 works by the two best-known painters from Dresden are presented: Caspar David Friedrich (German, 1774-1840), the key voice of German Romanticism, and Gerhard Richter (German, b. 1932), the most significant German artist working today. The works by Friedrich include his 1809 masterwork, Cross in the Mountains (The Tetschen Altar), while Richter is represented by 12 works from 2005. Twelve other paintings by such artists as Carl Gustav Carus, Johann Christian Dahl, Otto Dix, and Karl Schmidt-Rotluff are interspersed throughout the Museum's permanent collection of paintings. These juxtapositions address diverse aspects of German between 1800 and World War I, including Romanticism and the sublime and the interrelationships between Germany's artistic heritage and European culture at large. An illustrated catalogue, featuring an interview with Gerhard Richter, accompanies the exhibition. This exhibition has been co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Galerie Neue Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

Public Faces/Private Spaces: Recent Acquisitions
Through February 4, 2007

Recently acquired work by four mid-career American photographers are presented in this exhibition, with an emphasis on images made from the mid-1960s through the early 1980s. Incorporating elements of portraiture, social documentation, and street photography, the work of these photographers demonstrates a commitment to observing the people and places that define community. Featured are excerpts from Donald Blumberg's series In Front of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan, Bill Owens's Suburbia, Working, and Our Kind of People in East Bay suburbs of San Francisco, Anthony Hernandez's Public Use and Public Transit Areas in Los Angeles, and Mary Ellen Mark's Streetwise in Seattle.

Guercino: Mind to Paper
Through January 21, 2007

Called "the Rembrandt of the South," Guercino (Italian, 1591-1666) was one of the most accomplished Italian draftsmen of the 17th century. This exhibition highlights his extraordinary draftsmanship, wide-ranging inventiveness, unusual working method, and ability to capture drama and movement. Guercino's use of different mediums to convey texture, shadow, light, and space in his drawings, and the sense of humanity he brought to his genre subjects, are also demonstrated through an appealing selection of drawings. The exhibition consists of more than 30 drawings by Guercino, a majority from London's Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery, with other loans as well as works from the Getty Museum's collection. Following its presentation at the Getty, the exhibition will be shown at the Courtauld Institute of Art from February 22 through May 13, 2007.

Where We Live: Photographs of America from the Berman Collection
Through February 25, 2007

Since 1998 Los Angeles collectors Bruce and Nancy Berman have donated 467 recent American photographs to the Getty Museum. Featuring 168 prints drawn from their gifts, as well as a selection of loans, this exhibition highlights the diverse work of 24 important contemporary photographers from across many regions of the country. The result is a wide-ranging survey of time and place in the United States since the 1960s, as seen through the eyes of John Divola, Jim Dow, Doug Dubois, William Eggleston, Mitch Epstein, Karen Halverson, Alex Harris, Sheron Rupp, Stephen Shore, Joel Sternfeld, George Tice, and the team of Virginia Beahan and Laura McPhee, among others. Primarily using large formats and color, the photographers-with backgrounds in art, anthropology, psychology, and sociology-work in diverse styles yet share an interest in preserving late 20th-century America. This exhibition inaugurates the new Center for Photographs on the Terrace level of the West Pavilion.

The Gospels in Medieval Manuscript Illumination
Through January 7, 2007

Among the texts of the Bible, the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the most significant, offering a powerful account of the life of Jesus Christ and forming the basis for the new religion that his disciples founded. Throughout the Middle Ages the Gospels were considered of paramount importance and thus were richly decorated. This exhibition of 21 manuscripts explores the major forms of decoration associated with the Gospels: portraits of the four Evangelists, illustrations of the life of Christ, and the ornamentation of canon tables (an index that often appeared at the beginning of Gospel books). It includes many of the Getty Museum's early manuscripts, including a Greek New Testament dated 1133, as well as a number of later Armenian manuscripts. The exhibition complements the Premiere Presentation Holy Image, Hallowed Ground: Icons from Sinai.

Holy Image, Hallowed Ground: Icons from Sinai
Through March 4, 2007

The Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai, Egypt, was built by Emperor Justinian in the 6th century, and it is the oldest continuously operating Christian monastery in existence today. This exhibition features a selection of artistic treasures from Saint Catherine's, which possesses one of the world's finest collections of Byzantine icons and manuscripts. Forty-three icons, six manuscripts, and several precious objects used in the celebration of the liturgy are on view. Icons from Sinai reveals the central role of icons in Byzantine spiritual practices and conveys their vital function as a living part of religious celebrations. It also shows how the monastery's geographic and historical position as a major pilgrimage destination engendered its astonishing collection of icons and books. The exhibition, accompanied by a major scholarly catalogue, features a film about the monastery and the site, including footage of Greek Orthodox Easter services.

French Manuscript Illumination of the Middle Ages
January 23-April 15, 2007

Throughout the Middles Ages manuscript illumination was a major art form in France, a favorite of French kings and high-ranking nobles. Even after the emergence of painting on panel as a significant artistic medium in the 15th century, manuscript illumination remained preeminent. This exhibition of 21 manuscripts and five leaves from the Getty Museum's collection highlights the achievement of French painting in books from the Carolingian era to the Renaissance (the 800s to the 1500s). Manuscript production is traced from its origins in monastic centers in the Early Middle Ages through its expansion into cities (with the advent of universities) in the High Middle Ages and finally explores the relationship between painting on panel and manuscript painting in the Later Middle Ages and Renaissance. Book illumination is considered in the context of stained-glass paintings and panel paintings, also drawn from the Museum's collection.

Made for Manufacture: Drawings for Sculpture and the Decorative Arts
February 6-May 20, 2007

Many of the greatest draftsmen of the Renaissance and Baroque eras made drawings for sculpture and the decorative arts. This exhibition comprises drawings for objects to be executed in a range of mediums, including metal, wood, glass, ceramics, and stone. It explores how artists translated two-dimensional designs into three-dimensional objects. Spanning the 1400s through the 1600s, the exhibition includes drawings from the Italian, German, French, Spanish, Netherlandish, and Flemish schools, all from the Getty Museum's permanent collection and several loans. It also presents new acquisitions, such as Design for a Quatrefoil by an artist in the circle of the Housebook Master and the Design for an Ewer by Stefano della Bella.

By www.getty.edu