More Getty Good News: Photography Close-Up

The big Getty news of the day is the new antiquities acquisitions policy but let’s also give the J. Paul Getty Museum credit for getting back to basics with Tuesday’s opening of its new 7,000-square-foot space for photography. What’s the point of having a world-class permanent collection of photographs, if you don’t set aside adequate space to display it? Now they have.
The Getty’s photography trove, which is the museum’s only collecting area that ventures into contemporary territory, began opportunistically in 1984: Two important collections became available—those assembled by collectors Samuel Wagstaff and Arnold Crane. Now the museum has some 31,000 photographic works and is inaugurating its new galleries with a show of 160 gifts, promised gifts, and loans from Los Angeles collectors Bruce and Nancy Berman.
Christopher Knight offered glowing praise praise for the show and the new galleries in yesterday’s LA Times. But he also had harsh words for the “banal” modern outdoor sculpture that has sprouted up around the Getty’s campus, acquired last year from the collection of late movie producer Ray Stark.
At least the conversation about the Getty is starting to focus on artistic interest, not conflicts of interest.