Images of plants and animals from Book 11 of the Florentine Codex: Cuitlachtli (“wolf” or “bear”), Tapachtli (“shell” or “river mollusk”), Nopalli (“prickly pear cactus”), Elotl (“young ear of maize or corn”). Ms. Mediceo Palatino 220, 1577, fol. 5v, 64v, 126, 249v respectively. Courtesy the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, and by permission of MiBACT
This month we celebrate the 20th anniversary of Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall; a podcast dives deep into artists’ letters; and a new easily accessible version of the Florentine Codex launches online.
EXHIBITION
Modeling Sound, Sculpting Harmony
October 5–29, 2023 Walt Disney Concert Hall
To commemorate Walt Disney Concert Hall’s twentieth anniversary, Getty presents Modeling Sound and Sculpting Harmony—two exhibitions developed in collaboration with Frank Gehry and the LA Phil. On view at Walt Disney Concert Hall from October 5 to 29, Modeling Sound showcases six architectural models of the concert hall at various stages of its design to highlight the critical role of modeling in Gehry’s architectural practice.
Sculpting Harmony, an upcoming digital exhibition, will feature more than 150 models, sketches, and archival photographs documenting the concert hall’s development. New research, interviews, and innovative 3D media capture reveal the multidisciplinary process behind the building’s design. Drawn from the extensive Frank O. Gehry Papers at Getty, Modeling Sound and Sculpting Harmony celebrate the realization of this important Los Angeles landmark.
Alfredo Boulton was a pioneer of photography, an art critic, a researcher and historian of Venezuelan art, and a friend to many of the great artists and architects of his time. The archive includes a collection of Boulton’s personal films documenting some of his travels, projects, and relationships with major artists, capturing a culturally vibrant moment in the 1940s and 1950s when modernism was thriving in South America.
El sueño del Rey Miguel, no. 40 (The Dream of King Miguel, no. 40), ca. 1940, Alfredo Boulton. Partial donation of the Alberto Vollmer Foundation. Getty Research Institute, 2021.M.1
EVENTS
Modeling Sound: An Evening with Frank Gehry and Esa-Pekka Salonen
Tuesday, October 24, 2023, 8:00 pm Walt Disney Concert Hall
In celebration of Walt Disney Concert Hall’s 20th anniversary, architect Frank Gehry and LA Phil Conductor Emeritus Esa-Pekka Salonen come together for an evening of music and conversation moderated by the Getty Research Institute’s Senior Curator and Head of Architectural Collections Maristella Casciato. The two old friends and collaborators will explore the ways in which music informed the design of the Hall and how architecture has, in turn, impacted the musical performances heard in the venue for the past twenty years. The conversation will be punctuated by musical performances selected by the pair that tell the story of the Hall’s creation and demonstrate its perfect union of space and sound.
Saturday, October 7, 2023, 12:00–4:00 pm The Getty Center
In honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Getty hosts its second annual family event to learn about Southern California’s vibrant Native American cultures. There will be activities sharing traditional and contemporary Indigenous perspectives and narratives. This event complements the launch of the Digital Florentine Codex.
Images of plants and animals from Book 11 of the Florentine Codex: Cuitlachtli (“wolf” or “bear”), Tapachtli (“shell” or “river mollusk”), Nopalli (“prickly pear cactus”), Elotl (“young ear of maize or corn”). Ms. Mediceo Palatino 220, 1577, fol. 5v, 64v, 126, 249v respectively. Courtesy the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, and by permission of MiBACT
Indigenous Voices of Mexico in the Digital Age / Voces Indígenas de México en la Era Digital
Thursday, October 26, 2023, 10:00 am–3:30 pm Online Only
Celebrating the global launch of the Digital Florentine Codex (DFC), this virtual conference, offered in English and Spanish, gathers experts involved in the creation of a digital edition of the 16th-century encyclopedic manuscript of Nahuatl culture and language. Featuring a newly digitized, downloadable manuscript; transcriptions and translations of the original Nahuatl and Spanish texts; and searchable images, the DFC will transform global understandings on Mexica culture and the conquest of Mexico. Invited speakers also discuss other digital projects that provide public and community access to manuscripts and documents in a range of Indigenous languages of Mexico.
Papalomichi (“butterfly fish”) in Book 11 of the Florentine Codex (detail). Bernardino de Sahagún, Antonio Valeriano, Alonso Vegerano, Martín Jacobita, Pedro de San Buenaventura, Diego de Grado, Bonifacio Maximiliano, Mateo Severino, et al., Ms. Mediceo Palatino 220, 1577, fol. 62v. Courtesy the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, and by permission of MiBACT
LA Activism: The Institute of Cultural Inquiry’s AIDS Chronicles (1994–2019)
Tuesday, October 17, 2023, 12:00 pm–1:00pm Online Only
In partnership with Circa: Queer Histories Festival, artist Antoinette LaFarge and curator Deborah Cullen-Morales join Getty Research Institute curator Pietro Rigolo to discuss the Institute of Cultural Inquiry, an artist-run space active in Los Angeles from 1993 to 2019. Focusing on projects related to memory and awareness, this panel highlights a lesser-known story of activism, alliance, and solidarity amidst the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Los Angeles.
AIDS Chronicles (detail), 2001, Martin Gantman. Courtesy the Institute of Cultural Inquiry
NEW FOR RESEARCHERS
Johnson Publishing Company Resource Guide
The Johnson Publishing Company produced iconic magazines, including Ebony and Jet, and its archive is regarded as one of the most significant collections of 20th century Black American culture. Last year, ownership of the archive was officially transferred to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) and Getty. In this new resource guide, discover scholarly articles and resources related to this important archive.
Muhammad Ali spends some quality time with his daughter Maryum in 1974. Photograph by Leroy Patton. Johnson Publishing Archive. Courtesy J. Paul Getty Trust and Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Made possible by the Ford Foundation, J. Paul Getty Trust, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Smithsonian Institution
Getty Research Portal Adds Canadian Art Publications
Publications from the Edward P. Taylor Library & Archives, Art Gallery of Ontario are now available on the Getty Research Portal. Consisting primarily of exhibition catalogs from the Art Gallery of Ontario, this contribution provides access to a body of literature highlighting artistic reception and production in Canada through 1981.
Catalog cover for the Exhibition of Canadian Graphic Art, 1924. Art Gallery of Toronto
From Vision to Archive: The Legacy of Paul R. Williams
Paul R. Williams was one of the first Black architects licensed to practice in the US and remains significantly understudied. Focusing on the newly acquired Williams archive, jointly owned with USC School of Architecture, this new research project aims to bring the work of this groundbreaking Southern California architect to the broader public.
Gottfried Semper and Carl von Hasenauer, Dekorationsdepot für die k.k. Hoftheater, 1873–1877
The archive consists of twenty-seven architectural drawings by the architects Gottfried Semper (1803–1879) and Carl von Hasenauer (1833–1894), who were responsible for designing the complex of buildings in Vienna, Austria, that included the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the Naturhistorisches Museum, and the imperial court theaters, now known as Burgtheater. These drawings pertain to a building used as a depot or storage area for stage sets utilized in the court theaters. Included are designs for the building’s façade and drawings detailing technical aspects such as roof trusses and pulleys.
Video still from LA Stories: Urbanism, Music, and AI in Ed Ruscha’s Archive
NEWS & STORIES
Inside Senga Nengudi’s R.S.V.P
When artist Senga Nengudi first began creating artwork with pantyhose, she had just given birth to her son. “I really wanted to somehow express that experience,” she said in an oral history conducted by Getty’s African American Art History Initiative. Learn more about the artist’s iconic series of installations called R.S.V.P.
R.S.V.P X, Senga Nengudi, 1976. Senga Nengudi papers, Amistad Research Center, New Orleans, LA
Recording Artists: Intimate Addresses
In the second season of Getty’s Recording Artists podcast, hosted by poet Tess Taylor, each episode focuses on one letter from an artist’s life. Featuring artists Marcel Duchamp, Frida Kahlo, Meret Oppenheim, Nam June Paik, Benjamin Patterson, and M.C. Richards, the letters are read by actor and playwright Anna Deavere Smith. “We obviously wanted to tell the story of 20th-century art through these letters,” says Taylor, “but we also wanted to capture artists in these moments in their ordinary lives, in the backstage of making art as they were falling in love, asking for money, or working through pain.”
Recording Artists: Intimate Addresses host Tess Taylor and artist Ashwini Bhat peruse the papers of poet and potter M. C. Richards at the Getty Research Institute. Photo: Zoe Goldman
PUBLICATIONS
Pierre Koenig: A View from the Archive
By Neil Jackson
In this book, Neil Jackson presents a vibrant profile of Los Angeles architect Pierre Koenig, who Time magazine said lived long enough to become “cool twice.” From the influences of Koenig’s youth in San Francisco and his military service during World War II to the Case Study Houses and his later award-laden years, Jackson’s study plots the evolution of Koenig’s oeuvre against the backdrop of Los Angeles.
A pioneer of the performance art movement of the late 1960s, Barbara T. Smith has long produced work that explores the self, sexuality, gender roles, physical and spiritual sustenance, love, life, and death. Assembling an expansive range of artwork and performance-related ephemera, this exhibition, organized by ICA LA guest curator Jenelle Porter, surveys Smith’s incomparable contributions to contemporary art, feminism, performance, and technology.
Barbara T. Smith, Proof, 1965–66. Xerox and drawing, 14 x 19 inches. Image courtesy the artist.
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