Pop-Up Books, Artist Pedagogy, The Sounds of the Print Shop

First Came a Friendship: Sidney B. Felsen and the Artists at Gemini G.E.L.

February 20, 2024–July 7, 2024

Getty Center, Research Institute

At the acclaimed Los Angeles artist’s workshop Gemini G.E.L., atmosphere was everything. Co-founder Sidney B. Felsen, who photographed artists and printmakers at work for over five decades, noted that the music in the studio was an important part of the creative process. This playlist includes songs contributed or inspired by Felsen, Stanley Grinstein, artists Tacita Dean, Julie Mehretu, Elizabeth Murray, Ken Price, Allen Ruppersberg, Analia Saban, as well as master printers Xavier Fumat, and Case Hudson.

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Mary Kelly’s Concentric Pedagogy

Saturday, April 6, 2024, 4 pm

Join us for a conversation with artist Mary Kelly on the occasion of her newest publication, Mary Kelly’s Concentric Pedagogy (2024). Highlighting one of the book’s three sections, “The Method”—which focuses on Kelly’s renowned method of “ethical observation” within studio critique—artists Kerry Tribe and Dont Rhine will share their experiences as Kelly’s students and explore the influence that the feminist practice of concentric pedagogy has had on their studio practices. The program will be moderated by the book’s editor Juli Carson.
 

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Pop Up/Stand Up: Artist Books and Social Justice

Thursday, April 11, 2024, 4 pm

Many of us are familiar with pop-up books: we read them as children and remember how they brought stories to life. In this dynamic storytelling medium, some artists have recognized a unique opportunity for social activism. Join artists Colette Fu and Beth Thielen in a conversation with Rachel Rivenc, the Getty Research Institute’s head of Preservation and Conservation, as they delve into how their art practices enact social justice.

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Johnson Publishing Company Archive

Co-owned with Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), the Johnson Publishing Company Archive is one of the most significant collections relating to 20th-century Black America. Containing nearly 5 million photographs, 5,000 magazines, 10,000 audio and visual recordings, and 200 boxes of business records, this vast resource will be a foundation for research, training, publications, interpretive programming, and digital access projects.

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Steven Ehrlich Archive

The GRI has acquired part of the archive of renowned Los Angeles-based architect Steven Ehrlich, known for his multicultural modernism. The archive at GRI documents Ehrlich’s early activity in Africa, connecting to other special collections held at the GRI, and complements UCSB’s recently acquired archive of Ehrlich’s professional work. “The documentation shows a direct connection to Bernard Rudofsky’s notable work Architecture Without Architects. His practice also connects to some of the projects developed by Yona Friedman in early 1960,” said Maristella Casciato, senior curator and head of Architectural Collections at the GRI.
 

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Reyner Banham papers

1877-1988, undated (bulk 1960-1988)

British-born architectural historian and critic, educator, and editor, Reyner Banham (1922-1988) is known for his publications such as Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (1960), Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies (1971), Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment (1984), and Concrete Atlantis (1986). His papers contain research notes, manuscripts, and printed materials for his published and unpublished works and his lectures, as well as documentation relating to his participation in design juries and conferences.

 
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Ghost in the Machine

You might be worried about AI but throughout history, humans have used new technologies to create art. Learn more about how visiting researchers in the Getty Scholars Program, brought together annually around a single theme, are interpreting the topic of art and technology.

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Intimate Addresses: Recording Artists Live

In season two of the Recording Artists podcast, titled Intimate Addresses, host Tess Taylor dives into the lives of six artists through personal letters pulled from Getty’s archives. This special episode, recorded live at Getty, features a discussion between Taylor and Getty Research Institute curator Pietro Rigolo about the making of the series, and what she discovered through the letters that didn’t make the cut. Author Maya Binyam joins them to bring the letters to life via dramatic readings. You can find this episode and more on getty.edu’s newly launched podcast page!

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Tremaine Houses: One Family’s Patronage of Domestic Architecture in Midcentury America

Volker M. Welter

From the late 1930s to the early 1970s, two brothers, Burton G. Tremaine and Warren D. Tremaine, and their respective wives, Emily Hall Tremaine and Katharine Williams Tremaine, commissioned approximately thirty architecture and design projects. Richard Neutra and Oscar Niemeyer designed the best-known Tremaine houses; Philip Johnson and Frank Lloyd Wright also created designs and buildings for the family that achieved iconic status in the modern movement. Focusing on the Tremaines’ houses and other projects, this volume explores the Tremaines’ architectural patronage in terms of the family’s motivations and values, exposing patterns in what may appear as an eclectic collection of modern architecture.

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