Synchrony and diachrony
Subtitle: photographs of the J.P. Getty Museum 1997
By: Robert Polidori
Contributors: Dorenbaum, David, contributor; J. Paul Getty Museum
Edition: First edition.
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 57
ISBN-13: 9783958293830
Subjects: Buildings, structures; Getty Center (Los Angeles, Calif.); Exhibitions; J. Paul Getty Museum; Art museums; Artistic Photography; Pictorial works; Architectural photography
Other titles: Robert Polidori :; Photographs of the J.P. Getty Museum 1997
Description: This book presents 35 photos of the Getty Center taken shortly before the 1997 opening of its new multipurpose complex designed by Richard Meier. Published to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the center, the book reveals behind-the-scenes views of the building as objects from J. Paul Getty's painting, sculpture and decorative arts collections were being installed inside it. In September 1997 The New Yorker commissioned Robert Polidori to photograph Meier's building. Within 48 hours he had made images of its exterior but remembers being unsatisfied: The building looks great, but it could house anything really--a hospital, a university, or even some corporate headquarters. Polidori wanted to document the museum's interior, to capture what he calls "some sort of museological typology," and proceeded to photograph the rooms in which artworks were either freshly installed or still being so: sculptures under plastic sheets, golden candelabras resting on foam cushions, cardboard boxes containing unseen treasures. The resulting photos show the museum in the process of taking shape, expose the mechanics of curatorship, and reveal, in Polidori's words, a paradox: "The more a room may be filled with the helter-skelter of objects to be arranged, the more naked and raw the possibilities and intent of their placement become apparent."
Notes: Published to coincide with the exhibition "Robert Polidori: 20 Photographs of the Getty Museum, 1997" on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum from December 12, 2017 to May 6, 2018.

Text by Amanda Maddox, David Dorenbaum, Robert Polidori.

Includes bibliographical references.