Records document the 1997 creation and execution of Taste, Alexis Smith's permanent mixed-media installation for the Restaurant at the Getty Center. Materials comprise 35mm color slides; 4 x 5 inch color transparencies; 4 x 5 inch color and black-and-white negatives; and 5 screen prints signed by the artisit. The photographs, shot by Grant Mudford, document the progress of the installation.

A native Californian, Alexis Smith (born Patricia Anne Smith) is well-known for her mixed-media collages. While growing up she read books and wrote plays. Her interest in literature is evident in some of her early collages where she combined objects and images with textual passages from John Steinbeck, Sinclair Lewis, and Nathaniel West. She graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 1970 and her first installation was presented in 1972 at the Pasadena Art Museum. Over the years her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Lawrence Rubin Greenberg Van Doren Fine Art Gallery in New York, among others.The Getty Center opened in 1997 as a multifaceted campus located in Brentwood, California, comprised of modern architecture, gardens, and fountains. It is owned and operated by the J. Paul Getty Trust, a cultural and philanthropic organization. The Trust is a not-for-profit institution, educational in purpose and character, that focuses on the visual arts in all of their dimensions. The Center is home to the Trust and its four programs: the Getty Foundation, the Getty Research Institute, the Getty Conservation Institute, and the J. Paul Getty Museum. The Museum and the Conservation Institute also maintain operations at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, the original site of the Museum.

4.4 Linear Feet (2 boxes, 3 flat files, 1 framed item)

Contact Rights and Reproductions at the Getty Research Institute for copyright information and permission to publish.

The materials described in accession 1998.IA.09 are available for use by qualified researchers.