This collection comprises photographs by Julius Shulman and Jürgen Nogai of the expanded and renovated Getty Villa, taken during May and June, 2006. Forty-five (45) black and white and sixty-six (66) color 8 x 10 inch photographic prints constitute the main body of the collection. Duplicates of 29 of the color prints and the original 4 x 5 inch negatives for these prints are also included.

The Getty Villa operates as a museum and educational center dedicated to the study of the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria. The Getty Villa was designed to house J. Paul Getty's art collection when it outgrew his Ranch House in Pacific Palisades, California, which had served as a private museum since 1954. After considering various options for expanding the Ranch House, Getty decided in the fall of 1968 to build a new museum on the same property, in the form of a first-century Roman country house, based primarily on the plans of the ancient Villa dei Papiri just outside of Herculaneum. The archaeologist Norman Neuerburg, who had studied the ruins of Herculaneum and was an authority on Roman domestic architecture, was retained as a consultant for the project. The Santa Monica architectural firm Langdon & Wilson was hired to design the Villa, and British architect Stephen Garrett, who had served as Getty’s consultant in the remodeling of a Getty home in Posillipo, Italy, was retained as overseer of the construction. Landscape architect Emmet Wemple designed the gardens, Garth Benton worked on the murals, and Bruce Ptolomy worked on the fountains. Construction began on December 21, 1970, and the new museum opened to the public on January 16, 1974, receiving negative and positive reviews.Photographer Julius Shulman was renowned for his striking images of modern architecture. He was born October 10, 1910 in Brooklyn, New York, and moved to Los Angeles, California in 1920. Throughout the 1930s, Shulman photographed historical locations in Los Angeles, and his real break occurred in 1936, when he photographed architect Richard J. Neutra’s Kun House (Los Angeles, Calif.). He was subsequently asked by Neutra to photograph some of his other projects. Through his relationship with Neutra he was able to secure other architectural photography commissions, documenting the work of architects as R.M. Schindler, Raphael Soriano, Gregory Ain, J.R. Davidson, John Lautner and Pierre Koenig as well as many others. While he also shot product and furniture photographs for designers, he is most acclaimed for his iconic images of mid-century modern buildings including the Case Study houses of Southern California. Shulman’s photographs have been widely published, and he has produced several monographs about his work, including: Photography of Architecture and Design: Photographing Buildings, Interiors, and the Visual Arts (1977), Architecture and its Photography (1998), Photographing Architecture and Interiors (2000), and Malibu: A Century of Living by the Sea (2005).

0.25 linear feet (1 box)

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The records described in accession 2007.IA.14 are available for use by qualified researchers.