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J. Paul Getty Trust Documentation of the Installation of Taste at the Restaurant at the Getty Center
IA30009  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Biographical Note
  • Project Background
  • Administrative Information
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Indexing Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Documentation of the installation of Taste at the Restaurant at the Getty Center
    Date (inclusive): 1997
    Number: IA30009
    Creator/Collector: J. Paul Getty Trust
    Physical Description: 4.4 Linear Feet (2 boxes, 3 flat files, 1 framed item)
    Repository:
    The Getty Research Institute
    Institutional Records and Archives
    1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
    Los Angeles 90049-1688
    reference@getty.edu
    URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
    (310) 440-7390
    Abstract: 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.
    Request Materials: To access physical materials at the Getty, go to the library catalog record  for this collection and click "Request an Item." Click here for general library access policy . See the Administrative Information section of this finding aid for access restrictions specific to the records described below. Please note, some of the records may be stored off site; advanced notice is required for access to these materials.
    Language: Collection material is in English

    Biographical Note

    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.

    Project Background

    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.
    The Restaurant at the Getty Center is home to a permanent mixed-media installation called Taste, which was designed for the space by artist, Alexis Smith. The J. Paul Getty Trust commissioned the prints, the mural, and the documentation of the installation. The prints were exhibited in the J. Paul Getty Museum prior to their transfer to the Institutional Archives.

    Administrative Information

    Access Restrictions

    The materials described in accession 1998.IA.09 are available for use by qualified researchers.
    The following types of records are permanently closed: records containing personal information, records that compromise security or operations, legal communications, legal work product, and records related to donors. The J. Paul Getty Trust reserves the right to restrict access to any records held by the Institutional Archives.

    Publication Rights

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

    Preferred Citation

    [Cite the item and series (as appropriate)], Documentation of the Installation of Taste at the Restaurant at the Getty Center, J. Paul Getty Trust. The Getty Research Institute, (IA30009).
    http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifaia30009

    Immediate Source of Acquisition

    Materials were transferred in May of 1998 from the J. Paul Getty Museum following the deinstallation of an exhibit. The materials were originally assigned accession 830137 and were later designated as accession 1998.IA.09 during a renumbering project in the Institutional Archives.

    Processing Information

    In 2011 materials were processed and inventory was created by Zoe MacLeod; finding aid was subsequently created by Cyndi Shein.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    Materials document the 1997 creation and execution of Taste, Alexis Smith's permanent mixed-media installation (wall mural) for the Restaurant at the Getty Center. The collection 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 artist and labeled: Design entrance wall, Design vertical wall, Design vertical wall 2, Design dining room wall, and Small paintings detail. The photographs, shot by Grant Mudford, document the progress of the installation. The contents of the photographs include the start of the project and views of background painting in progress, the south wall in progress, the east wall in progress, the artist with the crew of Jerry Solomon Enterprises working on designs of plates and heads, the north-facing wall in progress, and the work nearing completion prior to the installation of plates and collages. A 6th silk screen print, "Entrance Wall," is framed and on display in the Restaurant entrance hall.

    Arrangement

    Materials are arranged by format: images are in binders and large drawings are in flat files.

    Indexing Terms

    Subjects - Names

    Smith, Alexis, 1949-

    Subjects - Corporate Bodies

    Getty Center (Los Angeles, Calif.)

    Subjects - Topics

    Mixed media (Art)
    Mural painting and decoration -- California -- Los Angeles

    Genres and Forms of Material

    Photographic prints -- 20th century
    Screen prints

    Contributors

    Smith, Alexis, 1949-
    J. Paul Getty Trust
    Mudford, Grant, 1944-