FInding Aid for Documentation of the Installation of at the Restaurant at the Getty Center, 1997
Zoe MacLeod and Cyndi Shein
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.
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Language: Collection material is in
English
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.
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.
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.
Contact
Rights and Reproductions at the Getty Research Institute for copyright information and permission to publish.
[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.
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.
Materials are arranged by format: images are in binders and large drawings are in flat files.
Smith, Alexis, 1949-
Getty Center (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Mixed media (Art)
Mural painting and decoration -- California -- Los Angeles
Photographic prints -- 20th century
Screen prints
Smith, Alexis, 1949-
J. Paul Getty Trust
Mudford, Grant, 1944-
Taste: Documentation of Wall Designs for Restaurant at the Getty Center, 1997
box 1998.IA.09-01
box 1998.IA.09-02
box 1998.IA.09-3 oversize folders
Getty Center Restaurant Project Conceptual Designs, 1997
Physical Description: (3 folders)
Scope and Content Note
Materials comprise five conceptual designs, each measuring 30" x 43" in length and width (including the matting). The designs
are color screen prints created, dated, and signed by the artist, Alexis Smith, in 1997. Overall themes underlying the design
concepts for the wall decor of the Getty Restaurant are food, taste, and associations with fine dining. There are conceptual
designs for the Entrance Wall, two for the Dining Room Wall, and two for the Vertical Wall.
item 1998.IA.09
Framed Entrance Wall conceptual design