The J. Paul Getty Museum - Handbook of the Collections/Guide to the Villa and its Gardens [antikvár]

FOREWORD "If a museum is alive and thriving, it is bound to keep changing and improving. This is good for our visitors and good for our staff But it means that guidebooks go quickly out of date." Thus wrote my predecessor, Stephen Garrett, just four years ago in a guidebook that obeyed his rule and went quickly out of date. We are pleased to present its successor but cheerfully resigned to the new Handbook's speedy obsolescence. The Getty Museunis collection now grows at such a rate that the galleries need to be rearranged frequently, and a room-by-room commentary would be a short-lived thing. This Handbook is not a guide, therefore, but a selection of important works from the collection with some interpretive remarks by the curators. By way of introduction we provide a concise account of Mr. Getty's life as a collector and of the Museurrfe brief but remarkable history. Later in 1986 we also plan to publish a book that treats the building—its design, construction, and historical precedents—in greater detail than the old guidebooks or other Museum publications. It has been ten years since the present Museum building was opened to the public. The building has weathered gently, the bright colors of the painted decorations in Roman style have softened, and the trees and shrubs have grown up. Public perceptions have changed as well, since trends in contemporary architecture have made the re-creation of a Roman villa a less outlandish notion than it may have appeared in 1974. Inside the Museum the changes are more striking, for the galleries display a great many newly acquired works of art. Only attentive readers of newspapers and magazines, however, are likely to know how profoundly the Getty Museum has changed in the decade since the villa opened. Mr. Getty's generous legacy gave the trustees a chance to undertake much more than the improvement of the Getty Museum, which in any event could never absorb all the income. In 1983 they formed the J. Paul Getty Trust, a private operating foundation (as distinct from a grantmaking foundation) devoted to the visual arts. After two years of consultations with professionals in museums, uruversities, and View of the Main Peristyle Garden and main facade, TheJ. Paul Cetty Museum, 1980. Photo: Julius Shulmati. ^ I'-i '-'iSiWiWif« r ; i I . ¦' I I;''. .I'Ki'f I- vH"