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Indepth Arts News:
"Martin Puryear: Commission for the Getty Center"
1999-11-23 until 2000-01-09
Getty Center
Los Angeles, CA,
USA United States of America
A striking addition to the Getty's commissioned works of art will greet visitors
to the Getty Center in late fall: That Profile, a tall openwork sculpture of
stainless steel and bronze by American artist Martin Puryear. After a complex
construction process in Seekonk, Massachusetts and a transcontinental trip,
this sculpture will be installed on the Getty Center's Tram Arrival Plaza.
A marvel of artistry and engineering, the sculpture is an elegant, airy structure
of welded, sandblasted stainless-steel tubes, bound at the joints by thick
strands of bronze. It will rise from the broad expanse of travertine pavement
on six slender legs to a height of 45 feet, its billowing form suggesting both a
delicate fishnet cast against the sky and a human head in profile.
Puryear's sculpture is the most recent in a series of works by distinguished
Contemporary artists commissioned by the Getty Trust for key public spaces
at the Center. Previous commissions include Robert Irwin's Central Garden;
Ed Ruscha's Picture Without Words, a painting in the lobby of the Harold
M. Williams Auditorium; and Alexis Smith's Taste, a mixed media
installation in the Restaurant.
While we don't collect contemporary art in the traditional sense, says John
Walsh, Getty Museum director, we're finding other ways to make it part of
our lives here, by sponsoring its creation and showing it to our visitors.
The related exhibition Martin Puryear: Commission for the Getty Center is
on view from November 23, 1999 through January 9, 2000. It traces the
genesis of the Getty plaza piece in works on paper and sculptures dating from
1966 to the present. A series of photographs by Lynn Davis documents the
sculpture's fabrication and installation. The exhibition is organized by guest
curator Lisa Lyons.
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