Fifteen curators and conservators from the Getty Museum, Getty Villa, and the Getty Research Institute are excited to share their passion for art, art history, and collections—and join their colleagues at nearly 1,000 institutions in 50 countries around the globe—on Wednesday, September 13, for the eighth annual #AskACurator Day.
What do curators do all day? What are the most unusual or storied artworks in the collections? How do you become a curator? How are exhibitions plans and created? We’d love to hear your burning questions.
For more information about #AskACurator Day and to see the full list of participating museums, check out this blog post.
Join the Conversation
There are three ways to get in touch:
- Ask us a question on Facebook and we’ll answer on Wednesday
- Follow @GettyMuseum on Twitter and post questions using the hashtag #AskACurator and handle @GettyMuseum in your tweet. You need a Twitter account to do this, but it’s simple to set one up. See what other people are asking and answering by following #AskACurator queries and the museums’ answers.
- Not on Twitter or Facebook? No problem! Post your questions here; leave a note in the comments section below by Tuesday, September 12, and we’ll respond on Wednesday.
Meet Our Participating Curators
Here’s our scheduled lineup; check this post as we move closer to #AskaCurator day for updates!
Richard Rand, Gene Karraker, and Anne Woollett.
8:00–8:30 a.m.—Paintings
Richard Rand, Associate Director for Collections, Getty Museum
Knows all about: The history of art (European and American), movies.
Currently fascinated with: Black Mirror, the LA Dodgers.
Gene Karraker, Paintings Conservation, Getty Museum
Knows all about: frame history.
Currently fascinated with: cooking.
Anne Woollett, Paintings, Getty Museum, Paintings
Knows all a few things about: Flemish and Dutch painting.
Currently fascinated by: mottos, artistic collaboration, triptychs.
Anne-Lise Desmas and Arlen Heginbotham.
9:00–9:30 a.m.—Decorative Arts
Anne-Lise Desmas, Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Getty Museum
Knows all about: sculptors in Rome in the second quarter of the eighteenth century.
Currently fascinated with: the newly acquired Borghese Cabinet and the archival research it requires.
Arlen Heginbotham, Sculpture and Decorative Arts Conservation, Getty Museum
Knows all about: KAA antique furniture, bronze casting, Asian lacquer.
Currently fascinated with: CFW X-rays and art, scientific methods of authentication.
Michelle Sullivan and Stephanie Schrader.
10:00–10:30 a.m.—Drawings
Michelle Sullivan, Paper Conservation, Getty Museum
Knows all about: drawing materials and techniques, especially those used by artists of the nineteenth century.
Currently fascinated with: working with the Getty Conservation Institute to explore methods of scientific analysis and new imaging techniques to better under drawings from the Getty Museum’s collection. I love the interdisciplinary nature of my work as a conservator!
Stephanie Schrader, Drawings, Getty Museum
Knows all about: seventeenth-century Dutch drawings.
Currently fascinated with: Rembrandt and his fascination with Indian art.
Larisa Grollemond.
11:00–11:15 a.m.—Manuscripts
Larisa Grollemond, Manuscripts, Getty Museum
Knows all about: medieval and Renaissance French illuminated manuscripts, court culture and patronage of the arts by the medieval ruling classes, prints and printed books in early modern Europe.
Currently fascinated with: medieval bestiaries, luxury manuscripts in the Renaissance, and the illustration of encyclopedic texts in the late medieval and early modern periods.
Arpad Kovacs
12:00-12:30 p.m.—Photographs
Arpad Kovacs, Getty Museum
Knows all about: contemporary photography.
Currently fascinated with: how artists engage with social justice issues and reenactment in contemporary art.
Scott Allan.
1:00–1:15 p.m.—Paintings
Scott Allan, Getty Museum
Knows all something about: nineteenth-century European painting.
Currently fascinated with: Edouard Manet (the Getty is planning an exhibition for 2019!).
Maristella Casciato and Idurre Alonso.
2:00–2:15 p.m.—Architecture and Archives
Maristella Casciato, Getty Research Institute
Knows all about: Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier and the new capital he built in India, Lina Bo Bardi and her architecture in Brazil, pasta alla carbonara.
Currently fascinated with: Eric Mendelsohn’s works in the US, Bauhaus in Los Angeles, Mission Style, Spanish Revival, and Mediterraneita’.
Idurre Alonso, Getty Research Institute
Knows all about: conceptual photographic practices in Latin America.
Currently fascinated with: the construction of power narratives during nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Latin America.
David Brafman
3:00-3:15 p.m.—Rare Books
David Brafman, Getty Research Institute
Knows all about: rare books.
Currently fascinated with: genies’ souls, art of memory, TV.
Jens Daehner and Judith Barr.
4:30–4:45 p.m.—Antiquities
Jens Daehner, Getty Villa
Knows all about: the hairstyles of Roman emperors, the off-side rule in soccer, the German spelling reform of 1996.
Currently fascinated with: Plato in contemporary art, Trevor Noah, the Korean language.
Judith Barr, Getty Villa
Knows all about: the history of collecting, Pleistocene predators, cheese plates.
Currently fascinated with: Kerry James Marshall’s art, the history of spices, the afterlives of Roman gems.
When looking at some of the Dutch paintings, say a Rembrandt, I notice they seem to have more neutral tones and a narrower palate, then paintings like Irises (Vincent van Gogh) or Spring (Edouard Manet) which are so bright and full of color. Is that simply a function of the subject matter, or perhaps a limitation in available pigments or something else?
When visiting the manuscripts at the Getty I always get the desire to touch the pages. Would it be practical to create a “touchable copy” of something in the collection, so folks could feel the texture of the parchment, the weight of the paper, the effort of turning a large page?
We do sometimes feature parchment in the galleries, and it does give people a sense of the material. However, there are very few craftsmen who make parchment according to medieval methods, and it is, after all, animal skin, so even small pieces are quite expensive. The parchment pieces in the gallery get dirty quite quickly, so we have to replace them. All of this explains why we can’t have parchment in the galleries at all times.
Which photograph is the oldest in your collection ?
Hi Gizella, Thanks for your comment! From our Department of Photographs, I have the answer for you:
The oldest photographs in the collection are two prints from 1835 by the Englishman William Henry Fox Talbot. One is of a piece of linen and the other is a view of the roofline of Lacock Abbey, the home of the Talbot family.
Thanks for your question! —Annelisa / Iris editor
Question for all: What is the most difficult part of being a curator? What is the typical planning cycle for a show/exhibit?
I am trying to find out some information about a cousin of my mother who was associated with the original Getty museum in Malibu. I remember visiting the construction site that was not finished at the time. I was about 14 years old, but remember the site was close to the mansion. My mothers cousins name was Norman Nuerenberger ( not sure if the last name is correct, but close). Any info you could provide would be appreciated