Author: Getty Media

Getty staff select highlights of Getty multimedia, new and from the archives.

Responding to Disaster: The Getty Fire

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Getty Art + Ideas
Responding to Disaster: The Getty Fire
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Southern California has always faced wildfires, but in recent years the threat has grown. Both the Getty Center and the Getty Villa are situated in the Santa Monica Mountains and surrounded by brushland, making them particularly vulnerable to the increased fire risk. In October 2019, the eponymous “Getty Fire” roared through the Santa Monicas near the Getty Center for days. But the Getty staff were prepared for just such a situation.

In this episode, we hear about the preparation for and response to the Getty Fire from Getty’s director of security Bob Combs; director of facilities Mike Rogers; vice president of communications Lisa Lapin; and chief financial officer and chief operating officer Steve Olsen.

For images, transcripts, and more, visit getty.edu/podcasts

True Grit: The American City in Early 20th-Century Prints

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Getty Art + Ideas
True Grit: The American City in Early 20th-Century Prints
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At the start of the twentieth century, American printmakers portrayed the modernizing world around them, from towering skyscrapers and deserted city streets to jazzy dance halls and boisterous movie theaters. Many of these printmakers were recent immigrants to the United States, and many were women—that these groups in particular could make careers as artists is indicative of the immense social changes of this period.

In this episode, Getty curator of drawings Stephanie Schrader and the Huntington Art Museum’s Bradford and Christine Mishler Associate Curator of American Art, James Glisson, explore this topic as they walk through their exhibition True Grit: American Prints from 1900 to 1950.

For images, transcripts, and more, visit getty.edu/podcasts

Manet and Modern Beauty: The Late Career of the Painter

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Getty Art + Ideas
Manet and Modern Beauty: The Late Career of the Painter
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French painter Édouard Manet is perhaps best known for his large scale paintings like Olympia and Le déjeuner sur l’herbe, both of which stoked controversy when they were first displayed. But in later life, with his health deteriorating, the artist shifted his focus to luscious still lifes, delicate pastels and watercolors, and portraits of social types like the parisienne or the dandy.

The exhibition Manet and Modern Beauty focuses on this often overlooked period of Manet’s career, from the late 1870s through his early death in 1883. In this episode, curators Emily Beeny and Scott Allan discuss key works from the exhibition and what they teach us about modernity and Manet.

The Lives of Titian

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Getty Art + Ideas
The Lives of Titian
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One of the most successful artists of the Italian Renaissance, Titian was the master of the sixteenth-century Venetian school and admired by his royal patrons and fellow artists alike. Several of his contemporaries, including the authors and art theorists Giorgio Vasari, Francesco Priscianese, Pietro Aretino, and Ludovico Dolce, wrote accounts of Titian’s life and work.

In this episode, Getty assistant curator of paintings Laura Llewellyn discusses what these “lives” teach us about Titian and the artistic debates and rivalries of his time. All of these biographies are gathered together in Lives of Titian, recently published by the Getty as part of our Lives of the Artists series.

Recording Artists—Lee Krasner: Deal with It

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Getty Art + Ideas
Recording Artists—Lee Krasner: Deal with It
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Today on Art + Ideas, we’re bringing you an episode from Getty’s new podcast, Recording Artists. In season one, Radical Women, host Helen Molesworth uses archival interviews to explore the lives of six women artists—Alice Neel, Lee Krasner, Betye Saar, Helen Frankenthaler, Yoko Ono, and Eva Hesse. Molesworth also speaks with contemporary artists and art historians to make sense of what it meant—and still means—to be a woman and an artist.

This episode focuses on Lee Krasner (1908–1984). Artists Lari Pittman and Amy Sillman join the discussion.

At 92, Southern California Architect Ray Kappe Reflects

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Getty Art + Ideas
At 92, Southern California Architect Ray Kappe Reflects







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Ray Kappe’s buildings, frequently featuring extensive spans of glass and warm wood, are known for their embrace of their often unusual sites and the California landscape. But Kappe’s impact on Southern California extends well beyond his own architectural practice. His work as an educator and as founding director of the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) ensure that Kappe’s unique approach to building continues to inspire generations of architects.

In this episode, Ray Kappe, joined by his wife, Shelly, and their son Finn, discusses his long career. This episode was recorded at the home Kappe designed for his family in the Pacific Palisades, which was completed in 1967 and which is discussed in detail in the episode.

From Pyramids to Databases with Getty Conservation Institute Director Tim Whalen

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Getty Art + Ideas
From Pyramids to Databases with Getty Conservation Institute Director Tim Whalen







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From painted cave temples in China to pyramids in Egypt to earthen cathedrals in Peru, the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) works globally to conserve artworks, architecture, and cultural heritage sites. An integral part of this effort is conducting scientific research, developing tools and educating and training professionals to manage conservation projects in situ. In this episode, John E. and Louise Bryson Director of the GCI, Tim Whalen, discusses past initiatives as well as what the future holds for the institution.

Teaching and Learning at the Bauhaus

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Getty Art + Ideas
Teaching and Learning at the Bauhaus







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This episode commemorates the hundredth anniversary of the opening of the Bauhaus, the influential school founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius in Weimar, Germany. Revered for its experimental art and design curriculum, the Bauhaus sought to erode distinctions among crafts, the fine arts, and architecture through study centered on practical experience and a variety of traditional and experimental media. Two exhibitions from the Getty, one of which is online, explore the Bauhaus curriculum from the point of view of the instructors and students, largely through pedagogical exercises, notebooks, and images.

In this episode, Getty curator Maristella Casciato, research assistant Gary Fox, and head of web and new media at the Getty Research Institute Liz McDermott discuss these exhibitions, Bauhaus Beginnings and Bauhaus: Building the New Artist.

Belief, Ritual, and Society with Neil MacGregor

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Getty Art + Ideas
Belief, Ritual, and Society with Neil MacGregor







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Since the Ice Age, humans have been using their imaginations to create objects of great artistry and skill, many of them destined for spiritual or religious functions.  Exploring the stories these objects tell and the shared narratives they reflect helps us to understand the nature of belief and the complex relationship between faith and society.

In this episode, former British Museum director, Neil MacGregor, discusses these ideas, which are the topic of his recent book Living with the Gods: On Beliefs and Peoples.

Memories of Degas

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Getty Art + Ideas
Memories of Degas







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Impressionist painter Edgar Degas (1834–1917) is well known for his gauzy paintings of dancers, his motion-filled images of horses, and his striking portraits. But the artist also lived a fascinating life—from a privileged upbringing to family bankruptcy, from defending Paris alongside Manet during the Franco-Prussian War to feuding with the same artist over a portrait.

Getty Publications has recently published two biographical essays, both titled “Memories of Degas.” One is by the Irish writer and critic George Moore and the other by the Munich-born, London-based artist and critic Walter Sickert. Both Moore and Sickert were Degas’s contemporaries and write from personal experience with the artist. In this episode, Getty associate curator Emily Beeny discusses the life of Degas as it is revealed in these two essays.