Customer Reviews

The J. Paul Getty Museum and Its Collections: A Museum for the New Century

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The author spent far too much time describing how pieces were aquired and not enough time informing the reader about the pieces.

After going to the Museum and reading this book I was struck by how much the fame here is driven by the beautiful building, wonderful location, and the famous benefactors name, and not really the art works that are traditionally the centerpiece of an art museum. Ok there are some very nice pieces here, but just not that many. When purposing a museum book I do so to learn more about the particular art and here the book did an antiquate job, but a lot of page space was taken up with how they got the art. Overall as a coffee table book it is not bad looking, but scratch the surface and it starts to disappoint.

The Getty is both superb, small collection --- and a sybaritic and monumental complex of architecture/urban planning/sculpture set in a breathtaking natural site. This book, with exceptionally accurate and well-chosen photographs of the complex, and concise summaries of the major works of art, simply stated --- succeeds on all fronts.

For sophisticated museum goers, this volume is the creme de la creme: an ample but not too cumbersome overview of the Getty, and (if you've been there), a wonderful momento.

Those who seek what this book does not purport to be should steer themselves elsewhere.

Regretably, I have to agree with the two previous readers. This is not a very good book. It offers little insight into the Getty's collecting philosophy and conveniently passes in silence over the museum's many shortcomings.

Walsh, the director of the Getty museum, has written a self-serving door-stop of a book, the primary purpose of which seems to be to justify his tenure as head of the world's richest museum. Unfortunately, for Walsh as well as for the museum-going public, it all rings hollow. Despite a few spectacular, headline grabbing purchases, the Getty's efforts to built a first-rate collection have failed miserably. Perhaps if Walsh and his colleagues had built a smaller museum, more along the lines of the Frick or the Morgan, they could have filled its galleries with enough good work to make it worthwhile. As it is, they spent a fortune on a building that is better than the collection deserves. Too bad for everyone.