Spring

Getty Publications Spring 2016
“Robert’s archive is a gift for those who seek
to comprehend the genesis of his work,
his emotional range, his heightened imagination,
and the progressive steps of his evolution.”
—Patti Smith
This captivating book unveils one of the
finest collections of photography in the world
Getty Publications New Titles
Robert Mapplethorpe
The Archive
The Thrill of the Chase
The Wagstaff Collection of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum
Frances Terpak and Michelle Brunnick
With essays by Patti Smith and Jonathan Weinberg
Paul Martineau
With an essay by Eugenia Parry and an introduction by Weston Naef
Celebrated photographer Robert Mapplethorpe challenged the limits of censorship and conformity, combining
technical and formal mastery with unexpected, often provocative content that secured his place in
history. Mapplethorpe’s artistic vision helped shape the social and cultural fabric of the 1970s and ’80s and,
following his death in 1989 from AIDS, informed the political landscape of the 1990s. His photographic
works continue to resonate with audiences all over the world.
Throughout his career, Mapplethorpe preserved studio files and art from every period and vein of
his production, including student work, jewelry, sculptures, and commercial assignments. The resulting
archive is fascinating and astonishing. With over 400 illustrations, this volume surveys a virtually unknown
resource that sheds new light on the artist’s motivations, connections, business acumen, and talent as a
curator and collector.
FRANCES TERPAK is curator of photographs at the Getty Research Institute, where she has built the
photographic and optical devices collections. She is the author of Brush and Shutter: Early Photography in
China (Getty Publications, 2011). MICHELLE BRUNNICK is a visual artist and critical theorist. She
was the Robert Mapplethorpe archive curatorial assistant at the Getty Research Institute. PATTI SMITH
is a singer-songwriter, poet, and visual artist. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in
2007, and she won the National Book Award in 2010 for her memoir Just Kids. JONATHAN WEINBERG is
a visiting critic at the Yale School of Art and a lecturer at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Samuel J. Wagstaff Jr. (1921–1987) amassed an extraordinary collection of 26,000 photographs between
1973 and 1984, recognizing that photography was an undervalued art form on which he might have a profound
impact as a collector. He was mainly attracted to photographs that stimulated his imagination, and
his taste ran toward the idiosyncratic—images that surprised him chiefly because he had never seen them
before.
In choosing the 147 works reproduced in this volume, Paul Martineau selected masterpieces as well as
images from obscure sources: daguerreotypes, cartes-de-visite, and stereographs, plus mug shots, medical
photographs, and works by unknown makers. The latter category contains some of the most outstanding
objects in the collection, demonstrating Wagstaff’s willingness to position unfamiliar images alongside
works by established masters as well as underrepresented contemporary artists of the time, including
Jo Ann Callis, William Garnett, and Edmund Teske.
This book is published to accompany an eponymous exhibition on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum
from March 15 to July 31, 2016; at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, CT, from September 10 to
December 11, 2016; and at the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, ME, from February 1 to April 30, 2017.
PAUL MARTINEAU is associate curator in the Department of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum,
where WESTON NAEF is curator emeritus. EUGENIA PARRY is a former professor of the histories of art
and photography at Wellesley College.
Getty Research Institute
240 pages, 9½ x 12 inches
274 color and 134 b/w illustrations
ISBN 978-1-60606-470-2, hardcover
US $49.95 T [UK £32.50]
J. Paul Getty Museum
244 pages, 9½ x 11 inches
166 color and 8 b/w illustrations
ISBN 978-1-60606-467-2, hardcover
US $59.95 X [UK £40.00]
MARCH
MARCH
PHOTOGRAPHY
PHOTOGRAPHY
2
3