Spring

Getty Publications Spring 2016
An unforgettable account of a world-renowned
artistic treasure located in the heart of China
This incisive volume brings a vibrant set of
trailblazing postwar painters to brilliant life
Getty Publications New Titles
Cave Temples of Dunhuang
Buddhist Art on China’s Silk Road
London Calling
Bacon, Freud, Kossoff, Kitaj, Auerbach, and Andrews
Edited by Neville Agnew, Marcia Reed, and Tevvy Ball
Elena Crippa and Catherine Lampert
The Mogao grottoes in northwestern China, located near the town of Dunhuang on the fabled Silk Road,
constitute one of the world’s most significant sites of Buddhist art. Preserved in some five hundred caves
carved into rock cliffs at the edge of the Gobi Desert are one thousand years of exquisite wall paintings and
sculpture. Founded by Buddhist monks in the late fourth century, Mogao grew into an artistic and spiritual
center whose renown extended from the Chinese capital to the far western kingdoms of the Silk Road.
Among its treasures are 45,000 square meters of murals, more than 2,000 statues, and some 50,000
medieval silk paintings and illustrated manuscripts.
This sumptuous catalogue accompanies an exhibition of the same name, which will run from May 7
through September 4, 2016, at the Getty Center. Organized by the Getty Conservation Institute, Getty
Research Institute, Dunhuang Academy, and Dunhuang Foundation, the exhibition celebrates a decadeslong
collaboration between the GCI and the Dunhuang Academy to conserve this UNESCO World Heritage
Site. It presents, for the first time in North America, a collection of objects from the so-called Library Cave,
including illustrated sutras, prayer books, and other exquisite treasures, as well as three full-scale, handpainted
replica caves. This volume includes essays by leading scholars, an illustrated portfolio on the replica
caves, and comprehensive entries on all objects in the exhibition.
Between the postwar years and the 1980s in Britain, and in particular in London, a number of figurative
painters simultaneously reinvented the way in which life is represented in art. Focusing on the depiction of
the human figure, these artists rendered the frailty and vitality of the human condition.
Offering a fresh account of developments that have since characterized postwar British painting, this catalogue
focuses on Michael Andrews, Frank Auerbach, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, R. B. Kitaj, and Leon Kossoff—
artists who worked in close proximity as they were developing new forms of realism. If for many years their
efforts seemed to clash with dominant tendencies, reassessment in recent decades has afforded their work a
central position in a richer and more complex understanding of postwar British art and culture.
Rigorous and gorgeously illustrated, the essays reflect on the parallel yet diverse trajectories of these artists,
their friendships and mutual admiration, and the divergence of their practice from the discourse of high
modernism. The authors seek to dispel the notion of their work as a uniquely British endeavor by highlighting
the artists’ international outlook and ongoing dialogue with contemporary European and American painters
as well as masters from previous generations.
This book is published to coincide with an exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum from July 26 through
November 13, 2016.
NEVILLE AGNEW is principal project specialist at the Getty Conservation Institute. MARCIA REED is
chief curator and head of Special Collections at the Getty Research Institute. TEVVY BALL is an editor at
Getty Publications.
ELENA CRIPPA is curator of modern and contemporary British art at Tate Britain. CATHERINE LAMPERT
is an independent curator and art historian.
Getty Conservation Institute
302 pages, 9½ x 11 inches
192 color and 25 b/w illustrations
ISBN 978-1-60606-489-4, hardcover
US $59.95 X [UK £40.00]
J. Paul Getty Museum
136 pages, 9 x 11 inches
101 color illustrations
ISBN 978-1-60606-484-9, hardcover
US $35.00 X
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MAY
ART HISTORY
JULY
NAO
ART HISTORY
Lucian Freud (British,1922–2011)
Man with a Thistle (Self-Portrait),
ca. 1946, oil on canvas,
61 x 50.2 cm (24 x 19¾ in.)
© Tate, London 2015.
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