ONE of the intellectual hubs of the art world, almost hidden in plain sight, resides in a gleaming white circular building on the Getty Center's Brentwood hillside.
It's a library to die for with 920,000 volumes on the history of art, architecture and archeology and 2 million study photographs.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday, September 02, 2007 Home Edition Sunday Calendar Part E Page 2 Calendar Desk 1 inches; 21 words Type of Material: Correction
Pierre Koenig: An article last Sunday about the Getty Research Institute misstated the first name of architect Pierre Koenig as Peter.
It's a cabinet of wonders with special collections of rare books, prints, maps, dealers' archives, artists' sketchbooks, optical devices and, oh, yes, more than 5,000 videotapes spanning the evolution of video art since the 1960s.
It's an ivory tower where scholars from around the world converge and ponder big ideas: Change! Religion and Ritual! Duration! Markets and Value! Memory! The Metropolis as Crucible! The Avant-Garde!
As well, it's a think tank where brainstorms turn into exhibitions, books, conferences, workshops and projects with artists, not to mention a database paradise for art historians, librarians and museum professionals in search of every last fact and detail about the visual arts.
And to Thomas W. Gaehtgens, the Getty Research Institute is an offer he finally couldn't refuse. A scholar of 18th and 19th century French and German art who directs the German Center for the History of Art in Paris and teaches at the Free University of Berlin, Gaehtgens recently accepted an invitation to take charge of the institute in Los Angeles. He will assume the prestigious position Nov. 1, succeeding Thomas Crow, who will leave at the end of this month to chair the department of modern art history at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts.
"This idea came out of the blue," Gaehtgens says, reached by telephone at his home in Berlin. At 67, he has compiled an enormous résumé as a scholar, writer, teacher, administrator, consultant and award winner. A few months ago, he was preparing to step down from the German Center in Paris, which he founded 10 years ago, and looking forward to focusing on his own work.
Then he got a call from James Wood, the former president of the Art Institute of Chicago who gave up his retirement in New England to take charge of the Getty Trust late last year and restore calm and integrity to an organization that had been shaken to its core by scandals concerning its antiquities collections and the lavish spending of its president, Barry Munitz, who was forced out in early 2006.
