”The Getty Getaway”. Acrylic and spray paint on raw linen canvas. 40”x 65”. 2012

The painting shows the Getty Museum blown up or ripped apart. Out of the white marble building comes a flying oil platform lifted by the power from the oil pressure. I have used raw linen canvas in order to show the real natural material and structure. I have kept the pallet in a gray scale except for the foundation of gold spray. In February 2012 I visited The Getty Center. The museum is located in the hills of Brentwood just outside of Los Angeles.  It is built by the J. Paul Getty Trust founded by the oil mogul J. Paul Getty.(1892-1976). The center cost more than 1,3 billion dollars to build. It is designed by architect Richard Meier and opened in 1997.

“We are all affected by Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Alvar Aalto, and Mies van der Rohe. But no less than Bramante, Borromini, and Bernini. Architecture is a tradition, a long continuum. Whether we break with tradition or enhance it, we are still connected to that past. We evolve.” – R. Meier

Every year more than 1,3 million visitors come to the attraction and this makes it one of the most visited museums in The US. It has no entrance fee. The Museum is also well known for its architecture, its garden designed by Robert Irwin and the incredible collection of art. At his death Paul Getty was one of the wealthiest people in the American history. He was the first to own more than one billion dollars. By creating the Getty Museum, owned and driven by The J. Paul Getty Trust, The Getty Research Institute, The Getty Conservation Institute and the Getty Foundation. The Getty dynasty is now the wealthiest and most powerful organization in the American art scene. With an endowment of $4.2 billion, the Getty Trust is the wealthiest art institution in the world

“The beauty one can find in art is one of the pitifully few real and lasting products of human endeavor.” ― J. Paul Getty

No doubt that J.P Getty was interested in art and in making good conditions for the art. But under the generous surface there is also another reason for spending these large amounts of money. It is a “public secret” that the Getty empire every year saves a lot of tax money so they instead can spend it on the art world. From a democratic point of view I find this spectacular, because the public majority might not agree about spending that much money on art. Instead the money could go to education, the infra structure or health care to the benefit of more people. On the other hand, support for cultural and other extraordinary projects often need to come from private founding. Otherwise they would never become reality. I find this discussion about private and public founding very interesting because these organizations create the systems that the artists need to work within. No matter if the money comes from the government or from private donations. In USA there is a tradition for private founding and charity. In Denmark we just pay more taxes and then we have the feeling of given enough. In Denmark it is difficult to become really rich, but also difficult to be really poor.

In my choice of material I try to make that contrast by using gold on top of the brown unprimed natural linen canvas, with fake poisoned gold spray paint on top, together with the white building and the black oil. I use the oil to represent progress and invention. But during the last couple of decades it has become a symbol for something negative and almost stupid. The oil is equal to pollution, abuse of power and war. It has become a symbol of a lack of development in technology and thereby the possibility to be independent as states. If a county as America became independent from oil, there would be fewer reasons to make wars.  In this way I can argue that the Getty´s oil money take the art as its hostage. This brings me to another point. Most artists I know of are anti-capitalists, socialists and pro green innovation, but I have never heard of any artist who denied receiving any kind of financial aid from a company or organization with a bad reputation. Nor would they give their money away when they become extremely rich. For example is the expensive Swizz made double framed linen canvases I use sponsored by a donator from Texas. And guess where the money comes from? Oil! Yes, we are all hypocrites! My goal is actually not to state what is right or wrong, but to question all kinds of institutions that create our world, because there is always a backside.  To me the art world is getting more and more organized and controlled by all kinds of interests because of the increasing values in art. In my opinion the result is the loss of freedom for the artists and an elite-controlled art scene.  The art world is not what it used to be and so be it!