Getty Foundation director Joan Weinstein on the art scene in LA

Above: Nikesha Breeze, Stages of tectonic blackness: Blackdom2021

Joan Weinstein is the hub of one of the art world’s biggest wheels. As director of the Getty Foundation, where she has worked for 30 years, she helped Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA 1945–1980the acclaimed 2011 mega-exhibition that involved museums across Southern California and set a new standard for collaborative projects. PST had a second run with a Latinx theme in 2018 and this month its third and largest edition, PST Art: Art and science collide, Kick-off.

Weinstein has skilfully used the funds available to her, which come from the Getty Trust, whose endowment is worth around $8 billion; this fund also finances the J. Paul Getty Museum and its associated conservation and research institutes. In the future PST Type will take place every five years, which means Weinstein will get busier and busier. Robb Report spoke to her about the ambitious project, the story behind the theme and why an equivalent to Eastern Standard Time may not be an option.

The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

This thing is going to be big, right?
It continues to grow. We are taking over the region. I think we funded about 35 exhibitions in the first year. This time, we’re doing 60. So far, we’ve given out about $23 million in grants for this edition.

Remind us how it all began.
Andrew Perchuk, deputy director of the Getty Research Institute, and I were the two initiators of the first one. The institute was in the process of compiling oral group histories from 1945 to 1980. We found that the families of LA gallery owners and artists were throwing away the papers from that period because they thought they had no real value.

We discovered that they told a very different story of modern art in this country. And then we thought, oh, maybe we’ll do an exhibition or two on that topic. It grew quickly.

There are so many institutions involved – is that a challenge?
I don’t think there is any other place where institutions could work together like the ones in Los Angeles. PST, The director of one of New York’s largest museums said, “How did Los Angeles do it before us?” Someone else said, “Well, there’s just too much competition in New York.” At that moment we thought, we’ve done something special.

How can museums be nice to each other?
In the first Pacific Standard Time, There was a curator from a large institution talking to someone from a smaller institution – both of them wanted to loan the same piece of art. The curator from the large institution said, “I’ve already secured this loan from the collector. But it’s so much more important for your exhibition. I could get another piece. I’ll help you get that loan.”

Do you think that smaller museums are supported in other ways?
We do. During the first PST, We conducted surveys in all museums. A large number of people who described themselves as museum visitors had never been to the institution they were visiting – about two-thirds.

Why art and science as the theme of this issue?
Since the early 20th century, Southern California has been closely linked to science and technology. It was the place where scientists looked up at the sky at Mount Wilson Observatory and where Edwin Hubble proved that the universe is constantly expanding.

Is it particularly significant now that science is under attack in some circles?
When we came up with this theme five years ago, we didn’t know it would be so relevant in 2024. I think the great thing about art exhibitions is that they open up new ways to talk about topics that aren’t quite so polarized.

Climate change, for example, is so abstract to people and creeps up on us slowly, but works of art can help us address these issues in a much more immediate, emotional way.

Can it be a coincidence that the art scene in Los Angeles has been PST?
The greatest satisfaction was seeing what a small role we played in making LA a real destination in the art world. We hope we were part of that momentum.

PST is definitely worth seeing

If you don’t have time for several dozen shows, here are Weinstein’s top three.

Particles and Waves: Abstraction and Science in Southern California, 1945–1990

Palm Springs Art Museum
14 September to 23 February

“It shows some of the artwork we saw in the first Pacific Standard Time,” explains Weinstein, “but in a different context—namely, how advanced scientific research inspired abstract artists,” including Mary Corse and Fred Eversley (“Untitled (Black),” 1978, above).

Brackish water Los Angeles

CSU Dominguez Hills University Art Gallery
12 August to 14 December

Catherine Opie and Alfredo Jaar (Untitled (Water) E, 1990, above) are among the artists addressing “disturbed natural water systems” on a campus that Weinstein describes as “located where the intertidal zone and wetlands once met, but which is no longer the case due to climate change.”

For dear life: art, medicine and disability

Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
19 September to 2 February

Featuring works by Lynn Hershman Leeson (X-Ray Woman in Bathing Cap, 1966, above), Yvonne Rainer and Ida Applebroog, the exhibition, according to Weinstein, “examines the way modern medicine approaches the human body and whether we need a different approach to the way we look at that body.”