Tyler Green Take On New Getty Trust Head - And The Recent Rash Of Art Star Imports To LA!

First, Tyler Green agrees that getting a great art person trumps having someone with LA ties for this position:

What we think: Wood is a first-class choice. I wrote back in February that it was important for the Getty to hire an art person to run the Trust, and Wood has strong art world credentials.

I also wrote that I hoped that the Getty would hire someone with Los Angeles ties. Wood has none. He sits on the boards of the Clark Art Institute, the IFA at NYU, HUAM, and the RISD museum. Oh well. There's no question it's more important that the Getty be run by an art guy.

In addition to the issues discussed here ad absurdem for several years, one of the Getty's biggest problems in recent years has been a brain drain, an exodus of top-notch talent. Expect Wood to be a stabilizing force. I think the staff would have loved anybody with an art background, but Wood's background should be especially appealing.


Second, he delves into the cornucopia of first rate art world talent that our city has attracted over the past few years:

Finally: The flow of Easterners heading to Los Angeles continues. New Yorkers Annie Philbin and Gary Garrels went to the Hammer. New Yorker Michael Govan runs LACMA. Michael Brand went from Virginia to the Getty Museum. And now Wood to the Getty Trust. (And who could forget: MOCA's Jeremy Strick is an ex-AICer. So with Wood at the Meier-on-the-hill, maybe we're one step closer to Michael Kimmelman's fantasy of the Getty buying-out MOCA, ha ha.)