Does the Gettys lofty location present an elitist approach to art?
JEFFREY KAYE: Yet, the Getty’s mountaintop perch is also the source of its greatest controversy. The vision of a gleaming white acropolis high on a hill bothers some people, including Christopher Knight, an art critic with the Los Angeles Times. He thinks the lofty location sends the wrong message. CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT, Los Angeles Times: On the one hand, it is a spectacular sight. On the other hand, by separating itself out from the fabric of the city and putting itself up on the hill I think the Getty Center becomes a symbol which says that culture is something that you visit, rather than something that you live. JEFFREY KAYE: By citing this center and the museum on top of the hill, aren’t you getting across a message that art is really separate from people’s lives? HAROLD WILLIAMS: If you were to define elitism and say, is there something special about art, yes, there is, maybe that is elitist. If you think of elite–but is elitism exclusionary? No, it’s not. And our task is to make t
