Re-opening of the Getty Center's Central Garden

Robert Irwin's design of bougainvillea vines growing up iron rod arbors give the illusion of trees, a favorite among the landscape design at the Getty Center's Central Garden.

The Getty Center's Central Garden will reopen to visitors on Saturday, May 26th after being closed for three months, due to maintenance on the walkways and planters. In celebration of the reopening the Getty Restaurant will offer specially priced Grove Margaritas and Garden Martinis this Saturday and Sunday, May 26th and 27th. The Museum Store will also offer a 20 percent discount off Plants in the Getty's Central Garden, a Getty publication.

Artist Robert Irwin designed the garden in 1997; it is one of Irwin's best-known landscapes and is an accessioned work of art that is part of the Getty Museum's collection. The garden features a natural ravine and a plant and tree-lined walkway, which traverses a stream and descends to a plaza with bougainvillea arbors; specialty gardens encircle the pool.

Since the garden opened in 1997, the plant life has continuously evolved with new plants constantly being added to the palette. Irwin's statement, "Always changing, never twice the same," is carved into the plaza floor, to represent the ever-changing nature and living work of art.

Irwin actively oversaw the garden until 2008 when he retired. Although Irwin began his career as an installation artist his work began evolving in the 1980's when he incorporated trees into his 9 Spaces 9 Trees project, commissioned to a Public Safety Building in Seattle, Washington. Later he also designed Dia:Beacon, a museum in New York and Irwin Gardens of Resnick Pavilion at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

Robert Irwin was born in 1928 in Long Beach, California. After serving in the United States Army from 1946 to 1947, he attended Otis Art Institute from 1948 to 1950; Jepson Art Institute in 1951; and Chouinard Art Institute from 1952 to 1954 (all are located in Los Angeles). Irwin was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, the Chaloner award, the James D. Phelan award and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation medal in architecture.

The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center is open this weekend from 10 am to 9 pm on Saturday and from 10 am to 5:30 pm on Sunday; the Museum is closed on Mondays. Admission to the Getty Center is always free. Parking is $15 per car, but reduced to $10 after 5 pm on Saturdays and for evening events throughout the week. No reservations are required for parking or general admission. The Getty Center is located at 1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles, California.

The J. Paul Getty Trust is an international cultural and philanthropic institution devoted to the visual arts that includes the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Research Institute, the Getty Conservation Institute, and the Getty Foundation. The J. Paul Getty Trust and Getty programs serve a varied audience from two locations: the Getty Center in Los Angeles and the Getty Villa in Malibu.