Documented artwork / sculptural garden
Central Garden
Credit as documented: Robert Irwin
The Getty commissioned Robert Irwin's Central Garden as part of the Getty Center in Los Angeles, opening it with the campus in 1997. Getty treats the 134,000-square-foot landscape as sculpture within its art collection. Visitors encounter it through bodily movement, changing viewpoints and natural materials. From the overlook, the garden visually extends toward the city, ocean and sky. Trees clipped into a hedge and an angled path establish a strong geometric structure.
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At a glance
- Year / version
- 1997
- Materials
- plants, water, constructed landscape elements
- Documented setting
- outdoor
- Dimensions
- 134,000 square feet
- Dimensions apply to
- Garden area as described by Getty; not object height or transport dimensions.
- Availability
- Unconfirmed
Places & versions
Installation history
Historical presentations. A past installation does not establish the current location or suitability for a new site.
1997
Getty Center, Los Angeles
- Site
- Getty Center
- Commissioner
- The Getty
- Start year
- 1997
- Date meaning
- documented
Installation details checked 2026-10-17.
Materials and construction
Irwin related the planted and constructed forms to Richard Meier's surrounding architecture. Water moves through a channel at the overlook toward the garden. The published area describes this extensive landscape work, not the dimensions of a transportable object.
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Sources
- www.getty.edu ↗ · Checked 2026-10-16
- www.getty.edu ↗ · Checked 2026-10-17