From 1973 to 1984, Samuel J. Wagstaff Jr. (American, 1921-1987) assembled one of the most important private collections of photographs in the world. Wagstaff promoted photography as an art form by organizing exhibitions, delivering lectures, and publishing material on his collection. In 1984, a few years before his death, Wagstaff sold his collection to the J. Paul Getty Museum. Numbering several thousand, the collection now forms a cornerstone of the Getty Museum's holdings of photographs. Wagstaff served as a curator of paintings and sculpture at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (1961-1968) and curator of contemporary art at the Detroit Institute of Art (1969-1971). In addition to being a collector and curator, he was the mentor and lover of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. In 1973, Wagstaff began to sell his collection of contemporary paintings in order to raise funds to purchase photographs. He was not only at the forefront of establishing a market for this neglected art form; his reputation as an arbiter of artistic taste also provided an impetus for the collection and study of photography by museums and scholars. Well-known photographers such as William Henry Fox Talbot, Gustave Le Gray, Julia Margaret Cameron, Edgar Degas, Walker Evans, Dr. Harold Edgerton, Diane Arbus, Robert Frank, and William Klein will be featured, among many others.

"Sam Wagstaff as Curator"
Sept. 17, 2016 - Dec. 18, 2016
Before Samuel J. Wagstaff Jr. (1921-1987) began amassing his unprecedented private collection of photography in 1973, he had been a groundbreaking museum curator at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (1961-68) and at the Detroit Institute of Arts (1968-71). From "Black, White and Grey," the first museum exhibition of Minimalist art; to publishing limited edition silkscreen portfolios of work by major contemporary artists in the 1960s; to advocating for Earth art that manipulates the natural landscape; Wagstaff was a trailblazer and an influential tastemaker in contemporary art. This installation is drawn solely from the Wadsworth Atheneum's permanent collection and accompanies the special exhibition "The Thrill of the Chase: The Wagstaff Collection of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum." "Sam Wagstaff as Curator" will explore the impact Wagstaff specifically had as a curator through his organization of innovative exhibitions, his acquisitions of cutting-edge art, and his friendship with and promotion of countless young artists culminating in the eventual formation of the museum's groundbreaking MATRIX program in 1975.