Archives for October 2006

Anish Kapoor's Sky Mirror, in the process of being dismantled today at Rockefeller Center. I overheard a Rockefeller Center employee tell a tourist today that "Sky Mirror" was being removed to allow unobstructed views from Fifth Avenue of the soon-to-arrive Christmas tree. But he added that it might go back up after the tree comes down. Let's hope this is more than hearsay! … [Read more...] about Whither Sky Mirror?

I keep going back to the Minnie Mouse sex tapes on YouTube---not because I'm an costumed-character pervert, but because I keep wondering if Disney's going to protect Minnie's trademark, if not her honor, by shutting this down. Sure enough, the first copies of the video did come down, but were replaced by a shortened version, with a Spanish-language description. And this one was … [Read more...] about More on Minnie Mouse Porn

The California Attorney General's office, fresh from its Getty follies, has just announced that "the Weinstein Company [run by ex-Miramaxers Bob and Harvey Weinstein] will be the first motion picture firm to embed anti-smoking public service announcements (PSAs) in DVD versions of movies that depict smoking." I hate smoking as much as the next concerned parent, but if you're … [Read more...] about Surgeon General’s Warning: This Film May Be Hazardous to Your Health

So you thought Ronald Lauder was dipping into his own fortune to pay the entire purchase price of Klimt's "Adele Bloch-Bauer I"? Think again. Did the Neue Galerie's board know in advance that Lauder's megabucks purchase commitment would result in the sale of three Schieles that had been displayed at the museum earlier this year? And why was the board's approval needed for the … [Read more...] about Bloomberg Reports: Lauder Selling Three Schieles to Bankroll “Adele”

CultureGrrl hopes that the upcoming Cecilia Beaux show is the beginning of the High Museum's intention to rely more on its own collection (which includes two Beauxs) and on its own curatorial talent, rather than shelling out big bucks for the fundraising campaigns of other institutions. High-rent shows, which even the Met is now organizing, perniciously up the ante for museum … [Read more...] about High Stakes: The Escalating Costs of Exhibitions

CultureGrrl thanks another Cecilia Beaux enthusiast, Christine Giviskos, assistant drawings curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum, for pointing out that the High Museum's upcoming Beaux exhibition is not, as the Atlanta museum claims, "the first critical examination of [her work] in more than 30 years." "Cecilia Beaux and the Art of Portraiture" was, in fact, mounted at the … [Read more...] about Beaux Faux Pas

CultureGrrl readers know I've been hard on the High (here and here). Atlanta's recently expanded High Museum of Art has been in the forefront of a problematically proliferating phenomenon: the willingness of certain institutions to buy a higher profile by spending huge rental fees for shows from sister institutions that should treat them as colleagues, not cash cows. But now … [Read more...] about Beaux’s Art: High Five for the High

Will van Gogh's famous but elusive "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" soon return to the art market? Reader discretion is hereby advised: This is a speculative item, following up on another speculative item---an article that I published on Mar. 7, 2000 in the Wall Street Journal. In that piece, I tried to do for the iconic van Gogh (which had fetched $82.5 million in 1990 at Christie's) … [Read more...] about Will “Dr. Gachet” Reappear?

Judging from Ben Brantley's NY Times review today of the Dylan/Tharp "The Times They Are A-Changin'," I think CultureGrrl has found a new calling: reviewing Broadway musicals on the basis of their advance radio ads. (For an excerpt from Terry Teachout's similarly dismissive Wall Street Journal review, go here.) It looks like the best Dylan show in New York is still at the … [Read more...] about The Times It Is A-Pannin’

It was gutsy of Gary Tinterow, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's catch-all curator of 19th-century through contemporary, to deliver a public lecture Tuesday on the hot-button topic of "the history of the Metropolitan's involvement with contemporary art---its strengths and weaknesses---as well as the creation of the Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern and Contemporary … [Read more...] about What’s Missing from the Met? Tinterow Exposes the Gaps

The big Getty news of the day is the new antiquities acquisitions policy but let's also give the J. Paul Getty Museum credit for getting back to basics with Tuesday's opening of its new 7,000-square-foot space for photography. What's the point of having a world-class permanent collection of photographs, if you don't set aside adequate space to display it? Now they have. The … [Read more...] about More Getty Good News: Photography Close-Up

This just in: Michael Brand, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, makes good on his pledge to develop a new set of acquisitions guidelines, to help prevent the Getty from getting embroiled in future antiquities controversies. The Getty guidelines (reproduced in full here) require that the following be provided in connection with future Getty antiquities … [Read more...] about Getty Publishes New Antiquities Acquisition Guidelines

Now that Sotheby's has posted its promising sales results for the first three weeks of October, it has also put back up on its website the results for the previous nine months. CultureGrrl had previously flagged the mysterious disappearance of its 2006 monthly sales figures, which occurred after September 2006 showed a slight decline from September of the previous year. This … [Read more...] about Sotheby’s Rediscovers September

Today is the diamond annversary of CultureGrrl's link to the capital of the artworld. I'm looking forward to gazing out my window while I lie in bed tonight and seeing both towers finally lit at the same time. What took them so long? The world's only 14-lane suspension bridge, the GWB was designed by Othmar H. Ammann. Its total traffic last year was 107,224,000. And it's always … [Read more...] about Happy 75th Birthday, George Washington Bridge

I'm sure that when my Brice Marden appraisal appeared earlier today, CultureGrrl readers around the country were asking themselves, "But what does Lauren Hutton think?" Now we know! … [Read more...] about Another Marden Maven