Archives for December 2006

Actually, it's been only seven months...but so many memorable moments! The post attracting the most hits was: Who Should Succeed Philippe at the Met? I guess my readers include a multitude of Metropolitan Museumologists. More surprisingly (and to my chagrin), the post with the longest legs---continuing to be hit by many new readers long after it was published---was the one … [Read more...] about The Year in CultureGrrl

Former J. Paul Getty Trust board member Barbara Fleischman responds to my previous post on Marion True's biting letter to the Getty: Perhaps, finally, the real story of where the responsibility rests in an institution will come out. Those of us who know how limited a curator's power is in making acquisitions can perhaps take some comfort in hearing the truth at last. … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Barbara Fleischman on Marion True’s Missive

"Felcholino," the LA Times' cultural-news equivalent of the Washington Post's "Woodstein" of Watergate fame, have done it again: Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino have obtained a copy of a Dec. 18 letter written by the J. Paul Getty Museum's former antiquities curator, Marion True, to the Getty Trust's chief executive Deborah Marrow, museum director Michael Brand and spokesman … [Read more...] about Letter from Getty Ex-Curator: Getty Plays Marion True False

Francesco Rutelli's Mixed-Up Message Wrapped inside glistening paper that he inscribed with wishes for a Peaceful Christmas ("Sereno Natale"), Italian Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli sent this ingenious card (above), which presented recipients with a a bit of a puzzle: Its four sections have to be taken apart and reassembled to spell "Il Dialogo" (Dialogue). The flipside … [Read more...] about A Very Rutelli Christmas and a Bloggy New Year!

Heather Mills called the police last night over the theft of $19.5 million in art, including works by Picasso and Renoir, from the country estate she shared with singer/songwriter Paul McCartney. Turns out her estranged husband "had taken the paintings and reprogrammed the estate's alarm codes, and informed her Thursday night by text message," according to the Associated Press. … [Read more...] about We Can’t Work It Out: McCartney Wants the Picasso

Nikolai Zavadsky, husband of Larisa Zavadskaya, deceased curator of the State Hermitage Museum, will "stand trial on charges he stole art objects from the Hermitage with his late wife," Reuters reports. The Russian Prosecutor-General has charged Zavadsky in the "theft of 77 objects from the museum's department of Russian cultural history. Some 221 objects were discovered … [Read more...] about Husband of Deceased Hermitage Curator to Be Tried for Thefts

A staff member at the National Gallery of Art, who deals with exhibitions and collections, comments on More Thoughts on "Gross Clinic": I work at the National Gallery of Art and I have to say I am thrilled that our bid for the Eakins was blocked. Here's why: First, we were planning to spend a large chunk of our acquisition funds for a painting that we would not even entirely … [Read more...] about Anonymous Blogback on the Philadelphia Eakins Saga

Click me tomorrow for a provocative BlogBack on The Gross Clinic from an employee of the National Gallery in Washington. Also (what did I do to merit this?): the contents of a cryptic Christmas card from The Grand Repatriator himself, Italian Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli. (Pssst, Frankie...I'm Jewish!) … [Read more...] about Coming Tomorrow: Notes from CultureGrrl’s Mailbox

Let me now spoil your New Year's revels with my perverse countdown of the two 2006 artworld developments that I will continue to rue in the coming year: The first is growing international participation in the pernicious spread of museum rental shows---high-priced loan exhibitions that allow the lender, a major museum, to alleviate its money problems at the expense of sister … [Read more...] about Lamentable 2006 Artworld Developments—Part I: Rent-a-Show

Chéri Samba, "I Like Color," 2003, Courtesy of CAAC---The Pigozzi Collection, Geneva © Chéri Samba In 1996, back when the Guggenheim Museum SoHo, a ballyhooed home for multimedia art, was just opening, director Tom Krens and I shared a cab, talking about his dreams for that now defunct museum and also about his desire to mount a show of contemporary African art. The latter … [Read more...] about Tom Krens Gets His Wish: “100% Africa”

The fine arts component of the huge Renzo Piano-designed "Manhattanville" expansion to the north of Columbia University's current campus appears to have been significantly downsized from the initial concept. Piano had sketched in a large new facility for the School of the Arts: It is the structure with the curved-glass front on Page 11 at this link. That building, however, is … [Read more...] about More Tales from Columbia: Fine Arts Are Not So Fine in University Expansion

Glenn Lowry has said that when he leaves the directorship of the Museum of Modern Art (some time in 2030), he want to return to scholarship. Now the past and future Islamicist has agreed to teach a class next semester for Columbia University's M.A. Programs in Modern Art and Curatorial Studies, according to the fall newsletter of the department of art history and archeology. … [Read more...] about Tales from Columbia University: Is Glenn Lowry Transitioning?

The Neue Galerie has just come out with a 96-page book, "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer," in which authors Sophie Lillie and Georg Gaugusch "trace [the] story of 'Modern Mona Lisa'" (as described in the press release). The book's cost: $30. Will the proceeds help defray the painting's purchase? Now if only the Neue Galerie would also publish, as repeatedly promised, the Nazi-era … [Read more...] about Speaking of Klimt…

There are probably others, but here's a good example of the late wit and wisdom of curator/scholar Robert Rosenblum, quoted in a very interesting, detailed Klimt post mortem by Eileen Kinsella in January's ARTnews (not yet online): I myself love Klimt up to a point, but it's like going to a Viennese bakery. Talking to Rosenblum was like Viennese pastry: sinfully delicious. With … [Read more...] about Robert Rosenblum’s Last Quip; Klimt Story’s Last Retelling

There's a fascinating article by Philadelphia-based Julia Klein in today's Wall Street Journal that's a must-read for anyone desiring an inside view of the successful effort to keep Eakins' "The Gross Clinic" in Philadelphia. (The link is here for those of you with online WSJ subscriptions; otherwise, pick up a copy.) But do we really want "the creativity of this arrangement" … [Read more...] about Eakins Rescue: How the Deal Got Done