Archives for May 2008

Roger EbertCritics face this problem all the time: We all carry around with us certain likes, dislikes, prejudices and personal baggage. That means we may not always be well suited to review everything that comes our way. Yet we do it anyway, usually without revealing our conflicts-of-disinterest. One wonders, for example, how critic Roger Kimball, a champion of "classical … [Read more...] about Sex and the Critic: Can Venerable Male Reviewers Judge this Movie?

The conqueror of French archaeologistsPhoto: French Ministry of CultureHas Julius Caesar been dredged up from a French riverbed? CBC News reports:A bust found at the bottom of a river in Arles, France, may be the truest representation of Julius Caesar ever found. The marble sculpture of a man in his 50s, with facial wrinkles and a receding hairline, may have been carved from … [Read more...] about Friends, Romans and Classicists: Is This the Head of Julius Caesar?

Excerpt from Elliott Carter's first opera, "What Next?"I didn't make it to last Thursday's well received Metropolitan Opera Orchestra performance of Elliott Carter's 1955 "Variations for Orchestra." But I did see, the night before, both its conductor, James Levine, and the high-spirited, keen-minded 99-year-old Carter himself at the Museum of Modern Art, where they conversed … [Read more...] about Long Live Elliott Carter! An Operatic Double-Bill?

It was estimated at $2-3 million. The Latin American sale at Christie's is still in progress, but the "Trovador"'s long song at Randolph College's Maier Museum is, sadly, finished. … [Read more...] about News Flash: Maier Museum’s Deaccessioned Tamayo Fetches $7.21 Million

MoMA director Glenn Lowry (left) interviews a very outspoken Chuck Close at a recent conference in New YorkThis just in---a changing-of-the-guard press release  from the Whitney Museum:In elections held yesterday by the Board of Trustees of the Whitney Museum of American Art, current Chairman Leonard A. Lauder was named Chairman Emeritus, while continuing to be a voting … [Read more...] about End of an Era for Whitney’s Board: Leonard Lauder, Chuck Close Step Down

Kathleen Foster, senior curator of American art at the Philadelphia Museum, speaking about Eakins' "The Gross Clinic" at the "American Icons" conferenceCritics of the source countries' stance in the cultural-property wars (such as Edward Rothstein in yesterday's NY Times) frequently call into question the assertion by Greeks, Italians, Egyptians and others that context is … [Read more...] about The Debate Over “Context”: From Elgin to Eakins

Laden with Leighton? Sarah Jessica Parker at the premierePhoto from sexandthecitymovieblog.comIt must be because I've proven myself such a fashionista that I've somehow gotten onto the publicity e-mail list for Fred Leighton, the jewelry firm owned by the American Folk Art Museum's financially embattled benefactor, Ralph Esmerian. Fred Leighton keeps sending me photos of … [Read more...] about Jewels and the City: Baubles from Embattled Esmerian’s Business Said to Adorn Sarah Jessica and the Girls

Edward Rothstein, in a long think piece in today's NY Times, takes James Cuno's side in the cultural property wars. (I'll have more on that later.) As CultureGrrl readers know, I have a nuanced view on these issues, and don't fit neatly into either camp. Too often, each side in the cultural-property divide exaggerates its position to make its polemical point, rendering … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Christian Kleinbub Takes Cuno’s Side on Cultural Property

Wanna be the Metropolitan Museum's next director? For what it's worth, here's the complete official job description (hard to read here, but I'll translate below):A list of possible candidates was recently submitted to the trustees' search committee by the Met's headhunters, Phillips Oppenheim. (Don't bother looking for the job description on that site; it doesn't even mention … [Read more...] about Text of Met Director’s Job Description: Could You Be the Next Philippe?

Ron Hartwig, the J. Paul Getty Trust's vice president for communications, responds to Getty Operating Deficit Soars: Wood Cuts Jobs, Goats Cut Underbrush:Sorry, but your attempt to link the Getty's "operating deficit" to our recent strategic move---to reduce and streamline operating costs, both at the Trust and within our four programs, … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Ron Hartwig on the Getty Trust’s Finances (and the Getty Goats)

New Hire at the Getty?The J. Paul Getty Trust, which recently posted its fiscal 2007 annual report online, last year incurred a staggering operating deficit of $49.36 million on a budget of $307.7 million. The previous year, the deficit was $18.29 million on a $293.57-million budget.This growing shortfall is likely one of the reasons for the recently announced elimination of … [Read more...] about Getty Operating Deficit Soars: Wood Cuts Jobs, Goats Cut Underbrush UPDATED

Readers respond to Tamayo, the First Maier Museum Deaccession, Offered Next Week: Erik Neil, executive director of the Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington, NY, writes:This is a sad expedient for a college with such a distinguished legacy in the arts. A quick fix now and then in a couple years there will be reports about new financial and management problems. This sale will … [Read more...] about BlogBacks on Randolph College’s Sale of Tamayo

I've been shirking my obligation to give you my opinion of James Cuno's new book (above), Who Owns Antiquity?, because I wasn't relishing the prospect of slamming it. But on Monday, an e-mail hit my inbox from the book's Princeton University Press publicist, sending me links to other articles mentioning the book (including a Wall Street Journal review that found it … [Read more...] about Cuno Conundrum: Whose Law Is It, Anyway?

Before the Fall: Tullio Lombardo, "Adam," ca. 1490-95, Metropolitan Museum of Art Martin Bailey's report last week in the Art Newspaper about the damage to a 500-year-old panel painting by Domenico Beccafumi at London's National Gallery (which "slipped out of its temporary frame and dropped to the ground," breaking in half) brought to mind a major 2002 mishap at the … [Read more...] about Museum Objects Falling Down: London’s National Gallery, New York’s Metropolitan Museum

I've become an expert on museum issues, on museum problems, on the history of museums, on the nature and purpose of museums. I expect what I'll be doing will be more museological than art historical. It would be closer to what I would call high art appreciation than art history.---Philippe de Montebello at his January press conference, announcing his imminent departure from the … [Read more...] about Philippe at Abu NYU: Will He Still Blast Rent-a-Louvre?