While we wait for someone to get to the bottom of what’s going on at the Getty Museum, I can report to you the reception that soon-to-be ex-director Michael Brand has been getting from his colleagues:
He received, I am told, a standing ovation from the assembled Getty Museum staff last Thursday when he announced to them his impending departure. Upon his arrival for a strategic planning meeting at the Association of Art Museum Directors’ mid-winter gathering in Sarasota this week, he got another round of applause.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, paintings conservator David Bomford, Brand’s successor as the museum’s interim head while the director’s search is in progress, has also recently received some validation: He was named (a few days before the unexpected Getty news broke) as recipient of the College Art Association/Heritage Preservation Award for Distinction in Scholarship and Conservation. Bomford is being “celebrated for more than 40 years of scholarship, practical
application, and leadership in the field of paintings conservation.”
Getty Trust president James Wood, whose differences with Brand reportedly may have contributed to the latter’s leaving, recently scored a letter to the editor in the NY Times, responding to Judith Dobrzynski‘s recent Op-Ed piece on deaccessioning, Jim says he disagrees with Judy’s opinion that “selling works of art to deal with a museum’s financial crisis is [sometimes]
justified for two reasons. First, it would not work, and second, it
would probably have unintended consequences.”
But the most important seal of approval is this, just in, from CultureDaughter:
Michael
Brand’s music pick [scroll down], “My Girls” by Animal Collective, is a very good
song! Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it.
Now I guess I’ll have to.
Remember when I brought you Tom Campbell’s music? Here’s Michael Brand’s. (You’re right, Joyce!)