Archives for December 2010

Light Fright: Great view of Washington's horse. Not-so-great view of George.(This photo was taken without flash.)With all this talk lately about Museums 2.0 and "apps," I've been inspired to inaugurate CultureGrrl 2.0 with a new technological innovation. (Well, it's new for me, anyway, but I'm a late adopter.) I'm also pleased to note that Arianna Huffington's much discussed … [Read more...] about Reinstalled Art at “New” BMFA: My Irreverent Slideshow (and video)

William IveyBill Ivey, director of Vanderbilt University's Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy and chairman, from 1998 to 2001, of the National Endowment for the Arts, defends my criticized take on the "Hide/Seek" show at the National Portrait Gallery:I believe that the display of value-challenging art in publically-funded environments can never be executed … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Bill Ivey, Former NEA Chairman, on the “Hide/Seek” Flap (plus NPG’s “unlisted” video)

Arianna HuffingtonArianna Huffington's art-related post on her eponymous news-and-commentary website has been lighting up links around the art blogosphere, partly because people are pleasantly surprised that this new-media titan cares enough about museums to write about them.In her post, Museums 2.0: What Happens When Great Art Meets New Media?, Arianna argues:The danger of … [Read more...] about Huffington’s Post: Are “Museums 2.0” a No-Go? UPDATED TWICE

Cézanne, "Madame Cézanne in the Conservatory," 1891, Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe journalistic benefits and pitfalls of the NY Times' de facto status as house organ for the Metropolitan Museum have recently been demonstrated not only by what the newspaper has published (yet another Met-related scoop, thanks to privileged treatment from the museum) but also, much more … [Read more...] about Hits and Misses: NY Times as House Organ for the Met

I was sufficiently excited by the NY Times' front-page treatment last Monday of the Metropolitan Museum's second recently "rediscovered" Velázquez to rush right over to see it the next day.The rest of the world, apparently, was in no such hurry:Velázquez, "Philip IV," probably 1624, installed to the left of the glass door In fact, aside from handing the story to Carol Vogel of … [Read more...] about Met’s Lackluster Velázquez Rediscovery: “Exceptionally High Quality”?

David Ross, chairman, MFA in Art Practice, School of Visual Arts, New YorkThe twitterati have been piling on me (retweeting an ARTnews magazine tweet), over one comment in CultureGrrl's Friday post that took issue with Philip Kennicott of the Washington Post. He had called for the resignation of the Secretary of the Smithsonian over the "Hide/Seek" affair and stated that G. … [Read more...] about BlogBacks: The Twitterati and David Ross on “Hide/Seek”

Roy Neuberger, receiving National Medal of Arts from President Bush in 2007Roy Neuberger, who greatly enriched major museums with works from his pioneering American contemporary art collection, died yesterday at the age of 107. In 1974 he inaugurated the Neuberger Museum at Purchase College, New York, with a donation of 108 works and a mandate to support the work of … [Read more...] about Roy Neuberger, Mega-Collector and Museum Patron, Dies UPDATED

Philip Kennicott, Washington Post culture critic [UPDATE: In my original post, I neglected to link to Kennicott's article.] Philip Kennicott of the Washington Post jumps off the deep end of irrationality today by calling for the resignation of Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough over his decision to remove David Wojnarovicz's "A Fire in My Belly" from the National … [Read more...] about WaPo Kennicott’s Bad Call on Clough’s Call: Seeing “Hide/Seek” in Black/White UPDATED

The Whitney Museum's entertaining fly-through video of its planned new downtown facility, presented Monday by director Adam Weinberg to the Art and Institutions Committee of Manhattan Community Board 2, was a big hit yesterday on CultureGrrl (and, presumably, also on Curbed). It was posted to YouTube (and available for embedding on other websites) by the Greenwich Village … [Read more...] about News Blackout: Whitney Downtown’s Not-Ready-for-Primetime Fly-Through Video

The tripartite façade of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts' new Norman Foster-designed wingIn yesterday's video of my hike around the perimeter of the old and new Boston Museum of Fine Arts, I left you hanging when things were starting to get interesting---at the emergence, around the east corner of the original building's façade, of a view of the new Norman Foster-designed wing … [Read more...] about MeTube: Outdoors Ramble Around the Expanded BMFA—Part II

Agnes Gund, while sitting opposite Marina Abramović at the Museum of Modern ArtPhoto: Marco AnelliWith President Obama's announcement today that he is nominating Agnes Gund to the National Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts will have at least one member on its advisory body with substantial visual arts creds. Gund is president emeritus of the Museum of … [Read more...] about Agnes Gund Named to National Council on the Arts

Entrance to BMFA's 1981 I.M. Pei-designed West Wing, now open only for groups and handicapped visitorsNow that you've flown through the planned Downtown Whitney, it's time to hike around the vast perimeter of the completed (at least for now) Boston Museum of Fine Arts, which last month opened its 121,307-square-foot, Norman Foster-designed Art of the Americas Wing. As … [Read more...] about MeTube: Outdoors Ramble Around the Expanded BMFA—Part I

Now you can!Architect Renzo Piano's rendering of the planned new Whitney DowntownListen to Whitney Museum director Adam Weinberg narrate the video below, giving a preview of the brave new Whitney. (Groundbreaking: May 24) The clip was produced despite Renzo Piano's usual distaste for fly-throughs, Weinberg told the local Community Board on Monday. He confided that the floors … [Read more...] about Wanna Glide Through Renzo Piano’s New Whitney Downtown? UPDATED

Dept. of Damage Control---Has anyone noticed the unfortunate similarity in these two logos? Let the sunshine in!My second Huffington Post opinion piece (here's the first) on the "Hide/Seek" controversy---"Don't Ask, Don't Tell": A Useful Policy for the "Hide/Seek" Show at National Portrait Gallery---argues that over-the-top words and actions of the defenders of David … [Read more...] about Just Posted: My New Huffington Post “Hide/Seek” Piece

Jonathan Katz, co-curator of the National Portrait Gallery's hot-button show, responds to "Hide/Seek" Flap: "Silence = Death (but so does intemperate rhetoric):While I can in no way object to your excoriating me for my rhetoric, I can and will object to your sly rhetorical shift from critiquing my passion to insinuating that I did a kind of curatorial violence to David … [Read more...] about BlogBacks: Curator Katz on His Video Alterations; CultureGrrl Readers on Gay-Themed Museum Shows