Archives for October 2011

Max Hollein, director of Frankfurt's Städel Museum, Schirn Kunsthalle and Sculpture Collection of the Liebieghaus Photo: Gaby Gerster © Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt/Gabi Gerster I'm always peskily pointing a finger at other peoples' mistakes, so I guess I should own up to one of my own. As CultureGrrl readers may remember (although I probably shouldn't remind you), I … [Read more...] about Holing Up with Hollein: Städel’s Current Expansion, Nazi-Era History (plus Whitney’s David Smith show)

Installation at Sotheby's of four Clyfford Stills being sold by the City of Denver to benefit the new Clyfford Still MuseumSimon Shaw, senior vice president of Sotheby's, apparently agrees with me that Fall 2011 is (as I recently called it) "The Season of Deaccessions." At the press preview today for his auction house's upcomng Impressionist/Modern and Contemporary sales (Nov. … [Read more...] about MeTube: Clyfford Stills Hyped at Sotheby’s Auction Preview

Hudson Hills Press logo Cover image (from Hartley's "Hall of the Mountain King") of the collection highlights catalogue for Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art In my June 16 CultureGrrl post about Alice Walton's Crystal Bridges Museum, I stated that Moshe Safdie's "wow" architecture (a work-in-progress when I visited Bentonville, AR, last May) could get the museum only … [Read more...] about Crystal Bridges: The Collection (and how to see it)

Charles Willson Peale, "Yarrow Mamout," 1819I started having traumatic flashbacks to the "Gross Clinic" morass, after reading Stephan Salisbury's two excellent in-depth articles in the Phladelphia Inquirer about the Philadelphia Museum of Art's purchase of the above portrait, sold by the Philadelphia History Museum at Atwater Kent. The proceeds, according to Salisbury, are … [Read more...] about “Gross Clinic” Redux? Philadelphia Museum Rescues Peale’s Portrait of Former Slave UPDATED

Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, digital rendering of the east elevation According to the Associated Press, the just-announced decision by Abu Dhabi's Tourism Development & Investment Co. (TDIC) to start over in soliciting bids for concrete work on the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is "raising questions about the future of the high profile project." But TDIC asserts … [Read more...] about Global Guggenheim: Abu Dhabi Slowdown, Helsinki Progress

[CORRECTION: A previous version of this post wrongly attributed the LA Times' "insightful, incisive analysis" of the legal issues surrounding the resale royalty issue to Jori Finkel, who had written the LA Times' initial report on the artists' lawsuits against Sotheby's and Christie's (claiming resale royalties), as well as this follow-up. But the article discussed (and … [Read more...] about Constitutional Questions: Mike Boehm on California Resale Royalty Litigation CORRECTED

Julia Bryan-Wilson's recent book chronicling the Art Workers Coalition I'm not the only one having traumatic Sixties flashbacks to the Art Workers Coalition, brought on by the Occupy Museums protest (covered here by Philip Boroff and Katya Kazakina of Bloomberg).Michael Botwinick, director of the Hudson River Museum, who was the Metropolitan Museum's assistant curator-in-chief … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Michael Botwinick’s Sixties Flashback to Artists’ Cockroach Installation at the Met

Maxwell Anderson, director of the Indianapolis Museum of Art since 2006, is moving on (effective Jan. 9) to the directorship of the Dallas Museum of Art, which Bonnie PItman left for health reasons earlier this year. The DMA's announcement of the appointment is here.Despite his embrace of his adopted Midwestern community, I always thought that it was a stop on Max's return to … [Read more...] about Max Does Dallas: Anderson Leaves Indianapolis for Dallas Museum of Art

Art Workers Coalition, "Art Workers Won't Kiss Ass," 1969 Help! I'm getting traumatic Sixties flashbacks! Does anyone remember the Art Workers Coalition? I started my art-journalism career as editor/writer for the Art Workers News, which grew out of the AWC and also counted a young Adam Weinberg, now the Whitney's director, among its staffers. (We were both there, however, in … [Read more...] about “Occupy Museums”: What’s Wrong With This Picture?

First page of California Arts Council's pamphlet on the Resale Royalty Act Let me say this for the record (and then prepare to dodge the brickbats): I'm in favor of resale royalties for artists. The fact that California's Resale Royalty Act is "little known" (as the Wall Street Journal's Kelly Crow describes it in her article today) is no excuse for ignoring it. This law … [Read more...] about Artists vs. Auction Houses: Litigating the California Resale Royalty Law

From MoMA to Sotheby's: Rufino Tamayo, "Watermelon Slices," 1950 Presale estimate: $1.5-2 millionNovember is rapidly becoming Deaccession Month, with the Museum of Modern Art now joining the Brooklyn Museum, Boston Museum of Fine Arts and Clyfford Still Museum (via the City of Denver), in selling museum-quality work from the "permanent" collection to fund future acquisitions. … [Read more...] about It’s the Pits: MoMA’s Tamayo “Watermelon Slices” Joins the “Season of Deaccessions”

Brandeis University's Rose Art Museum will reopen on Oct. 27 with three permanent collection shows celebrating its 50th anniversary. Emerging from a rocky period under the university's previous president, Jehuda Reinharz, when its future seemed in grave doubt, it now has the enthusiastic support of Brandeis' new president, Frederick Lawrence, and has undergone an extensive … [Read more...] about Renovated Rose Reopens at Brandeis: Loses Its Pool, Gains Brighter Future (plus update on Folk Art Museum’s progress)

George Bellows, "Men of the Docks," 1912It's no longer posted among the Bellows works listed on the Maier Museum's collections website (search on "Bellows"). So I can only assume that "Men of the Docks," the celebrated first work to enter the collection of Randolph College, Lynchburg, VA (purchased from the artist in 1920 for $2,500), has been formally deaccessioned, although … [Read more...] about Maier Massacre Revisited: National Gallery, Met, Royal Academy to Show Randolph College’s Expendable Bellows

The Elizabeth Taylor Diamond, 33.19 carats D color, gift from Richard Burton, to be auctioned at Christie's, New York, on Dec. 13Presale Estimate: $2,500,000-3,500,000This could be a case of "Great Minds Think Alike." Whether or not he was inspired by my piece (which he doesn't mention), the LA Times' Christopher Knight today posted a Critic's Notebook piece closely tracking … [Read more...] about Christie’s/LA MOCA: Christopher Knight Seconds My Criticism of Museum’s Liz Biz

Photo: Edward Quinn, courtesy of Christie's The best and the worst of LA MOCA will soon be on display---respectively, its recently opened Under the Big Black Sun exhibition (to Feb. 13) and the latest episode in that continuing soap opera---Jeffrey Takes Hollywood. The best of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art is whatever its chief curator Paul Schimmel puts his … [Read more...] about Hocking Elizabeth Taylor’s Jewels: LA MOCA Promotes Christie’s Liz Biz