Archives for July 2012

Elena Stolyarik, the American Numismatic Society's collections manager, serving up a tray of recovered Huntington coins that had been sold in March by the Hispanic Society of AmericaPhoto by Lee RosenbaumRichard Doty, senior curator of numismatics for the Smithsonian Institution's National Numismatic Collection at the National Museum of American History, responds to A Visit to … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Richard Doty, Smithsonian’s Senior Numismatics Curator, on the Recovery of Huntington’s Coins

Public Access Restored: Visigothic coins from Archer Huntington's collection, sold in March by the Hispanic Society of America, now (thanks to a generous donor) back on long-term loan at American Numismatic Society Photo by Lee Rosenbaum Below is Part II of my CultureGrrl Video report on the American Numismatic Society's triumphal retrieval of more than half of the nearly … [Read more...] about A Visit to the ANS Vault: American Numismatic Society Sorts the Coins Recovered from the Dispersed Huntington Collection (with video)

Ute Wartenberg Kagan, executive director, American Numismatic Society, in her New York office Photo by Lee Rosenbaum They've done it again! Last month, I broke the happy news that the American Numismatic Society (ANS) had retrieved about 10,000 of the 37,895 coins from Spain and Spanish-speaking countries that had been on loan to the ANS since 1949 from the Hispanic … [Read more...] about News Flash (with video): American Numismatic Society Retrieves Another 9,000 Coins Sold by Hispanic Society

Roberta Smith, NY Times' co-chief art critic [UPDATE: Paul Schimmel, MOCA's departed chief curator, obliquely breaking his silence on the MOCA Mess, linked to this CultureGrrl post on Facebook and wrote this comment about what I wrote: "I am afraid this may be right."] Very late in the day, Roberta Smith, the NY Times' rightfully admired co-chief art critic, has finally … [Read more...] about NY Times’ Roberta Smith in Denial: Her Improbable Action Plan for LA MOCA’s Deitch UPDATED

MOCA"s Geffen Contemporary facilityIn my last post on the MOCA Mess, I decried the "low profile" of Jeffrey Deitch, the museum's embattled and under-performing director, at a tumultuous time when confidence-inspiring leadership was desperately needed.I wrote:As the serious criticism relentlessly piles up from within MOCA's ranks and from outside commentators, MOCA needs to … [Read more...] about MOCA Mess: Jeffrey Deitch Speaks! (via his museum’s blog); LA Times Editorializes

David Bomford, incoming director of conservation, Houston Museum of Fine Arts David Bomford, a casualty of the J. Paul Getty Trust's regime change, had landed on his feet: He is returning to the U.S. and his first love, art restoration. Gary Tinterow, who has hit the ground running as the new director of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, today announced that Bomford would be … [Read more...] about Bomford Bounces Back: Getty’s Ex-Acting Director Goes to Houston

With all the talk lately about faux Pollocks, I'm acquiring one that I can wear!Call me tacky, but when I an e-mail hit my inbox today from the Pollock-Krasner House, trumpeting a "special limited edition [!?!] of Crocs' signature clog, printed with details of the spattered colors on Pollock's studio floor," I ordered a pair. After all, my $39.99 (plus shipping) helps support a … [Read more...] about My Pollock’s a Croc, Plus the Continuing Saga of Iowa’s “Mural”

Detroit Institute of ArtsDesperate times call for desperate measures. I would ordinarily question a museum's trying to circumvent the usual government taxation and appropriation process, as the Detroit Institute of Arts now seems to be doing. DIA has launched a campaign seeking voter approval on Aug. 7 of a three-county (Wayne, Macomb and Oakland, which is the state's … [Read more...] about Motor-City Woes: Detroit Institute of Arts Seeks Tri-County Property Levy CORRECTED

I'm a sucker for Jill Krementz's photographic portraits of me. This time, she caught me at a Whitney Museum press preview, in the act of preparing my blog post on the Kusama retrospective. These were originally posted in Jill's NY Social Diary photo essay about Kusama at the Whitney: Juggling my trusty Bic pen, discontinued Panasonic Lumix camera, Sony voice recorder and … [Read more...] about Grrl at Work: CultureGrrl Juggling Electronic Paraphernalia at Whitney’s Kusama Preview

Kimerly Rorschach, incoming director of Seattle Art MuseumNo sooner had the Association of Art Museum Directors tweeted about its president Kimerly Rorschach's love of North Carolina (where she is founding director of the Rafael Viñoly-designed Nasher Museum, Duke University, which opened in 2005) than the Seattle Art Museum announced that she would become its new director this … [Read more...] about Kimerly Rorschach Named to Become Seattle Art Museum’s Director (and remains AAMD president)

Lincoln Center's new Claire Tow Theater---the small glass box atop the larger Vivian Beaumont Theater, at the end of the reflecting pool (with the Henry Moores). Metropolitan Opera House is on left.Photo © by Francis Dzikowski / EstoIt shouldn't be big news when the NY Times' architecture critic composes a straightforward architecture review that appraises a signficant new … [Read more...] about Hugh Hardy’s Lincoln Center Theater: NY Times’ Kimmelman Finally Reviews Architecture!

[UPDATE: The last remaining artist on MOCA's board, Ed Ruscha, has now also departed.] The LA Times keeps coming up with daily dispatches about the MOCA mess. Having reported on Friday about artist John Baldessari's protest resignation from the museum's board, it followed up yesterday with news of two more artist-trustee departures---Barbara Kruger and Catherine Opie. In … [Read more...] about Artist Power! Kruger, Opie Join Baldessari in Protest-Resignations from LA MOCA’s Board UPDATED

MOCA's Saturday Night FeverIn his LA Times piece today---MOCA's Board Exits Pile Up---on the defections from the ranks of LA MOCA's trustees, the indispensable Mike Boehm quotes artist John Baldessari on his reasons for resigning from the museum's board: "To live with my conscience, I just had to do it," Baldessari said in an interview Thursday after e-mailing his decision to … [Read more...] about John Baldessari, Defecting MOCA Trustee, on the Tone-Deafness of Jeffrey Deitch

Christopher Bedford, incoming director of the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis At long last, Brandeis University's resurgent Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA, has named a new permanent director, according to Bill Burger, Brandeis' associate vice president for communications: Christopher Bedford, chief curator of exhibitions at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio since late … [Read more...] about Rose Grows: Christopher Bedford of the Wexner Named Brandeis Museum’s New Director UPDATED

Kusamania: Lifelike Yayoi Kusama mannequin in window of Louis Vuitton flagship store, Fifth Avenue, New York. (LV sponsored the Whitney's show and collaborated with Kusama on an extensive, expensive product line.)Photo by Lee RosenbaumKusama avatar's glossy, tacky LV handbag: $3,650Photo by Lee RosenbaumThe return of the resolutely unconventional, relentlessly self-promoting … [Read more...] about Kusama-rama: Spotty at the Whitney (with video)