Archives for December 2012

While the idiocracy in Washington makes its non-plans to keep us teetering on the edge of the fiscal cliff, do not forget, art-lings, that today is the last day of the year to make your non-tax deductible contributions to support CultureGrrl. That said, tomorrow is the first day of next year to make your non-deductible contribution to supportthis blog'scontinued existence. … [Read more...] about The Year in CultureGrrl, 2012 Edition

The American Folk Art Museum's previously preeminent donor and former chairman, the criminally convicted jewelry mogul Ralph Esmerian, made a lot of promises he couldn't keep. When I visited AFAM's Compass: Folk Art in Four Directions (to Feb. 3) at the South Street Seaport Museum last August, I was surprised to see so many objects (including the one above) bearing the … [Read more...] about Esmerian Bankruptcy Deal: American Folk Art Museum May Get to Keep 53 of 263 Works Promised by Disgraced Donor

The short answer: YES! After having been frustrated by the wire barrier (not to mention the dense crowd) when "The Scream" was exhibited at Sotheby's before being sold last May for the highest price ever achieved by an artwork at auction, I finally got to see it up close and personal last week at the Museum of Modern Art, where it's on view to Apr. 29. It was even better … [Read more...] about Eyeballing “The Scream” at MoMA: Is It Worth $120 Million?

For those, like me, who may need a Christmas alternative today, let's blog-travel to Israel, where one of my chief takeaways from my two-week trip last month was how multicultural the Jewish people have been over the centuries. (I had tweeted about this from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, with images: here, here, here, here and here.) Jewish cultural diversity, dependent upon where … [Read more...] about Multicultural Judaism and Landmark Hasidic Exhibition at Israel Museum (with video)

Many thanks to my six December CultureGrrl contributors, including the four who clicked my "Donate" button in response to yesterday's "Participatory Financing" appeal. May I hope for 10 more supportive art-lings by the end of the year? Then we can all go over the Fiscal Cliff together! Meanwhile, my 6,000th follower, relatively new to Twitter and new to me, recently … [Read more...] about Thanks from CultureGrrl: New “Participatory Financiers” (plus 6000th follower)

The crass term for it is begging, but the French prefer a loftier description: "participatory financing." So begins the front-page article by Doreen Carvajal in today's NY Times about how French cultural institutions, notably the Louvre, are passing the chapeau for contributions towards acquisitions and refurbishment. As my art-lings may have noticed, I've grown weary of … [Read more...] about CultureGrrl’s “Participatory Financing” (plus: Who wants to be my 6,000th Twitter follower?)

When I traveled to China two years ago, my group's first stop was, of course, Tiananmen Square, where one can see one of the few publicly displayed portraits of the formerly ubiquitous Chairman Mao: I learned when I was there that the very mention of Mao to many Chinese has become taboo. In a turnabout-is-fair-play scenario, he has become almost a non-person in his homeland, … [Read more...] about Behind the Ban of Warhol’s “Mao” in China: Purging the Chairman’s Presence

The Chicago-based Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy today announced that its exhaustive efforts to save from a developer's wrecking ball the David Wright House, which the celebrated architect had built in 1950-52 for his son in Phoenix, had succeeded, with its sale to an undisclosed preservation-minded benefactor. According to the conservancy's press release: The … [Read more...] about Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy Engineers Rescue of Phoenix’s David Wright House

By Fall 2014, when the Metropolitan Museum's in-construction, four-block-long entrance plaza is expected to reopen to the public, you'll gaze upon new fountains, granite paving, plantings, tables, chairs and dramatic nighttime illumination. But you won't see this... Rendering of the proposed (now eliminated) information and ticketing kiosk, designed by architect Rick … [Read more...] about Mather Matters: Famed Architect’s Kiosks Axed from Metropolitan Museum’s Plaza Renovation (with videos)

Veteran art critic Holland Cotter, in his end-of-year art museum round-up in Sunday's NY Times "Arts & Leisure" section, showed symptoms of what I call "exhibition ennui"---a malady that often afflicts those of us who have viewed a lifetime's worth of museum displays. What we crave is (in Cotter's words) "stimulation, to find what you didn't already know" and also (in my … [Read more...] about Burnishing Bernini: Model of Scholarship at Metropolitan Museum (with video)

Am I alone in having Winslow Homer's iconic image of innocent, idyllic childhood come to mind, wrenchingly, when I encountered (on the front page of all three newspapers that I receive) the sickening Newtown Bee photo of children being evacuated from Sandy Hook Elementary School, after the horrific massacre that occurred there on Friday? This painting, a framed … [Read more...] about Newtown Massacre and the Power of Images: Macabre Echo of “Snap the Whip”

I've long wondered whether the Gagosian Empire---now expanded to 12 galleries in seven countries, with 304 names on its roster of exhibited artists---was over-extended. Now, with the news (in Georgina Adam's Financial Times scoop) that Gagosian art star Damien Hirst has abruptly left the gallery after 17 years, it's time to wonder if the mega-dealer's formidable, … [Read more...] about Gagosian Commotion: Cracks in the ÜberDealer’s Fortress?

Upon hearing yesterday that Thomas Hart Benton's jaw-dropping magnum opus, America Today, was being donated to the Metropolitan Museum, I enthusiastically tweeted: Kudos to AXA Equitable for donating TH Benton's magnum opus to @metmuseum. But Met should display it sooner than 2015! Upon my further investigation, it seems that those "kudos" need to be qualified. Responding … [Read more...] about Whitney Curator: Benton Mural, Donated to Metropolitan Museum, Had Been “Shopped Around” (plus: Met’s loss of Rauschenberg’s “Canyon”)

The Washington Post's David Montgomery has the story, quoting Fred Bollerer, president of the Corcoran Gallery and College: A number of individuals, corporations, foundations, other organizations [perhaps these?] have understood the severity of the problem and have engaged in a way to allow us to continue to stay in this building and to assure the future. The Corcoran … [Read more...] about Good News: Corcoran Will Remain in Its Washington Home

Memo to disgruntled critics, ranting about the recent "obscene" prices for "trophy art": Highly coveted artworks cost big bucks---today and always. Art writers whose bank accounts don't rise to the level of their exquisite taste can't afford a square inch of an Andy Warhol silkscreen or of any other blue-chip art. So what else is new? Warhol, "Statue of Liberty," $43.76 … [Read more...] about Art Basel Frazzle: Curmudgeons’ High Dudgeon on High-Priced Art