Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

I'm probably not the only one who did a doubletake upon seeing this alarming red alert atop the J. Paul Getty Trust's webpage for its press releases: This "Advisory" raised the scary specter of masterpieces going up in flames. Then I remembered that the Getty Museum, located in Brentwood, where the particularly fire-vulnerable pictures are housed, is distinct from the … [Read more...] about Getty Villa Closed (but unscorched) Due to Franklin Fire

When Philippe de Montebello announced his intention to retire after three decades as the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the museum's curators (spurred by Helen Evans, then the Met’s Byzantine art curator) took upon themselves the task of mounting a tribute exhibition honoring their admired leader---"The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades … [Read more...] about The Glenn Lowry Years: The Mixed Record of MoMA’s Mega-Builder (and who should succeed him)

When this brief press release about the Brooklyn Museum's "transformative reinstallation of the American Art galleries" hit my inbox two weeks ago, my surprised reaction was: Haven't we been there and done that, relatively recently? Going beyond that cryptic announcement is this more comprehensive description of the content and concepts of the new presentation. As may be … [Read more...] about What, So Soon? The Brooklyn Museum’s Hasty Do-Over of Its 2016 American Art Reinstallation

I did a doubletake when I saw the recent article about the return of a Schiele drawing (below) to the heirs of Fritz Grünbaum, "a Jewish art collector and Viennese cabaret performer who was killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust" (as described by Tom Mashberg in his July 26 report for the NY Times): Back when I was a fledgling art journalist and Rita Reif was the NY … [Read more...] about Grueling Grünbaum Disputes: Manhattan DA Takes on Museums (once again)

As someone who lives about 10 miles north of the site that had been chosen for the Jersey City Pompidou (now apparently scuttled), I wrote three years ago that the plan for an offshoot of Paris’ premier museum for modern and contemporary art, while exciting to many New Jersey-ans (like me), seemed "unbelievable" (for which I used the French word in my headline, below): The … [Read more...] about Pomp(idou) & Circumstance in New Jersey: Economics & Politics Sink the Paris Museum’s Jersey City Bateau Updated at end of post

The sudden closure of the Philadelphia's University of the Arts (catching students unawares and unprepared) is just the latest in a series of art-related setbacks that have roiled that culturally-rich city. This unfortunate development came fast upon last January's announcement that the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) would shut down its BFA and MFA programs at the … [Read more...] about Philly Follies: Art Schools Leave Students in Lurch; Philbrick, Released from Jail, Seeks a Comeback

In my early years as a cultural journalist, I was an enthusiastic booster of NYC's "Percent for Art" commissions, whereby 1% of the budget for eligible, city-funded construction projects was allocated for the creation of artworks for city facilities. The 40th anniversary of that program was commemorated on Mar. 14 with the launch of "an interactive map and website showcasing … [Read more...] about The Ephemeral Nature of Public Art: Sealed Today, Concealed Tomorrow? (Knox Martin edition)

What goes around comes around? I may be one of the few active cultural journalists who covered in real time the late-'70s introduction in the US of the buyer's premium (then a flat 10% for all winning bids) at art auctions. European auction houses were already charging a fee to buyers as well as sellers, but in the US, the commission cost had been entirely borne by the … [Read more...] about The Debut of Sotheby’s New Fee Structure: Reduced Fee for Buyers (Cue the Dinosaur!)

Auction prices were once thought to be reliable indicators of an artwork's fair market value---defined by the IRS as "the price that would be agreed on between a willing buyer and a willing seller, with neither being required to act, and both having reasonable knowledge of the relevant facts." That's now an outdated take, as witness the laughter that greeted Christie's … [Read more...] about One-Bid Wonders: Guarantee Ennui at Pre-Orchestrated Auctions (Plus: Christie’s Hack Attack) UPDATED

Today is Met Gala day. So why am I not feeling particularly celebratory? Partly because it's also the day when Columbia University felt compelled to cancel its main commencement exercises "after weeks of pro-Palestinian protests" (Associated Press); when Russia said that it would hold military exercises with troops based near Ukraine, "to practice for the possible use of … [Read more...] about The Met’s Off-Key Gala: Tone-Deaf in a Discordant World

When I singled out Isaac Julien's five-screen video installation—“Once Again . . . (Statues Never Die)”---as one of my two top picks from the current Whitney Biennial (to Aug. 11), I was as yet unaware of his other notable recent attainments. Here's an update to the Julien news: ---He served as curator for the current Richmond Barthé: A New Day Is Coming (to May 31) at … [Read more...] about Isaac Julien’s Momentous Moment: Burst of Deserved Attention UPDATED

We geezers who were college students in the late Sixties felt a rush of déjà vu at the sight of today's front-page photos in the NY Times and Wall Street Journal showing confrontations between student demonstrators and police. I came of age in the tumultuous era of Vietnam War protests and racial tensions. I participated in the former, both at Cornell and in Washington. I … [Read more...] about Campus Ruckus: Back to the ’60s

In what would seem to be a new technique for explicating an exhibition that's exasperatingly inexplicable, the NY Times gave three critics---Jason Farago, Travis Diehl and Martha Schwendener---a shot at trying to make sense of "Even Better Than the Real Thing" (EBTTRT, for short)---perhaps the most confusing and confused iteration (in my decades-long professional lifetime) of … [Read more...] about A Show So Nice, the NY Times Reviewed It Thrice: The Whitney’s Bifurcated Biennial

In this DEIA-oriented era, I may incur censure by mildly disparaging The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism---an exhibition that, before its Feb. 25 public opening, had been prematurely hailed as "the Met's new blockbuster," in the words of artnet's Feb. 22 "Art Angle" podcast by the webzine's art critic, Ben Davis, and art scholar Bridget Cooks, a member of the … [Read more...] about Harlem Renaissance Renegade: Metropolitan Museum’s Over-Hyped, Underachieving “Blockbuster”

Please forgive my going somewhat off-topic in this usually art-centric blog, but all professional fields (including the artworld) are impacted by the plight of migrants seeking to enter and remain in the US. As the daughter of an immigration lawyer (who died in 2010 (at the ripe age of 96), I was forcefully struck by the resonance of two opinion pieces offering two very … [Read more...] about The Migrant Crisis: Who Gets to Remain & Work in the United States (now & in the future)?