Archives for August 2006

The Grrl is Back...with tidbits from MASS MoCA, Williams College Museum of Art, the Clark Art Institute and Bob Dylan. DYLAN? If only. He was at my Williamstown hotel, prior to playing a gig in Pittsfield. I saw his motorcycle and two giant tour buses, but I was checking in; he was biking out. As the song goes, I knew something was happening, but I didn't know what it was … [Read more...] about Perked Up in the Berkshires

Speaking of Martina Navratilova, do you think I ought to acquire one of her paintings? Who knew? And how do you play tennis "on a court covered with the painted canvas," with "balls dipped in paint"? Do you think this might improve my game? I'll try anything! … [Read more...] about Game, Set, Masterpiece

To the Berkshires, to work on another article for the WSJ. (It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it.) But first, you can find me today in traffic court in lower Manhattan, where I'll explain to the judge that I did NOT make an unsafe lane change on my way to the the Whitney expansion hearing on June 20. (Now you know why I seemed so grouchy that day, Adam!) Maybe instead of … [Read more...] about Where in the World is Lee Going?

Did anyone notice the astonishing omission in the September issue (published last Sunday) of the NY Times' sports magazine, Play? All of the athletes celebrated in it 90 pages are male. No, wait a minute...there IS one exception: On Page 22, you can read about tennis' "reformed diva," Martina Hingis, in a one-page Q&A with that ace sports reporter, Michael Kimmelman. Now, we … [Read more...] about Why Are There No Great Women Athletes?

Museums keep searching for ways to broaden the demographics of their audiences. And every so often, they mount a show that draws a whole new crowd. Curators then hope that those people will come back for the more traditional fare. Most of them don't. Past examples of such new-audience magnets include "Black Male" at the Whitney, "Star Wars" at the Brooklyn Museum and "The Glory … [Read more...] about Attracting and Keeping New Audiences (Or Not)

Obviously trying to make amends for the plastic Dannon yogurt containers at the culinarily dreary press breakfast it hosted June 1 at Le Cirque, the Getty is following up, in short order next month, with a press lunch at the four-star Restaurant Daniel. This is clearly a more responsible expenditure of Getty Trust funds than … [Read more...] about Care and Feeding of the Press, Continued

Today's NY Times article (reprinting Friday's International Herald Tribune article), about the enraptured non-traditional museum audiences flocking to Paris' Musée Quai Branly of non-Western art, is another illustration of a point brought home to me when I reviewed the Smithsonian's new Museum of the American Indian: Press previews, during which only critics prowl the premises, … [Read more...] about Quai Branly in Paris: Why Critics Don’t Matter

This quote says it all. It's from stealthy Jimmy Steal, vice president of programming for Emmis Communications, published in yesterday's LA Times article about the demise of KZLA-FM, which until Thursday billed itself as "America's most listened-to country station": We just saw an opportunity that was a business decision to go after a group of folks who were underserved and … [Read more...] about Broadcasting Bozos, Continued

Los Angeles country fans---I don't share your music preferences, but I do feel your pain. The Associated Press reported today that Los Angeles' only country music station, KZLA-FM, owned by Emmis Communications, abruptly changed its format to pop on Thursday. Not even the DJs were given an advance heads-up, let alone the bereft listeners. As my fellow-sufferers who mourned the … [Read more...] about Another Stealth Radio-Format Change

Today's article on the front page of the WSJ's "Weekend Journal" section, about homesellers who rent art from museums and galleries to give their abodes more appeal, gave me traumatic flashbacks to my own recent empty-nest move from a house to a co-op. No, I did not rent any Calders or Dalis to enhance my spacious picture-windowed, cathedral-ceilinged living room. None of that … [Read more...] about Art for Real Estate’s Sake

Roberta, I feel your frustration. One of my reasons for starting this blog (as discussed in my "LEE ROSENBAUM" profile, right) is that it gives me a place where I can put all my thoughts, insights and bad puns that the mainstream media can't use. I have often felt I had things worth saying and no place to say them. So must it have been with my favorite NY Times art critic, … [Read more...] about Another (Belated) Appraisal of the Morgan

It must be midlife-crisis time on the NY Times Culture Desk. On Sunday, the Las Vegas rhinestone showgirl; yesterday, the bikini-bedecked "Laguna Beach" hotties; and today, a huge blow-up of the lingerie-clad "Still Dirrty" girl, Christina Aguilera (she, at least, has talent)---all adorning the front pages of this week's arts sections. In case you didn't perceive the new … [Read more...] about A Touch of Crass

Readers of the original NY Times article about the Association of Art Museum Directors' new report on The Acquisition and Stewardship of Sacred Objects may have been surprised to see a large photograph of the Tibetan Buddhist altar at the Newark Museum, which is nowhere mentioned in the article itself. Although neither the article nor the caption says so, the photo illustrates … [Read more...] about Meditations and Mediations on the Sacred

CultureGrrl readers know I have a special interest (and sometimes even … [Read more...] about Gumming up a Frankenthaler

Museums in the U.S. are feeling the same pressure as British museums (discussed in my recent post) to remove "sacred objects" from public view, or from their collections entirely. I remember, about two years ago, hearing a docent at the Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY, tell visitors that some masks from its extensive North American Indian collection (which was given to … [Read more...] about Sacred or Scared? Balancing “Special Care” with Appropriate Stewardship