Archives for September 2006

While mostly a paean to Adele, Charlie Rose's television interview of Ronald Lauder on PBS Monday had a few provocative moments. Charlie asked the $135-million-dollar question, but never pressed for a full, coherent answer: ROSE: You have been involved in restitution, this whole effort to bring [Nazi-looted] art back. You also were chairman of the board of the Museum of Modern … [Read more...] about Outtakes from Ronald Lauder’s Interview on “Charlie Rose”

I'm an avid buyer of art-related postage stamps, but there have been slim pickings lately. (I've had to resort to buying motorcycles, a quasi-art form thanks to the Guggenheim Museum's controversial bikers' retrospective.) But those of us who use snail mail can now blanket our missives with Gee's Bend Quilts. Here is where you can view and purchase the colorful new … [Read more...] about Stamps of Approval: Gee’s Bend Quilts

I'm all for artists' grants: I started my career in cultural journalism at an artists-rights rag, The Art Workers News (where one of my even younger co-workers was a cheerful student who grew up to be an art museum director, the Whitney's Adam Weinberg). I'm in favor of any program that provides financial support to help artists do their work and I thought it was a dark day … [Read more...] about New Artists’ Fellowships: It’s Not What You Do, It’s Who You Know

The above heading is my spin on The Art of Tennis, a title already taken by art writer-turned-tennis blogger, Michael Kimmelman (better known as the NY Times' chief art critic). As I previously noted, my potshots at art-PR people (here and here) might necessitate a career switch to tennis reporting, so here's a dispatch from my new beat! The rapid and predictable departure of … [Read more...] about The Art of Tennis Advertising

This continues the therapeutic venting that I began here. Once I get this off my chest, art-PR people are invited to pelt me with publishable Blogbacks, listing all the things that frustrate them in dealing with whining journalists like me, or responding directly to my gripes. Without further ado, here are the Top Five things I don't like about art-PR people, from least to most … [Read more...] about 10 Things I Don’t Like About Art-PR People—Part II

Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino, the Woodward-Bernstein of the art world (who is their Deep Throat?) have come up with this thoroughly depressing update in the LA Times on the J. Paul Getty Trust scandals. The new exposé details more instances of how an institution that should be using its tremendous wealth to enhance the field appears to have also misused its money to tarnish … [Read more...] about The Latest Getty Shockers: Time to Come Clean and Clean House

This post, inspired by the recent enigmatic reply by a museum's communications officer to my query about Matisse's "The Swimming Pool," is the distillation of many moments of frustration in dealing with the people whose function is, in part, to help me get my job done. Most of the time, they do: My work would be much harder without those art-PR professionals who tirelessly … [Read more...] about 10 Things I Don’t Like About Art-PR People—Part I

Just so there's no confusion: Lee Rosenbaum is NOT the flogged blogger Lee Siegel, who also opined on art. His recently outted alter ego was said to be sprezzatura, not CultureGrrl. I can be a tough critic (as in my first post tomorrow) but, I hope, not a nasty one! … [Read more...] about The Only Art-Blogging Lee You’ll Ever Need

Look, I grew up in the Bronx, and no clown disses my borough! You got that? So what's up with Benjamin Genocchio's rundown of fall art shows in the suburbs and other outlying regions (those foreign countries called New Jersey and Connecticut), in yesterday's NY Times? His first listing under "Westchester" is an upcoming Brazilian art show at the newly expanded Bronx Museum of … [Read more...] about NY Times Corrections: There’s No Place Like Home

A while back, I alerted CultureGrrl readers to a PBS documentary, scheduled for 10 p.m. tonight, on "Frank Lloyd Wright's Buffalo." Here's the program description, which made me feel it was worth watching: David Ogden Stiers narrates this look at the friendship between architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Buffalo businessman Darwin D. Martin and how it benefited Buffalo. Included: … [Read more...] about Wright Stuff, Wrong Station

Every once in a while, CultureGrrl can't restrain herself, and says something that's bound to get her into hot water. This is one of those times. When you belatedly start your work week on Tuesday, hit the Grrl and she'll hit you back with: Ten Things I Don't Like About Art-PR People After this, I may have to switch to tennis reporting. (Actually, in a later post, I will!) … [Read more...] about Coming Tuesday: CultureGrrl Gets Herself into Trouble Again

But while you East Coast culture editors are stuck indoors, sitting out the last gasp of Tropical Storm Ernesto, do remember to act on this! … [Read more...] about See You Tuesday

The American media have largely abandoned the State Hermitage Museum's theft saga, moving on to the latest museum-theft news, but the much more extensive Russian heist is still an actively developing story in its own country. The St. Petersburg Times has reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the establishment of a commission, due to start work today, that would … [Read more...] about Hermitage Theft Repercussions

Lots of congruences between Roberta Smith's … [Read more...] about More MoMA Trauma

this happens. Crank up the lawyers! Funny, when I called Jan Rothschild, the Whitney Museum's communications chief, on another matter late yesterday afternoon, she didn't mention this late-breaking development (although she knows, from this and this, that I'm very interested in the building plans). Today Rothschild told me that the Whitney's lawyers had just received their copy … [Read more...] about Just When the Whitney Thought It Could Proceed with Its Expansion…