Archives for October 2006

Okay, okay. I take this back. Great review (in both size and content) about the expanded Bronx Museum of the Arts by Nicolai Ourossoff in today's NY Times. But things get a bit dicey when he says that the Arquitectonica-designed addition helps "to shore up the Bronx's dicey image as well as...reassert its former identity as a haven for the middle class." First of all, the … [Read more...] about The Bronx (Almost) Gets Its Due

Who ever would have thought that the staid Morgan Library and Museum would become Experience Music Project East? That's what happened with the opening of Bob Dylan's American Journey, 1956-1966, an exhibition that premiered at Seattle's EMP, which organized it and is touring it to two other venues after the Morgan (to Jan. 6). This show (where CultureGrrl tripped in hazy … [Read more...] about The Times Are A-Changin’ at the Morgan

Ever dream of renting a Renzo Piano facility in New York for a wedding or a birthday bash? Well, now you can! The NY Times announced that its new Piano-designed facility on W. 41st Street will feature a hall that "can accommodate 400 people for banquets and as many as 700 for receptions. It is also appropriate for trade shows, exhibitions, lectures and meetings. The hall … [Read more...] about And at That OTHER Times…

You saw it here first: my musings on the Yom Kippur sermon delivered by the California Attorney General to the J. Paul Getty Trust. Today you can see this piece, slightly tweaked, in it's new home on the Op-Ed page of the LA Times. The newsroom was in considerable turmoil during the editing process, because of this. My editor managed to finish the job before the 4 p.m. general … [Read more...] about Tuesday in CultureGrrl; Today in the LA Times

Hey, NY Times, you got a problem with the Bronx? Well, gray lady, we're tawkin' about my native borough, so I got a problem with YOU! First this. And now, the Bronx Museum of the Arts just held a big press preview, complete with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, for its shiny new wing on the Grand Concourse, and you're writing about...QUEENS? I mean, if the Bronx is in Westchester, then … [Read more...] about Da Bronx STILL Don’t Get No Respect

Towards the end of my interview on Tuesday with Tom Dresslar, spokeman for the California Attorney General's office, I asked a simple question and expected to get a simple answer. Instead, I got this shocker, which could have serious implications for other American museums that return antiquities of dubious provenance to their countries of origin. Here's our … [Read more...] about The Attorney General vs. the Getty: Round Two?

[IMPORTANT UPDATE: Please see the Oct. 5 post on the Getty, for a new CultureGrrl shocker from the California Attorney General's office.] Why is the California Attorney General's report on the J. Paul Getty Trust's violations of the public's trust such a profoundly unsatisfying denouement for the sordid saga of its board's and president's misjudgments and misdeeds? It's not … [Read more...] about The Getty Report: Clean Sweep or Whitewash?

Here's something we've got to see: Gary Tinterow speaks on Oct. 24 about his curatorial activities, as part of the ArtTalks lecture series of the American Federation of Arts in New York. Billed as "the Engelhard Curator in Charge of the Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art" (a title long enough to exhaust half the time … [Read more...] about The Contemporary World According to Gary Tinterow

Imagine my surprise when I caught my first online glimpse of my WSJ article about Edith Wharton on Monday night: The caption on the accompanying photo indicated that it was an image of Wharton's library as it appears today, with her own books returned to its shelves. But I knew that it was the library as it appeared more than a year ago, with random volumes that had been … [Read more...] about Speaking of Corrections…

When last seen, Benjamin Genocchio, still trying to get to today's press preview of the expanded Bronx Museum of the Arts, was headed north on the Saw Mill River Parkway near Dobbs Ferry, desperately seeking the Bronx in Westchester. Will the NY Times please get around to running that correction, so the poor guy can figure out where he's going? … [Read more...] about This Just In…

No this is not the Getty post you've been breathlessly awaiting---my fulminations about yesterday's report by the California Attorney General office on its lengthy investigation. CultureGrrl will let loose on that subject tomorrow. That deficient report, e-mailed on Yom Kippur when I couldn't read it, was certainly consistent with the forgiving spirit of the Jewish holiday on … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Michael Brand Replies to “Getty Gets Contemporary”

Here's the second part of my article, appearing on the Leisure & Arts page in today's Wall Street Journal. (Part I is here.) Touting the Mount's importance as one of this country's few National Historic Landmarks devoted to a woman, Stephanie Copeland in 1998 persuaded First Lady Hillary Clinton to walk in Wharton's footsteps. Ms. Copeland believes this visit directly resulted … [Read more...] about My Article on Wharton in Today’s WSJ—Part II

I had the pleasure of going back to my English-major roots with this article, appearing in today's Wall Street Journal, on the return of Edith Wharton's own books to the library at the Mount, her former Berkshires mansion. As you know, I can't link to the WSJ's subscribers-only site, but I AM allowed to post the text of my article. I'll again do it in two parts, so as not to … [Read more...] about My Article on Edith Wharton in Today’s WSJ–Part I

CultureGrrl is SO behind the news on the Getty! Of course, the California Attorney General's office just had to release his report on Yom Kippur. I'll belatedly throw you some links, for starters, then give you more extended commentary, probably on Wednesday. Today I'm diverting you with my latest Wall Street Journal article, and I'm temporarily abandoning my keyboard to join … [Read more...] about The Getty Gets Off the Hook

Art-law blogger Donn Zaretsky gives his analysis (scroll down to his second item under Oct. 2) of the former legal quarrel between Austria and the Bloch-Bauer heirs over whether Austria was entitled to claim the Klimts under the provisions of Adele Bloch-Bauer's will: From my reading of the [U.S.] Supreme Court's 2004 decision in the case, it's probably more accurate to say the … [Read more...] about More on the Klimts’ Legal Status