Archives for December 2006

You've read about the controversial organizational changes at the Brooklyn Museum: Traditional subject-area departments were eliminated, in favor of two ''teams''---collections and exhibitions. Now's your very own chance to be an exhibitions team player! Recently hit by key staff departures (including: Elizabeth Easton, curator of European painting and sculpture; and Marilyn … [Read more...] about Brooklyn Seeks “Exhibitions Division” Curators; Getty Hires Associate Director for Collections

Christian Kleinbub, assistant professor of art history at Ohio State University, in his second CultureGrrl BlogBack (the first one is here), responds to: Should the "Getty Bronze" Go Back to Italy?: Although an outspoken proponent of the opposite viewpoint, I want to compliment you on the thoughtfulness of your long-awaited post considering the ownership of the Getty … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Christian Kleinbub Takes the Getty’s Side (Again)

UPDATE: For Huxtable's response, go here. With Ada Louise Huxtable's astute appraisal of four major recent architectural projects, the Wall Street Journal has now triple-teamed Minneapolis: Joel Henning last year on Herzog & de Meuron's addition for the Walker Art Center; Lee Rosenbaum (aka CultureGrrl) last July (here and here) on Michael Graves' expansion of the Minneapolis … [Read more...] about Ada Louise Huxtable Meanders in Minneapolis

Jeffrey Snyder, major gifts officer of the Philadelphia Museum, told CultureGrrl today that the $68-million fundraising campaign for Eakins' "The Gross Clinic" is "well over 50% there." That still leaves a lot of cash to raise in one week. So why is Anne d'Harnoncourt, director of the museum, so "optimistic," as quoted in today's Philadelphia Inquirer? She herself has been coy … [Read more...] about “Gross Clinic” Fundraising Update: “Well Over 50 Percent”

Tom Stoppard is the greatest living English-language playwright. Full Stop. I'm sorry, but I will not accept any BlogBacks on this. Not even from Terry. So when I learned that his trilogy, "The Coast of Utopia," was stopping at Lincoln Center, I immediately Telecharged my tickets. And good English major that I still am, I went out and bought the text, which I am now very … [Read more...] about Full Stoppard: What I’m Reading Now

In a recent post on the NY Times' online Talk to the Newsroom feature, one Jacob Silverman asked the newspaper's book review editor, Sam Tanenhaus, "why the Book Review seems to review a significantly greater amount of nonfiction than fiction." And here is Tanenhaus' learned answer: For the simple reason that so much more nonfiction is published. There must have been … [Read more...] about Roman à Clef: NY Times Book Review Locks the Door on Fiction

In its December issue, The Art Newspaper published a photo of the "Getty Bronze," along with this stunningly erroneous scoop: As we went to press, the Getty announced the return to Italy of the remaining antiquities claimed by the country. In fact, the Getty announced it would return only 26 of the 52 objects that Italy was seeking, and emphatically refused to relinquish its … [Read more...] about The Art Newspaper Gives Italy the “Getty Bronze” (and Dewey Beats Truman)

UPDATE: More on the fundraising campaign here. Does anyone still remember what happened when the Boston Athenaeum announced that it was selling its celebrated Gilbert Stuart portraits of George and Martha Washington to the Smithsonian in Washington for $5 million? Back in 1980, the venerable, cash-strapped Boston library bowed to intense pressure to keep the portraits in … [Read more...] about What Should Happen with Eakins’ “The Gross Clinic”

This is even worse than what just happened to classical music radio in Boston: Can it really be that our nation's capital, home to the National Endowment for the Arts, Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian, not to mention our federal government, may possibly soon be without any classical music radio station? Don't at least a few of our nation's leaders need to kick back with Bach … [Read more...] about Broadcasting Bozo-ism as a Capital Offense

As far as I can tell by doing an "Alagna" search on the ArtsJournal music blogs, no one has taken on the latest Temperamental Tantrum in Opera, Roberto Alagna's unceremonious mid-performance departure from the stage of La Scala last Sunday. Now you can see it yourself, as a video on YouTube. All I can say is that the last few notes (which is all we hear) of "Celeste Aida," … [Read more...] about Alagna’s YouTube Moment: Lend Me a Tenor

If you Google "gifts for the man who has everything," what do you get at the end of the third search page? CultureGrrl's gold penis shield! Happy Hanukkah, everyone! … [Read more...] about Holiday Shopping Tips

It's my job as a blogger to have strong, informed opinions on the topics within my purview. But there's one crucial issue about which I've written extensively without taking a stand---the question of who should possess the hotly contested ancient Greek bronze statue of an athlete, which caused the breakdown in negotiations between the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Italian … [Read more...] about Should the “Getty Bronze” Go Back to Italy?

South Carolina artist Tom Durham responds to Why is There No Current American Political Art?: I do agree that on the surface there is no or very little political art on the scene. Why you should ask? First, galleries today are interested in sales, not art statements, so often they refuse to show or display art with any political or social content for fear of offending a … [Read more...] about BlogBack: On the Dearth of Political Art

… [Read more...] about COMING TOMORROW: SHOULD THE “GETTY BRONZE” GO BACK TO ITALY?

The carabinieri's hits just keep on coming. Marta Falconi of the Associated Press reports this afternoon: They [the Italian police] have uncovered an international art trafficking ring based in Rome and have recovered about 100 artifacts. Rome Carabinieri police said 35 people, including an architect and an antique dealer, are being investigated in connection with charges … [Read more...] about Italians Bust Another Art Trafficking Ring