Archives for February 2007

NOT Visiting the Guggenheim: Goya, "El Rey Fernando VII con Manto Real," Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid; Photo: All rights reserved © Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. The Guggenheim Museum, New York, squeezed a little extra publicity mileage out of its current Spanish Painting from El Greco to Picasso by convening a no-news press conference this morning to unveil Goya's … [Read more...] about Guggenheim Gains a Goya, Loses Its Spring Blockbuster

Bye-Bye Benin: Bronze Head of an Oba, ca. 1575-1650, Albright-Knox Gallery, Albert H. Tracy Fund If you go to the Collection Highlights page on the website for Buffalo's Albright-Knox Gallery, you can see it features two of the 196 works that the museum has now decided to sell at Sotheby's, beginning next month. Below are the links to the objects on the museum's website (catch … [Read more...] about Albright-Knox Sells Two Self-Designated Collection Highlights

Don't miss the pithy, pointed critique of the Ground Zero architectural follies in Looking Around, a Time magazine blog. Richard Lacayo comments: Remember five years ago, when everyone agreed that the idea behind the rebuilding of the WTC site was supposed to be renewal? You probably thought that meant renewing life. Turns out it was just about renewing leases. For Tuesday's NY … [Read more...] about No Architecture Hero at Ground Zero

Jennifer Gaby, public relations manager at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, responds to The Vagina Dialogues: Clueless in St. Louis: Thank you for sharing your post with me. The actual signage states, "The exhibition contains mature contents. Parental discretion advised." The gossip columnist at the newspaper obviously took some liberties when she wrote in the paper that … [Read more...] about BlogBack: “Mature Contents” at the St. Louis Contemporary

Ada Louise Huxtable, architecture critic for the Wall Street Journal, reacts to Burying Albert Barnes in the Philly MegaBarnes: Whenever I planned to go to the Barnes, the trip got canceled for one reason or another. So I never got there, much to my eternal regret, and I have only followed its recent history in the press. But of this I have no doubt: The new Barnes will be an … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Ada Louise Huxtable Blasts the New Philly Barnes

At least the Hogarth isn't going to auction. On Monday, as reported by Colin Dabkowki in yesterday's Buffalo News, the Albright-Knox Gallery finally got around to releasing the full list of 196 works that it plans to sell in seven sales, from March to June, at Sotheby's, New York. The museum announced plans to sell on Nov. 10, saying the that the works on its list, not then … [Read more...] about Mission Creep: Albright-Knox Belatedly Releases Its Complete Deaccession List

Susan Flamm, public relations director of the American Folk Art Museum, replies to Folk Art Museum Forecast: Partly Art-y with a Chance of Rain: When you visited, we were well aware of the dripping water and our maintenance staff was working on the problem. As you noted, it's the condensation from the skylight, similar to what happens at other new buildings. The interior … [Read more...] about BlogBack: American Folk Art Museum Explains the Rain

This is a continuation of yesterday's post, in which I promised a critique of the specific plans for the new Barnes. What's wrong with the future MegaBarnes in Philadelphia is the same thing that's wrong with the newly expanded Morgan Library and Museum, which opened in New York last April. As I wrote in The Atrium that Ate the Morgan in the June/July issue of Art in America … [Read more...] about Burying Albert Barnes in the Philly MegaBarnes

We're getting into Judy Chicago season, so I couldn't resist reprinting this recent item (scroll down) from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Deb Peterson reports: [St. Louis] Contemporary Art Museum topper [director] Paul Ha said Tuesday that there was no censorship in a decision to leave out a painting [a 18" by 19 1/2" gouache, my sources tell me] of a vagina on antique [1927] … [Read more...] about The Vagina Dialogues: Clueless in St. Louis

Edward Sozanski, the Philadelphia Inquirer's art critic, pulled no punches yesterday in criticizing the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts' sudden sale of Eakins' "The Cello Player" to defray the cost of "The Gross Clinic." He doesn't know the half of it. CultureGrrl has just learned that Kim Sajet, PAFA's deputy director, who was responsible for overseeing the … [Read more...] about The “Cello Player” Debacle, Continued: Inquirer’s Critic Scolds; PAFA’s Deputy Director Leaves

When I recently provided you with a report on the plans for the new Philadelphia Barnes Foundation, I didn't tell you what I thought of those plans. I was, and still am, grateful to Derek Gillman for giving me his time and this thoughts---especially since I have repeatedly expressed my negative views on the move (here in CultureGrrl; and here on the NY Times Op-Ed page). But … [Read more...] about MegaBarnes As a Philly Tourist Magnet, Not a Connoisseur’s Creation

Future Rap Pad for Tonight's Grammy Winner? In case you had any lingering doubts about whether the NY Times arts pages are doing a good job covering the celebrity gossip beat, click the lead story in today's "Arts & Leisure" section about hip-hop on the hilltop. I think it's safe to say that this landmark piece marks the debut of real estate agents in the Times culture pages. I … [Read more...] about Rapper Real Estate: “Arts & Leisure’s” New Listings

The publicity image of Tutankhamun's golden face that appeared to me to be depict the boy king's iconic funerary mask (not in the current exhibition) is in fact "a blowup of the head from a 16-inch [canopic] coffinette that stored Tut's liver," as I learned from the review by John Zeaman in my local newspaper, the Bergen Record. "Visitors who expect to see the famous mask will … [Read more...] about Tut Tut: Golden Boy’s Famous Visage IS in the Show…Sort Of

$36.75 You've read me right: $36.75! That's what it will cost you for an online order of one ticket ($32.50 plus the inconvenient "convenience charge") to see Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, now at its final U.S. stop: the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. I know this because I instructed my son Paul (who lived for a while in Philly and is going back this … [Read more...] about Tutmania in Philly: Manic Ticket Prices at the Franklin Institute

Well, maybe just a five-year collaboration. Reuters has the story. Tom the Great is in China's capital to open a Guggenheim-organized survey of American art (go here and click on the Jan. 24 press release). Seems Krens just can't set foot in a country without wanting to annex it into his Global Guggenheim empire. … [Read more...] about The Beijing Guggenheim?