Archives for February 2007

At a time when relations between the United States and Venezuela are at low ebb, no small degree of skilled cultural diplomacy was needed to pull off a show that borrowed a large number of works by Armando Reverón from the Collection Fundación Museos Nacionales, Caracas. Juan Ignacio Parra Schlageter, president of the Proyecto Armando Reverón, the Caracas group dedicated to … [Read more...] about Why Hostile Venezuela Agreed to Lend Its Reveróns to the U.S.

Ammi Phillips, "Girl in a Red Dress with Cat and Dog," 1830-35, American Folk Art Museum, gift of the Siegman Trust, Ralph Esmerian, trustee; Photo by John Parnell I didn't actually get rained on when I visited the American Folk Art Museum on Tuesday. But that's only because I stopped moving just in time, as some drops plopped down on the exact spot where I was about to … [Read more...] about Folk Art Museum Forecast: Partly Art-y with a Chance of Rain

Armando Reverón, Doll (Muñeca), 1940s Collection Fundación Museos Nacionales, Caracas © 2007 Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela There's a coincidental and probably accidental synergy enlivening W. 53rd Street right now, thanks to two unusual shows of possibly insane, definitely eccentric Latin American artists, receiving groundbreaking retrospectives at next-door … [Read more...] about Revering Reverón; Ramming Ramírez

Is there some new antitrust ruling I'm unaware of, which says that museums in the same city can't collude with each other in scheduling exhibition press previews? Yesterday, I had to miss the American Museum of Natural History's new Hall of Human Origins because I felt it was more important for CultureGrrl (but not for Lee Rosenbaum, who grew up loving AMNH) to see Reverón at … [Read more...] about Dueling Press Previews

Here's an interesting turnabout: Pierre Rosenberg, the former director of the Louvre, who was known as much for thwarting the acquisition ambitions of American museums (through export restrictions) as he was for facilitating important loan exhibitions, has now atoned for his adversarial posture with a new book: Only in America: One Hundred Paintings in American Museums … [Read more...] about Former Louvre Director Finds Something Good to Say About U.S. Museums

AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee I never met the Cuban trumpet player Pedro Knight. I just purchased, through intermediaries, the co-op apartment that he shared for a short time with his professional and life's partner, the salsa diva Celia Cruz. They moved here when she was ill and needed a place without stairs. She died here in 2003. When we first looked at the apartment, it still … [Read more...] about Pedro Knight, Mainstay for the Queen of Salsa

Last November, CultureGrrl named Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, as her number-one pick to succeed Philippe de Montebello in 2020, when he at last vacates the directorship of the Metropolitan Museum. Last May, The Art Newspaper named MacGregor as one of four "possible contenders" for the post. (The other three were on my list of people who should not or would … [Read more...] about Neil MacGregor: If Elected, Would He Serve?

Picking up on the news made by Herbert Riband, vice chair of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and my fellow guest Monday on the WHYY Radio Times public radio program, the Philadelphia Inquirer today gets around to examining the secret, hasty sale of "The Cello Player." Stephan Salisbury writes: The deal, some say, has soured what had been a heady community fund-raising … [Read more...] about Philadelphia Inquirer on “The Cello Player”

During my Manhattan meanderings yesterday, I also stumbled upon this: CultureGrrl is a native New Yorker (as if you couldn't tell), so I fully understand the local custom of never making eye contact with strangers. But even I was surprised yesterday afternoon as I stood at the southeast entrance to Central Park for a few minutes, observing that absolutely NO ONE cast so much … [Read more...] about Public Art Watch: Big Apple Invisible in “The Big Apple”

I admit it: I've been out looking at art instead of staring at my computer screen like a good blogger. But I'm now making amends with a CultureGrrl exclusive! Here's the scoop: The Museum of Modern Art's capital campaign wasn't quite ambitious enough to pay for adequate signage, so director Glenn Lowry dispatched architect Yoshio Taniguchi to a nearby office supply store to … [Read more...] about Perfecting MoMA By Hand: The Finishing Touch

Michael J. Lewis says in Contentions, the blog of Commentary magazine: Museums that think boldly attract bold donors; and museums that think cautiously do not. When the original purchase [of "The Gross Clinic"] was announced it seemed like a brilliant but risky chess gambit; in the light of this sale [of "The Cello Player"], it looks considerably less spectacular, like the … [Read more...] about Blogger Swarm: The Buzz on “The Cello Player”

I know the answer to this question, but I can't tell you. Still, with the imminent, if belated, arrival of Goya's "Children with a Cart" at the Guggenheim Museum's Spanish Painting from El Greco to Picasso, it is time to revisit the subject of the lost-and-found Goya, which suffered a little mishap in November, on its way to New York from the Toledo Museum, Ohio. After the … [Read more...] about Who Transported the Goya? (Continued)

Would you like to hear Henri Loyrette, director of the Louvre, Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, and Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of the Hermitage Museum, croon in three-part harmony, to the tune of "the universal mission of museums vs. the massive transfers of cultural property over the course of history"? (Will someone please write more mellifluous … [Read more...] about Museum Directors Summit: Webcast Tonight, Direct from Paris

Thomas Eakins, "The Cello Player," anonymous owner, formerly in collection of Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Joseph E. Temple Fund CultureGrrl pontificated, but Herbert Riband, vice chair of the board of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, made some news during his broadcast stint this morning, preceding me as a guest on Radio Times with Marty … [Read more...] about Philly Radio Revelations: PAFA Doesn’t Know Who Purchased Its Eakins

On Thursday, I went to check on the Golden Girl at the Neue Galerie. She wasn't happy. That's because Adele Bloch-Bauer was forced to stare across the room at a decidedly pedestrian portrait by Richard Gerstl. She also shared her gallery with two Schieles and three clocks, instead of the entire roomful of paintings by her friend and portraitist, Gustav Klimt, as had been … [Read more...] about Verklempt Over Klimt (Again)