Archives for October 2009

While we await the next stage (back today to the City Planning Commission) in the MoMA Monster's journey through New York City's convoluted government approval process, let's have a return engagement today of the CultureGrrl Channel's video star, the Museum of Modern Art's director, Glenn Lowry. You can watch him argue for the benefits to MoMA of Jean Nouvel's Empire State … [Read more...] about MeTube: Glenn Lowry Defends MoMA Monster; Knox Gets Notched

They trashed my show! If reviews could kill, Bye Bye Birdie would be posting a closing notice. Fortunately, the power of the NY Times reviewer to make or break a production is diminished in this era when word of mouth (and tweet of smart phone) can have a bigger impact on theatrical fortunes than Brantley rants or Teachout clouts. I hope there are enough people who felt about … [Read more...] about I Love You, “Birdie”! (no matter what the critics say) UPDATED

Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait, "The Life of a Hunter: A Tight Fix," 1856, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art CultureGrrl readers are a devoted, savvy bunch: Two different museum curators wrote to inform me that BOTH Crystal Bridges-owned works in the Metropolitan Museum's current American Stories exhibition were previously owned by mega-collector Richard Manoogian---not just … [Read more...] about Manoogian Maneuvers: Michigan Collector Owned Crystal Bridges’ Tait; May Have Purchased National Academy’s Church, Gifford

Dana Schutz, "How We Would Drive," 2007, purchased with funds from the Rose Purchase Fund Endowment and funds from the Rose Museum Board of Overseers (image courtesy of Zach Feuer Gallery)This just in from the Boston Globe:A Suffolk Probate Court judge denied yesterday a motion [by Brandeis University] to dismiss a lawsuit filed by three members of the Rose Art Museum's board … [Read more...] about The Rose Row: Judge Allows Court Case Against Brandeis Art Sales to Continue

Dietrich von Bothmer, about 1980 (photo courtesy of Metropolitan Museum)The Art History Newsletter reports that Dietrich von Bothmer, 90, the Metropolitan Museum's former chairman of Greek and Roman art, has died. He enriched the museum's collection during an earlier era of antiquities collecting practices that was characterized by "don't ask, don't tell" when it came to issues … [Read more...] about Dietrich von Bothmer, Former Met Chairman of Greek and Roman Art, Dies UPDATED

The one section of the large site for the planned Downtown Whitney that has thus far been cleared for construction, as seen from the High Line Carol Vogel optimistically reported in Monday's NY Times that the Whitney Museum is "forging ahead with plans to build a second museum at the entrance to the High Line, the abandoned elevated railway line that has recently been … [Read more...] about This is “Forging Ahead”? Whitney Must Cough Up $18 Million for City-Owned Site

Hilt Fitting from the Staffordshire HoardI've given up trying to sell you links: No one's buying Lee's List, my failed quest for micro-donations. The best links in life are (alas) free:---To Catch a Looter: On today's NY Times Op-Ed page, Roger Atwood, citing a Peruvian model as an example for Iraq, calls for citizen patrols of artifacts-rich sites as the best means to keep … [Read more...] about Lee’s (free) List: What CultureGrrl is Reading

The American Stories exhibition that opened today at the Metropolitan Museum is an astonishing display of the museum's masterpiece-borrowing macho. Time and again I caught my breath at the audacity of the New York museum's requests for other institutions' signature works---Copley's Paul Revere from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and his Watson and the Shark from the National … [Read more...] about Now at the Met: Crystal Bridges-Owned Painting Sold in 1994 by the National Academy

Glenn Ligon, "Black Like Me #2," Hirshhorn Museum, chosen for the Obamas' personal quarters at the White HouseDid Scott Veale, the NY Times' "Arts & Leisure" editor, and/or Jon Landman, the paper's new culture editor, get Ted Gallagher's memo? In a response to my two-part critique of the Times' cultural coverage, CultureGrrl reader Gallagher had criticized the paper for a … [Read more...] about NY Times Does It Right: Today’s Visual Arts Coverage (and some ObamArt musings)

Without yet saying when the transfer will take place, the French government has agreed to hand over to Egypt five fresco fragments in the Louvre that were recently demanded by Zahi Hawass, the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. The French museum said it had acquired them in good faith in 2000 and 2003. The BBC, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse have the … [Read more...] about Louvre Bows to Hawass’ Demand: Will Return Five Fresco Fragments

Michael Sillerman, attorney for the planned MoMA/Hines towerThe NY City Council's Land Use Committee today approved by a 12-2 vote the City Planning Commission's reduction of the height of the MoMA/Hines tower from 1,250 to 1,050 feet. The developer, Hines, acceded to this reduction during negotiations with Council members after the hearing held Tuesday by the Council Land Use … [Read more...] about MoMA Monster Downsized: City Council Committee Approves 200-Foot Height Reduction

Old (awkwardly) meets new at the partly expanded Cleveland MuseumThis just in from the Association of Art Museum Directors, regarding the Cleveland Museum of Art's court-approved plan to divert up to $75 million of the income from acquisition funds to defray building costs for its partially completed Rafael Viñoly-designed expansion:The Association of Art Museum Directors … [Read more...] about AAMD and Deborah Gribbon on Cleveland’s Deviation from Donor Intent

Deborah Gribbon, Cleveland Museum's new interim director With no one to argue for the dead donors in court (since the Attorney General had declined to do so), the Cleveland Museum of Art today got its wish: It received court approval to beef up its capital campaign with up to $75 million from the income of two bequests and two trust funds that the donors had designated for … [Read more...] about Cleveland Gets Court Approval to Circumvent Donor Intent

Zahi Hawass and mummy he believes is Queen HatshepsutHe's threatened to do something like this numerous times. Now Zahi Hawass, the combative head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, has apparently done it---severed ties with a major museum, the Louvre, over an antiquities ownership dispute. Paul Schemm of the Associated Press reports:Egypt said Wednesday its antiquities … [Read more...] about News Flash: Hawass Cuts Off Egyptian Cooperation with the Louvre

Aerial rendering of Tod Williams' and Billie Tsien's design for the Philly BarnesStephan Salisbury of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports:Many opponents of relocating the [Barnes Foundation's] collection attended the [Philadelphia Art Commission's] hearing, chaired by artist Moe Brooker of Moore College of Art and Design. Brooker kept a tight rein on public comment, seeking to … [Read more...] about News Flash: Philadelphia Art Commission Approves Barnes Design