Archives for December 2009

The Metropolitan Museum has posted no statement on its website regarding the death of its former director (which I've discussed here and here) and has not as yet announced plans to commemorate his contributions, either in its galleries or with a memorial event. But it has placed the following classified obit in today's NY Times: The Trustees and staff of The Metropolitan Museum … [Read more...] about Metropolitan Museum’s Thomas Hoving Obit and De Montebello’s Remembrance

After photographing the jacket of the late Thomas Hoving's Metropolitan Museum memoir, "Making the Mummies Dance," to illustrate my remembrance yesterday, I decided to leaf through the book, to relive through his eyes that tumultuous era. I came upon Hoving's own description (p. 369) of what his 10-year reign (1967-77) as the Met's director was all about:My goal was to make the … [Read more...] about Tom Hoving’s Metropolitan Museum, in His Own Words

Thomas Hoving, vamping on his book coverI had been thinking about Tom Hoving today, only to return home from a Guggenheim press lunch and some pre-Hanukkah shopping to learn from Randy Kennedy's online NY Times report that this morning he had died. [UPDATE: Eric Gibson's appraisal for the Wall Street Journal is here. My own further comments on Hoving are here.]I was … [Read more...] about The Death of a Showman: Tom Hoving, 78 WITH ADDENDUM

Left to right: Glenn Lowry, Victor Pinchuk and London dealer Jay Jopling at the Museum of Modern Art during Tuesday's press preview of its upcoming Orozco retrospective Does anyone besides me find it unseemly that four major museum directors---Glenn Lowry (MoMA), Richard Armstrong (Guggenheim), Nicholas Serota (Tate) and Alfred Pacquement (Pompidou)---have lent their … [Read more...] about Follow the Billions: Museum Directors Line Up Behind Pinchuk’s Prize

Observant art-lings may be wondering why, late last night, my CultureGrrl post and YouTube video about Cooper Union mysteriously vanished.I was sternly asked by the school to take them down, "immediately."I'm familiar with the parameters of print journalism, but I'm a YouTube rube. Or so I learned after my visit on Friday to what seemed to be a public space in the front part of … [Read more...] about Video Violation: My Cooper Union Clip Deleted

At this rate, I'm never going to make it to my goal of 100 CultureGrrl Donors (I've got 92) by the end of this year (let alone by Hanukkah, which begins this Friday night). 'Tis the season for me to take time off.I'm going out now to view a museum exhibition and buy some presents for my family. When I return, I hope to be pleasantly surprised. That "Donate" button is rendered … [Read more...] about Donor Dearth: CultureGrrl’s Day Off

Left to right, at Kennedy Center Honors: Mel Brooks, Bruce Springsteen, Michelle Obama, President Obama, Vice President Joseph R. Biden (not pictured: honorees Dave Brubeck, Grace Bumbry, Robert De Niro)Pool photograph by Martin H. SimonYou already know what I think of Rocco Landesman's new slogan for the National Endowment for the Arts. I was reminded of what a dud it is when … [Read more...] about President Obama Crafts a Better NEA Slogan: “Art Strengthens America” UPDATED

That's right, art-lings. I'm not at Art Basel Miami again! Maybe I'll surprise you (and myself) by going next year.In the meantime, for my money (what money?) the best you-are(sort of)-there feeling can be had at the Miami Herald, which flooded the zone with four reporters and posted both a video and slide show to take you into the action. I also appreciated the coverage in the … [Read more...] about Fourth Annual Art Basel Miami Sour Grapes Soufflé UPDATED

Without much warning, the Barnes Foundation e-mailed on Tuesday a "Dear Friends" newsletter announcing that in January it will close five galleries on its second floor: Rooms 14 through 18 will become a large temporary conservation suite in preparation for the move [from Merion to a new facility in Philadelphia], and will therefore close to the public.Here are some works you … [Read more...] about Last Chance to See the Barnes Intact: Some Galleries Are Closing UPDATED

The Pulitzer Board: Adminstrator Sig Gissler, front row, third from rightDevoted art-lings, you may remember that when I rashly entered CultureGrrl in the Pulitzer Prize competition for work done in 2008, I got tossed out at "hello." For the first time this year, blogs were considered as potentially Pulitzer-worthy, so I thought I'd give it a shot.But when I entered my series … [Read more...] about Pulitzer Prize Lifts the “CultureGrrl Exclusion Rule”

The NY Times' gold-background Velázquez, in today's paperVelázquez, "Portrait of a Man," ca. 1630Image from the Metropolitan Museum's websiteNY Times art critic Karen Rosenberg, addressing today a topic that I nosed around on Monday, has been done in by her own photo editors.I imagine that NY Times uses something more sophisticated than my computer's rudimentary Photoshop … [Read more...] about Shoot the Photo Editor: NY Times Gilds the Velázquez CORRECTED

Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, left, accepting this year's Pritzker Prize in May from Tom Pritzker, chairman of the Art Institute of Chicago In the tradition of "nattering nabobs of negativism" (R.I.P. William Safire, who penned that phrase when he was speech writer for Vice President Sprio Agnew), we now can enunciate a new alliterative putdown: "mediocre morsel of … [Read more...] about Architect Watch: Mies Down in Chicago; Zumthor Up in LA