Is it just me? It seems that ever since my mother took her hip-fracturing spill, I've been coming into contact with all sorts of culture-related tumbles. In yesterday's NY Times, Sarah Lyall, demonstrating a sharp nose for news, described being on location at the treacherous gap in the floor of the Tate Modern at the very moment when the hapless Anne McNicholas, "a 51-year-old … [Read more...] about Department of Bad Falls, Cultural Division
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Randolph College Accreditation Warning Removed: Can Maier Paintings Remain?
The immediate impetus for the plan to sell paintings from Randolph College's Maier Museum has ceased to exist: The Lynchburg, VA, institution yesterday announced: The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) will announce today its decision to remove Randolph College from warning....However, SACS will monitor the College in the upcoming year, and we will be required … [Read more...] about Randolph College Accreditation Warning Removed: Can Maier Paintings Remain?
Department of Strange Lawsuits: Monteleone Chariot; MoMA and Guggenheim Picassos
Ownership claims have made strange adversaries in Italy; unusual allies in New York. In Italy, the village of Monteleone just won't give up on its claim for the Etruscan chariot that the Metropolitan Museum has owned for over 100 years. Miffed that the Italian Culture Ministry hasn't taken up its cause, the village, by unanimous vote of its council, has decided to sue not only … [Read more...] about Department of Strange Lawsuits: Monteleone Chariot; MoMA and Guggenheim Picassos
BlogBack: Art Historian Boldly Defends Boldini
David Wilkins, professor emeritus of the history of art and architecture at the University of Pittsburgh, joining the Boldini defenders, responds to The Met's New European Galleries: The Good, the Bad and the Dumbed Down: I'd like to say that I think the Boldini is a good choice to exhibit---an important and respected artist at the time (yes, we need to know what they thought … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Art Historian Boldly Defends Boldini
Art Basel Miami Wrap Up
Like last year, Art Basel Miami Beach's final post-sale wrap-up report claims much success and provides little hard information. We do know that 43,000 visitors came "from every continent" (even Antarctica?) compared to last year's 40,000. The number of journalists covering this momentous event also increased: This year 1,600 reporters and critics (all of whom came from … [Read more...] about Art Basel Miami Wrap Up
Self-Censorship: CultureGrrl Takes Down Two Photos
Today was depressing enough, thanks to the continuing saga of my mother's hip replacement (the reason why I've been posting with less than my usual compulsiveness). Today was blood-transfusion day. (On a more positive note, it was also sit-up-in-a-chair day.) While attending to my mother's hospital misadventures, I've also unhappily discovered that my blog is sick: This post is … [Read more...] about Self-Censorship: CultureGrrl Takes Down Two Photos
Lascaux’s Prehistoric Paintings Still Endangered by Fungus
Black Mold Patches Above the Cow's Horns Photo: French Ministry of Culture In my Wall Street Journal article a year and a half ago about the fungi and bacteria problems jeopardizing the prehistoric cave paintings at Lascaux, France, I quoted Jean-Michel Geneste, the cave's curator, asserting that everything was under control: There is no damage to the paintings....Now the … [Read more...] about Lascaux’s Prehistoric Paintings Still Endangered by Fungus
BlogBacks: Defenders of the Met’s European Installation
Two readers respond to my recent post, The Met's New European Galleries: The Good, the Bad and the Dumbed Down: ---Veteran art writer Paul Jeromack, whose work has appeared in The Art Newspaper and Art & Auction, among others, writes: The two walls with the Sorolla, Zorn, Sargent and Boldini portraits are dazzling: Each is a masterpiece of its kind. I like [Metropolitan Museum … [Read more...] about BlogBacks: Defenders of the Met’s European Installation
My Mother’s Hip and Me
I am now in the midst of the middle-aged daughter's rite of passage: My mother fell Friday morning and had hip replacement surgery yesterday. I've got no siblings, so it's all me. Which means it's probably less of you. I do, however, have BlogBacks coming up later, disagreeing with my take on the Met's rehang of its 19th- and early 20th-century European paintings and sculpture … [Read more...] about My Mother’s Hip and Me
The Met’s New European Galleries: The Good, the Bad and the Dumbed Down
Gary Tinterow, the Met's curator in charge of 19th-century, modern and contemporary art, showing off the new galleries to the press. The Metropolitan Museum's renovated galleries for 19th- and 20th-century European paintings and sculpture provide 8,000 square feet of additional space (the Henry J. Heinz II Galleries) for more art---always a good thing, but particularly welcome … [Read more...] about The Met’s New European Galleries: The Good, the Bad and the Dumbed Down
Who Bought the Guennol Lioness?
The above headline is a shameless tease, because I don't know the answer...yet. But I do know CultureGrrl readers are fascinated by the subject, because you've been hitting my previous two posts about the tiny, exquisite limestone carving (here and here) in record numbers today, making me Number Four, at this writing, on the Guennol Google-search hit parade. Harold Holzer, … [Read more...] about Who Bought the Guennol Lioness?
Links for Your Lynx: Great Artists’ Infirmities, Sitting Bull’s Last Stand, Antiquities in the Bronx, Blogging and Flogging Basel Miami UPDATED
---This is not exactly a new subject of inquiry but fascinating nonetheless---how the physical infirmities of great artists have affected their art. In Simulations of Ailing Artists' Eyes Yield New Insights on Style, Guy Gugliotta writes in the NY Times that "an ophthalmologist at Stanford, Michael F. Marmor, described in the Archives of Ophthalmology creating computer … [Read more...] about Links for Your Lynx: Great Artists’ Infirmities, Sitting Bull’s Last Stand, Antiquities in the Bronx, Blogging and Flogging Basel Miami UPDATED
BlogBack: The Met’s Harold Holzer on Relocating Gertrude Stein
Harold Holzer, the Metropolitan Museum's senior vice president for external affairs, responds to Gertrude Stein, Modern No More, at the Met's Reopened Galleries: Gertrude Stein herself left the portrait to the Met specifically so it would NOT be installed with more recent art. In fact, when Alice B. Toklas learned it had been lent to the Museum of Modern Art for an exhibition, … [Read more...] about BlogBack: The Met’s Harold Holzer on Relocating Gertrude Stein
News Flash: Guennol Lioness Fetches $57.16 Million from British Buyer
The Guennol Lioness This just in from Sotheby's: A man from England, standing at the rear of Sotheby's salesroom, battled a phone bidder this afternoon to purchase the 5,000-year-old Guennol Lioness for $57.16 million (with buyer's premium). The miniature feline-on-steroids (above), which had for almost 60 years been displayed at the Brooklyn Museum, had been estimated to bring … [Read more...] about News Flash: Guennol Lioness Fetches $57.16 Million from British Buyer
The Isherwood Files: Should Donors Put Their Names on Elevators? Should Critics Speak on Ads for Events They Will Later Review?
NY Times theater critic Charles Isherwood had lots of fun, in last Sunday's "Arts & Leisure" section, mocking a common and (to my mind) innocuous method by which arts institutions encourage and acknowledge major donors---ubiquitous naming opportunities. Isherwood decries the "veritable carnival of nomenclature" and wonders: What became of those wealthy philanthropists … [Read more...] about The Isherwood Files: Should Donors Put Their Names on Elevators? Should Critics Speak on Ads for Events They Will Later Review?