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Real estate mogul Jerry Speyer yesterday was elected chairman of the Museum of Modern Art's board of trustees, succeeding Goldman Sachs' Robert Menschel, who held that post for only two years. Marie-Josée Kravis remains president. And yes, Glenn Lowry remains MoMA's director. The press release, announcing other changes as well, is not yet online, so I'm posting it at the link … [Read more...] about MoMA Shuffles Its Board: Speyer is New Chairman

Tyler has just scooped me on the possible ownership shift at Art in America, a story that broke today in the NY Post. But I've got the inside scoop on the venerable magazine, for which I'm a contributing editor. AiA staffers today attended a meeting about the future of Brant Publications, which bought AiA in 1984. My source for most of the following information is an official … [Read more...] about Inside Scoop on Possible “Art in America” Ownership Change

I've speculated enough on this fascinating, rumor-inducing question. Now it's your turn. Reader Dorothy King, a London-based archaeologist, gets the ball rolling, in response to my Timothy Potts musings. King writes: I adore Potts almost as much as you do, and hope he does go to the Met. A couple of other rumors doing the rounds are that he or his wife miss London and will come … [Read more...] about Shoutout for BlogBacks: Who Do You Think Should Be the Met’s Next Director?

I probably read the NY Times too closely for my own good. But when they said that the new public editor, Clark Hoyt, was going to assume his post effective May 14, I expected to see his first column in the May 19 Sunday "Week in Review" section, or at least by the week after that. I've come to enjoy these incisive internal critiques, which began in 2003. Earlier this month, I … [Read more...] about CultureGrrl to NY Times Public Editor: Are You Out There?

Kimbell Museum Photo Saturday's follow-up article in the Dallas Morning News about the resignation of Timothy Potts' (above) from the directorship of the Kimbell Art Museum makes it clear that my Number Two Pick for next director of the Metropolitan Museum is officially in play. (Number One, Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, is unlikely to cross the … [Read more...] about Cookin’ With Potts: Is the Met Hungry?

My recent posts (here, here, here and here) about possible sales of American art from the Maier Museum of the financially pressed Randolph-Macon Woman's College have struck a chord with some of the college's constituents. ---Karri Boyer Aston, Class of 1999, writes: As an alum of R-MWC, I am embarassed by the college's actions and upset by the ongoing secrecy surrounding the … [Read more...] about BlogBacks: Randolph-Macon Art Fans Speak Out

I was just thinking of calling James Beck for his opinion about the Raphael portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici, to be offered July 5 by Christie's, London. Now I can't. Always provocative and often right (think the "Michelangelo of Fifth Avenue," maybe the Metropolitan Museum's Duccio, and, to my mind, the Sistine Ceiling's scrubbing), Beck was a master gadfly and debunker of … [Read more...] about James Beck, 1930-2007, Renegade Renaissance Scholar

While the Barnes Foundation pares down its architect shortlist for its planned moved to Philadelphia, access to the preferred site for the project, currently occupied by a youth detention center, remains in doubt. Dave Davies and Mark McDonald of the Philadelphia Daily News report: Mayor Street and the Fairmount Park Commission have taken the first official steps to transfer a … [Read more...] about Problems in Securing Philly Site for the Barnes

Between the pool and the barbecue, you might enjoy watching this video, "500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art," morphing artists' notions of feminine beauty. If you liked that one, you might also enjoy 80 Years of Female Portraits in Cinema, from the same YouTube contributor (both accompanied by Bach unaccompanied cello). … [Read more...] about A Little Holiday Weekend Entertainment

This is sudden and unexpected: Timothy Potts, director of the Kimbell Art Museum for almost nine years, has announced his resignation, while "offering to stay until Sept. 1, to allow time for his successor to be identified and to ensure a smooth transition," according to the just-issued press release. The Kimbell had recently announced its selection of Renzo Piano as … [Read more...] about News Flash: Timothy Potts Resigns Kimbell Directorship

Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell Carol Vogel in today's NY Times takes the Randolph-Macon ball and moves it down the field. Vogel reports: "We're looking to see if there are other entities who might want to partner with us so that we don't have to lose the collection," said Virginia Worden, an alumna and the college's acting president. "We have had auction houses come … [Read more...] about More Details on Possible Randolph-Macon Sales

"Peacemeal," Albert Alotta, 1967, Film still Courtesy the artist and the filmmakers cooperative Bummer. The Whitney Museum's "Summer of Love" show (to Sept. 16), which devotes two full floors to psychedelic relics of limited artistic or sociological value, does have a modicum of documentary interest. If it were augmented with some Jimi Hendrix guitars and John Lennon poetry, it … [Read more...] about Electric Kool-Aid Acid Reflux: Bad Trip at the Whitney

Attorney Donn Zaretsky has posted on his Art Law Blog his letter to MASS MoCA regarding its dispute with his client, Christoph Büchel, over the artist's aborted mega-installation. Zaretsky writes: The essential point to understand is that the Visual Artists Rights Act is there to prevent the exhibition of works of art that have been distorted or modified---and the museum is … [Read more...] about Büchel’s Attorney Attacks MASS MoCA

There's been a persistent rumor in Lynchburg, VA, that Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton, who is acquiring American art for her planned Crystal Bridges museum, recently visited the campus of Randolph-Macon Woman's College to view holdings of the Maier Museum, which the financially strapped college may be putting on the market. It turns out that the college's collection has long … [Read more...] about Three Degrees of Separation: Maier Museum, Wilmerding, Walton, Crystal Bridges

Preparing to pack his bags to leave Minneapolis for the Morgan, William Griswold assured me that he's not a museum-hopper: This is my retirement job. The Morgan is in my blood and in my heart. Then, in the next breath, the 46-year-old acknowledged that he had "had every intention to stay here [in Minneapolis] a long time" and added, "I know there are bigger jobs" than his new … [Read more...] about More on the Itinerant William Griswold