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Photo by D. Applewhite Thanks to the Art History Newsletter, I just learned that John Wilmerding (above) this summer is leaving Princeton, where he is professor of American art. At his May 4 retirement dinner, he revealed that he is also giving Princeton nearly 50 works from his Pop art collection, now on display (to Aug. 12) at the university's art museum (which had previously … [Read more...] about Princeton Loses Wilmerding But Gets His Pop Art Collection

Griddle Griswold in a Minneapolis Moment As fast as you can flip a flapjack, William Griswold (above, at Opening Day for his expanded museum) is leaving the Minneapolis Institute of Arts [via], where he became director less than two years ago, to take charge at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York. "I'll be there at the beginning of next year," he told me by e-mail … [Read more...] about What, Gone So Soon? Griswold Jilts Minneapolis for the Morgan

Architectural Rendering of the New Detroit Institute of Arts Believe me, I'm as much against "dumbing down" museum installations as the next cultural snob. I rant about this regularly. So when I attended a press lunch last September in New York, presided over by director Graham W.J. Beal, describing plans for the expanded and renovated Detroit Institute of Arts (closing May 27 … [Read more...] about Memo to Detroit Detractors: All We Are Saying Is Give Keyes a Chance

Yet another Congressional investigation of the Smithsonian---this by the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. Brett Zongker of the Associated Press reports: The inquiry comes a day after The Associated Press reported that Robert Sullivan, a former associate director at the National Museum of Natural History, said Smithsonian officials softened … [Read more...] about The Smithsonian’s “Inconvenient Truth”: A Lukewarm Show on Global Warming

Philadelphia Museum's Perelman Building "Hello, SalaryGrrl!" Anne d'Harnoncourt cheerfully greeted me at the Philadelphia Museum's New York press lunch yesterday. (No word on whether she's gotten her pay raise yet.) I took the occasion of sitting next to the director to ask if her museum was indeed going to deaccession a work or works by Eakins to help pay for "The Gross … [Read more...] about Attention Alice Walton: Philadelphia Museum Eakins Likely to Be in Play

MASS MoCA has a distinguished track record for collaborating amicably and productively with artists creating highly ambitious projects to full its gargantuan main installation space. Those pieces, including Tim Hawkinson's "Uberorgan" and Cai Guo-Qiang's "Inopportune," sometimes have an ongoing life at major institutions, after their fabrication and display in North Adams, … [Read more...] about Big Mess at MASS MoCA

The recent news about the Smithsonian American Art Museum has not been good, and it's got nothing to do with criticism from Ned Rifkin or the report from the ad hoc committee of experts that Rifkin, the Smithsonian's undersecretary for art, had appointed to review the Smithsonian's art institutions. As Joi Preciphs reported yesterday in Bloomberg, SAAM got the Lunder … [Read more...] about Bad News for Smithsonian American Art Museum; Good News for Colby College

Quite a few museums are already in the blogosphere (such as those listed in my blogroll in the righthand column), but the J. Paul Getty Museum is trying a new twist: exhibition blogs tied specifically to its temporary shows. First up: Looking at Animals, billed as "a discussion about animals in art and the imagination." It's pegged to the current Oudry's Painted Menagerie of … [Read more...] about Everyone’s a Blogger: The Getty Launches Exhibition Blog

The financial success of the Albright-Knox Gallery's collections-management failure continues to grow: Hammer total for the 24 works from the Buffalo museum's Thursday and Friday disposals at Sotheby's was $5.98 million ($6.84 million, with buyer's premium). On June 7, it sells antiquities, including its much admired Bronze Figure of Artemis and the Stag, estimated at $5-7 … [Read more...] about Latest Albright-Knox Windfalls: Should Auction Houses Just Say No?

A recently completed financial review of Randolph-Macon Woman's College, Lynchburg, VA, a copy of which was obtained today by CultureGrrl, provides more background on the threat posed by the college's shaky finances to the integrity of the American art collection of its Maier Museum. The museum's holdings include pictures by Bellows, Cassatt, Hopper, Lawrence, O'Keeffe and … [Read more...] about Art Disposals Recommended in Report on Randolph-Macon College’s Shaky Finances

Sorry you didn't get to see the auction action on the Warhol car crash and the Rockefeller Rothko? Now, thanks to online video clips, you can: Warhol's "Green Car Crash", selling at Christie's. Rothko's "White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose)" at Sotheby's. Production values and entertainment value are much higher in the former, which was produced by Christie's … [Read more...] about Thrill to the Warhol and Rothko Bidding, Now on Your Computer Screen

We may need to pause to catch our breath, but the auction market never stops. The Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, scored unexpectedly large windfalls for its deaccessioned masterpieces at yesterday's African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian art sale at Sotheby's: Its bronze Benin Head of an Oba fetched $4.74 million against an estimate of $1-1.5 million and its Aztec Stone Figure of … [Read more...] about Albright-Knox Gallery’s Auction Coups

This is the moment when art-market observers are called upon to tell the astonished public how to regard seemingly extravagant expenditures for paint on canvas. We hear such insights as: "Art is worth what people are willing to pay for it." "There are lots of very wealthy people who want art." And that favorite question of party-pooping pundits: "When is the bubble going to … [Read more...] about Awesome Auctions: What Does It All Mean?

"Where am I now?" the usually quick-minded, fleet-of-tongue Christopher Burge poignantly queried, momentarily sidetracked in the onslaught of bids early during Christie's record-breaking contemporary sale last night. Baffling the crowd, he had unaccountably dropped $1 million off the bidding for Lot 9, the Philip Guston, which he confidently placed at $4.4 million, despite the … [Read more...] about Megabucks Auction Bloopers: At Those Levels, Who’s Counting?

I don't usually think of myself as a news-you-can-use type of reporter, but I guess my WSJ article and CultureGrrl post, about the new availability of cash for redeeming auction-house antitrust settlement coupons, have inspired strenuous bouts of spring cleaning in some households. Auction client Lee Zuckerman writes: Thanks so much for reminding me that I have been sitting on … [Read more...] about Blogback: Someone Unearths Her Auction-House Coupons