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Part I is here. For many museum visitors, the "Medici" cited in the title of the Metropolitan Museum's current show (subtitled: "Portraits & Politics, 1512-1570") will evoke the names of artists from the golden age of Renaissance painting in Florence, when Michelangelo, Leonardo, Botticelli and Verrocchio flourished under the aegis of Lorenzo the Magnificent. But none of … [Read more...] about Meddling with Medici (Part II): “Unattainable Perfection,” Viewer Disaffection

The Metropolitan Museum held off announcing its new designee to oversee its resplendent European Paintings Department until after Keith Christiansen had left the building (officially, June 30, although he is said to still have a desk there), with 43 years of superlative service. After a respectful week-long pause, the Met dispatched this announcement to my inbox on Thursday … [Read more...] about “Wolo” Who? Stephan Wolohojian Succeeds Keith Christiansen as Metropolitan Museum’s Head of European Paintings

Where's Frederic Remington? His "Bronco Buster," arguably the most famous bronze sculpture by this popular "cowboys-and-Indians" artist, was chosen to energize the offices of a bipartisan roster of Presidents---Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. You can see it repeatedly whipped into a frenzy in the NY Times' The Art in … [Read more...] about Bronco Bust: NY Times Censors the “Story Told by Art in the Oval Office”

NOTE: Part II is here. The Medici: Portraits and Politics, at the Metropolitan Museum to Oct. 11, is a curatorial tour de force that only a veteran scholar with the deep knowledge and extensive contacts of Keith Christiansen could pull off. With his retirement today today after 43 years at the Met, this show is his swansong at the museum, where he is Chairman of European … [Read more...] about Meddling With Medici at the Met: Provocations & Proclamations (Part I)

I like to pay special tribute on CultureGrrl to art professionals who took time from their busy lives to deepen my limited understanding of art and the artworld, back when I was beginning my own professional journey. One always reliable, unfailingly gracious source of help and knowledge was Martha Baer, the founding head of contemporary art at Christie's, New York, which … [Read more...] about Martha Baer, 82, Dies: Contemporary-Art Rainmaker in Christie’s Early Days in New York

How could I not be excited? The Centre Pompidou, Paris' premier museum for modern and contemporary art, is coming to a venue near me---a mere 10 miles south of La Maison Rosenbaum. As a long--time resident of Fort Lee, NJ (and a native New Yorker), I rubbed my eyes in disbelief when I saw this headline earlier this month: Here's the "Before" photo---the currently … [Read more...] about From the Seine to the Hudson: The “Jersey City Pompidou”? Incroyable!

I hope that officials of the Newark Museum of Art felt at least a twinge of seller's remorse (if not a rush of shame) after reading the Philadelphia Museum of Art's lavish praise (in Tuesday's press release) of the painting that Linda Harrison, Newark's director, had deemed expendable, monetizing it at Sotheby's last month for a hammer price of $800,000 ($988,000 with fees), … [Read more...] about From “Cole Toll” to Turnpike Toll: Newark’s “Arch of Nero” Relocates 87 Miles South to Philly

As CultureGrrl readers will remember, my first post-pandemic visit to a museum---the Metropolitan---did not end well. Happily, things went more smoothly for me at the Whitney ten days later, when the last staff member I ran into, just prior to leaving, was my favorite museum guard (whose art-appropriate last name I have just learned). His cheerful, helpful presence has graced … [Read more...] about Mehretu’s To-Do, “Day’s End” & Diller-Dally: Inside & Outside the Reopened Whitney

In my previous post on the Newark Museum of Art's dicey deaccessions, I reported on the highlights (and low points) of its May 19 American art sales at Sotheby's. Close readers of CultureGrrl readers may have noticed that I didn't analyze the overall sale totals---my customary practice when covering auctions. Here's why: It took a while for me to assemble the information I … [Read more...] about Newark’s Quirks: Examining the Museum’s (& Sotheby’s) Art Sale Shenanigans

The Newark Museum's problematic auction at Sotheby's yesterday (May 19) of 11 works of American art (not 12, as stated in a previous version of this post) from the 19th to mid-20th century was marred by surprising irregularities and outright gaffes. It got off on the wrong foot when the sale's unlikely auctioneer, Quig Bruning, Sotheby's head of jewelry(?!?) in New York, … [Read more...] about Cole Toll: Newark Museum Loses Out While Cashing In CORRECTED

As part of her reinvention and rebranding of the Newark Museum (which, in 2019, added "of Art" to its name, even though it also includes science exhibits and a planetarium), its current director, Linda Harrison, less than three years into her tenure, appears to be running roughshod over its own policies, not to mention the Association of Art Museum Directors' (AAMD's) … [Read more...] about Newark’s Old Works Offloaded: NJ’s Most Prominent Art Museum Sells “Outdated” Outcasts Tomorrow

Eli Broad, who died a week ago in Los Angeles at 87, knew full well that his abrasive, no-nonsense approach towards achieving success---both in his businesses and in transforming his adopted city's cultural life---rubbed people the wrong way. He not only took perverse pride in that; he wrote a book on it: "When you really believe that the shortest distance between two points is … [Read more...] about The Late Eli Broad: My Talk with the Under-Appreciated Overachiever Who Energized LA’s Cultural Life

Was this a case of glass-ceiling syndrome? Two years ago, when the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA, named Brian Kennedy, then director of the Toledo Museum, to succeed its distinguished longtime director, Dan Monroe, I had wondered why Lynda Hartigan hadn't gotten the nod. The PEM's spokesperson confirmed to me last week that "Lynda [then PEM's highly accomplished, … [Read more...] about Lynda Hartigan, Peabody Essex Museum’s Passed-Over Deputy Director, Belatedly Gets the Top Spot

Let me cut to the chase before embarking on a long digression: At this writing, the Metropolitan Museum is safe and so am I. That said, for a brief time during my visit there Monday afternoon, I feared for my life. Admittedly, I tend to panic when being evacuated due to a bomb scare. (I've read The Goldfinch and seen the movie.) As luck (or lack thereof) would have it, I … [Read more...] about CultureGrrl, the Metropolitan Museum & the Bomb Scare

There's been only one constant in the erratic trajectory of Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi" since it publicly emerged as the most expensive artwork ever auctioned, only to be submerged (hopefully not literally) ever since. The only thing that's certain about the fate of this elusive painting is that the story about why it hasn't publicly surfaced since it was sold more … [Read more...] about Profusion of Confusion: Unraveling the Tangled Tale of “Salvator Mundi” (& my theory on why he’s a no-show)