Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

In what's become a vexing yearly ritual since President Donald Trump took office, the White House, in its proposed federal budget for Fiscal 2021, has again called for the elimination of federal funding for the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities (NEA and NEH), the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting … [Read more...] about “Wasteful & Unnecessary” Spending: Trump Dumps Arts & Humanities, IMLS, Public Broadcasting (again)

After making a powerful impression on me at last year's Whitney Biennial with her six drawings of pie charts plotting Degrees of Deaf Rage, deaf artist Christine Sun Kim on Feb. 2 reached a much wider, more diverse audience---the attendees at the NFL's Super Bowl. Standing mid-field (10 yards from the soloists) during the pregame festivities, she expressively signed "America … [Read more...] about Singing & Signing: How Christine Sun Kim Brought Her Whitney-Biennial “Rage” to the Super Bowl

Speaking of Kehinde Wiley (as I did in my previous post), the celebratory unveiling of the Obama Portraits almost two years ago at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG), was one of the most joyous occasions I've ever had the pleasure of covering, even though, as I later wrote, "neither portrait captures what, for me, is the essence of these two warmly compassionate, deeply … [Read more...] about The Obama Portraits: The Book, The Traveling Exhibition, T-Shirts, Coasters, Umbrella…

I hadn't wanted to write anything about this beforehand (for fear of putting a dangerous idea into someone's head), but I was worried about the welfare of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) during the Jan. 20 gun-rights rally in Richmond. I was concerned that there might be a replay of what had happened in August 2017 in Charlottesville, VA---a white-nationalist rally that … [Read more...] about Rally for the Right to Bear (& to scare with) Arms Prompted “Extensive Precautions” at Virginia MFA

It's been 10 years since I published what seems to have been some prescient commentary about the now (belatedly) completed Jean Nouvel-designed 1,050-foot tower (known to CultureGrrl readers as The MoMA Monster). The start of construction for that building, which has just opened for occupancy, had been delayed until late 2014, in part to await improved economic conditions (as … [Read more...] about MoMA & the Nouvel Kid on the Block: Revenge of American Folk Art Museum’s Demolished Building?

Say his name! It was disheartening to realize that almost all of the statements issued yesterday by museums and their professional organizations "condemn[ing] the targeting of cultural sites for destruction" (in the words of the American Alliance of Museums) failed to cast blame for those shameful threats directly where the blame lies---on President Trump. As most of you … [Read more...] about Pusillanimous Pussyfooters: Museums Object Mildly to the (unattributed) Threats to Iran’s Cultural Sites

Whenever I've covered new or expanding museums around the country---more times than I can count over the course of almost five decades as an art writer---I've tried to return after the press previews to see how well the facilities worked for regular visitors, not privileged journalists. I gave the newly expanded Museum of Modern Art a test it was bound to fail by revisiting … [Read more...] about MoMA’s Accessibility Crunch: Too Many Long Lines, Too Many Stairs, Not Enough Chairs

This was the year of our national discontent and contentiousness, as manifested in the artworld by the rallying cry, "Decolonize Museums!" (a euphemism for "Demonize Museums"). The Metropolitan, Whitney and Guggenheim museums and the Museum of Modern Art were all targets of this year's protest demonstrations. For me, as someone who came of age in the '60s and participated in … [Read more...] about The Year in CultureGrrl, 2019 Edition: Museums Become Easy Targets in Difficult Times

In my skeptical post last month about Cree artist Kent Monkman's plan to subvert a national object of veneration in the Metropolitan Museum's collection---Emanuel Leutze's "Washington Crossing the Delaware"---I recklessly ventured some premature commentary: Monkman’s remake may affront devotees [of Leutze's epic painting] as sacrilege. To be fair, we haven’t yet seen his … [Read more...] about Cree Decree: Monkman Debunks U.S. Creation Myths in His Metropolitan Museum Commission (video)

In yesterday's post, I described my early meeting with the late Donald Marron as one of "several milestones (or millstones) in my career, when something I wrote that was intended as praise had unintended negative consequences." With the news published yesterday in The Art Newspaper regarding "20 to 30 senior executives" at Sotheby's who were laid off "in the past month," … [Read more...] about August in December: Uribe Becomes Sotheby’s Ex-Expert of Impressionist/Modern Art (with video)

Early in my career, when I was learning art journalism under the tutelage of Elizabeth ("Betsy") Baker, the deeply knowledgeable editor of Art in America magazine, I had two contrasting contacts with Donald Marron, the much admired art connoisseur, philanthropist and financial-markets professional, who died on Friday at age 85. Both of those experiences left me impressed … [Read more...] about The Late Donald Marron & Me: An Affable Collector with a Keen Eye for Contemporary Keepers

Over many years as a subscriber, I've worked my way to second-row-orchestra seating while the NY Philharmonic engaged in its never-ending quest for the right architect (Norman Foster, Thomas Heatherwick, and now Tod Williams and Billie Tsien) and considered various alternatives for a re-do of its Philharmonic/Avery Fisher/David Geffen concert hall. Now we're in for another … [Read more...] about Geffen Gaffes: My View from Orchestra Row B of the NY Philharmonic’s Planned Makeover

How could this have happened? In what seems to have been a "smash-and-grab" theft of major proportions, burglars last week staged a raid, shortly before 5 a.m., on the Historic Green Vault---the repository for treasures of the Dresden Royal Palace---making off with what the Dresden State Art Collections understatedly described as "11 whole items, parts of two others and a … [Read more...] about Blaming the Victim: The Shocking “Green Vault” Assault at Dresden’s Royal Palace (with video)

Max Hollein "is willing to do bold things; he is willing to disrupt the normative practices of the museum," Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, comments approvingly near the beginning of Robin Pogrebin's NY Times appraisal of the Metropolitan Museum's first year under its new director. The fact that "disrupting normative museum practice" is perceived as a … [Read more...] about Monkman Mischief: How Kent’s “Miss Chief Eagle Testickle” May Prank the Met

Today's announcement by the Metropolitan Museum about the "exceptional bequest" by trustee emerita Jayne Wrightsman (who died in April at 99) omits mention of a crucial way in which this windfall of some 375 objects, along with "substantial [but unspecified] additional funding," is indeed "exceptional": Under the conditions imposed by Wrightsman, the Met is hamstrung as to how … [Read more...] about Jayne Wrightsman’s “No Loans” Edict for Gifts & Bequests to the Metropolitan Museum