Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

It's been a bad-news month for the Smithsonian: On Dec. 20, Secretary David Skorton, a cardiologist-turned-administrator, announced he'd be leaving his Smithsonian post on June 15 to become president and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC---initials that mean something else to art aficionados). He has arguably been the most successful, least embattled … [Read more...] about Smithsonian Pandemonium: Skorton Leaves, Museums Shuttered

In this Era of Bad Feelings, when so many of our fractious political and cultural conversations have been driven by the dangerously erratic course of a President lacking a GPS, I savored a feel-good moment last February when I covered the high spirited friends-and-family reunion of the Obama Administration (linked below)---the high point of my 2018 professional … [Read more...] about The Year in CultureGrrl: Impolitic About Art & Politics

Although I gave Andy Warhol---From A to B and Back Again (to Mar. 31) a mixed review last week, one focus of the Whitney Museum's widely praised extravaganza particularly interested me. It's an aspect that general audiences, who usually pay more attention to the art than the writing on the walls, could easily miss. What engaged my wonky attention and engendered my … [Read more...] about Warring with Warhol: What I Most (& Least) Appreciated About the Whitney’s Retrospective

In my Dec. 8 post analyzing the plans for what turned out to be a (literally) incendiary protest demonstration at the Whitney Museum, I pinpointed the artwork that "for me was the most haunting work" in that museum's current Andy Warhol retrospective (to Mar. 31): Little did I know when I saw it at the Election-Day press preview that this painting would gain more relevance … [Read more...] about Warhol’s Warhorses at the Whitney: Insert Your Own Meanings Here

When museum trustees set out to hire a new director, they tend to seek someone very different from the current one, a prominent art museum director once told me. They want change. That certainly seems to be the case with the National Gallery of Art's (NGA's) choice of Kaywin Feldman, director since 2008 of the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA), to lead the most prominent … [Read more...] about Kaywin’s Win: Feldman to Direct the National Gallery UPDATED

Having provocatively displayed an anti-MoMA poster in its last Biennial, the Whitney Museum probably had this coming: A protest demonstration at the museum is being planned by Decolonize This Place [DTP], an ad hoc political action group, for noon tomorrow (Sunday). It will target Whitney vice president Warren Kanders, who (as reported on Nov. 27 by Jasmine Weber in … [Read more...] about Litmus Fracas at the Whitney: Should Museum Board Members Be Politically Vetted?

Closing the barn door after its finest steeds have vanished, the Berkshire Museum today announced that "there will be no further sales" from its collection beyond the 22 works already sold through Sotheby's: In his Berkshire Eagle report, Larry Parnass today suggested that the museum's woefully belated decision to curtail its widely condemned deaccessioning spree was … [Read more...] about Vision Transfusion? Berkshire Museum Stops Hemorrhaging Art

The big fall evening auctions of Impressionist, modern, postwar and contemporary works at Sotheby's and Christie's were a mixed bag, yielding generally solid but unspectacular results. The sweet spot for the typical offering fell slightly short of or just grazed the low estimate, with some very notable exceptions on both the upside and the downside. In other words, the … [Read more...] about Hopping with Hopper, Hocking a Hockney: My Irreverent Takeaways from the Major Fall Sales

In my Wall Street Journal review of the 2007 opening of the expanded Seattle Art Museum, I noted that SAM's campaign to "augment its permanent collection, in time for its 75th anniversary next year," had been "successful beyond the wildest curatorial dreams, adding nearly 1,000 owned, pledged and promised works to the collection"... ...or maybe not. Billed as a major … [Read more...] about $91.88-Million Hopper Sale Makes “Chop Suey”of Ebsworth’s Vow to Seattle Art Museum (with video) CORRECTED & UPDATED

Auctioneer Harry Dalmeny (new to me) at Sotheby's Impressionist/Modern sale tonight had a strange way of trying to entice bidders by pelting them with barbed wisecracks: ---I'll have to hurry you: I've got a late flight. ---The next bid is going to have to be a bit more than nothing. And this honest self-assessment, in the midst of bidding for the record-breaking … [Read more...] about Lord Harry Gets Mixed Results (& hurls verbal missiles) at Sotheby’s Impressionist/Modern Sale

Tonight's Impressionist/Modern sale at Christie's was brisk, thanks to the no-nonsense auctioneer, Adrien Meyer, but bidding-war fireworks came only once, for a snowstorm (Monet's). Below is my Twitter recap. Pro Tip: You'll need to click each image twice to view the full picture. Monet Water Lilies disappointed at $28m hammer ($30m low est.) Biggest failure: a van Gogh … [Read more...] about Subdued Impressionist/Modern Auction at Christie’s Kicks Off the Big Fall Market Test

Dianne Dwyer Modestini, who painstakingly restored Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi," is exasperated by the questions that have been raised about the condition and attribution of the rediscovered painting that was to have been unveiled on Sept. 18 at the Louvre Abu Dhabi. It has not yet resurfaced since it was sold at Christie's on Nov. 15, 2017: Joining the many … [Read more...] about Leonardo Canards: Conservator Dianne Modestini Debunks Doubts Over the Elusive “Salvator Mundi”

Luke Syson, who in 2012 came to the Metropolitan Museum from the National Gallery, London, becoming the Met's chairman of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts in 2014, is now poised to join the wave of high-level departures from our country's preeminent museum. The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, recently announced that Syson, who most recently co-curated the Met's provocative … [Read more...] about Syson Siphoned: Met’s Departing Department Chair to Direct Fitzwilliam; 2 Future Stars Emerge (video)

My first reaction when this press release from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco hit my inbox today at 6:51 p.m. was: This has gotta be a hoax! Reading the first sentence of FAMSF's announcement made me even more incredulous: The Board of Trustees of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) and the Corporation of the Fine Arts Museums (COFAM) today appointed … [Read more...] about Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s Campbell Gamble: Tom & Max Hollein Improbably Trade Places

I recently sat disconsolately through a screener of director Nathaniel Kahn's new artworld documentary, "The Price of Everything." Its dyspeptic take on the artworld turned my stomach. The film miscarries by not delivering what's promised in its own synopsis: While holding a funhouse mirror up to our consumerist culture, the film ultimately reaffirms the transcendent power … [Read more...] about Unsold on “The Price of Everything”: HBO’S Art-Market Epic (with a fleeting CultureGrrl cameo)