Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

The seemingly robust attendance (figures not yet available) at the Clark Art Institute's current summer extravaganza---Splendor, Myth and Vision: Nudes from the Prado (to Oct. 10)---runs counter to Robin Pogrebin's assertion in the NY Times on Monday that "many experts are questioning" whether old masters "can stay relevant at auction houses, galleries and museums." That … [Read more...] about From Private Delectation to Public Display: The Prado’s Once Hidden Nudes Flaunted at the Clark

In my previous post about the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's deal to display the coveted Doris and Donald Fisher Collection, I took the San Francisco Chronicle‘s Charles Desmarais at his word and credited him with having "dislodged" (as he described it) previously undisclosed information about problematic concessions made by the museum to snare this 100-year … [Read more...] about The “Scoop” that Wasn’t: Fisher Collection’s 75%-25% Rule at SFMOMA Exposed Six Years Ago

The San Francisco Chronicle's Charles Desmarais last weekend blasted the lid off a huge hole in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's description of the strictures governing its 100-year mega-loan of the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection. CLARIFICATION: I subsequently learned that some of the details that Desmarais "dislodged" (his word) had been published in the NY Times … [Read more...] about SFMOMA’s Seismic Fisher Fissure: “Integration with the Museum’s Collection”? UPDATED & CLARIFIED

If you've been following my @CultureGrrl Twitter feed, you know that I made the rounds of Berkshire museums this week. It was meant to be a mini-vacation. But then I kept seeing things that I wanted to praise---the Williams College Museum's eclectic mix of thought-provoking exhibitions; Richard Nonas' massive railroad-tie installation (in sync with MASS MoCA's industrial … [Read more...] about Twerking the Berkshires: Live Tweets & Video from My Workation

The economic picture painted by Sotheby's in its Form 10-Q second-quarter report (filed with the SEC on Monday) was not as rosy as stock traders seemed to have believed. Notwithstanding the uptick in its share price, Sotheby's auction commission revenues declined by 11% and 17%, respectively, for the first three and six months of 2016, compared to the same periods in … [Read more...] about False Confidence? A Closer Look at Sotheby’s 2nd-Quarter Report that Lifted Its Stock

Anyone within driving distance of Williamstown, MA, who has read Lance Esplund's voluptuous review in the Wall Street Journal of the Clark Art Institute's Splendor, Myth, and Vision: Nudes From the Prado must be exclaiming, "Road trip!" I'm on it. What I'll likely be missing (unless I break my resolve for a blogging hiatus next week, with occasional tweets) is Monday … [Read more...] about Clark Lark: What Will I Miss on My Busman’s Holiday? (Sotheby’s edition)

Is an increase in young visitors too much of a good thing? The Metropolitan Museum late yesterday issued an upbeat press release that painted a much rosier picture of attendance figures than my doom-and-gloom post and accompanying video yesterday about the seemingly under-attended Met Breuer: The museum announced that it had "welcomed a record number of visitors—6.7 … [Read more...] about Metropolitan Museum Boasts Record Attendance; Attributes Deficit, in Part, to Younger Demographics CORRECTED

I decided to revisit the Met Breuer today, to view belatedly its well attended, justly praised exhibition of photographer Diane Arbus' early works, in which her unsettling genius for detecting the bizarre in the commonplace is already fully evident. I was also unsettled, for the wrong reasons, by what I saw on other floors---large expanses of underutilized space. The ground … [Read more...] about The Met Breuer, Like Its Signature Show, Is “Unfinished” (with video)

Recent revelations of secret disposals of artworks held in public trust by a museum (the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh) and a university (Fisk in Nashville) suggest that the Association of Art Museum Directors and the American Alliance of Museums need to offer periodic refresher courses on professional ethics regarding deaccessions. Having been called out by me for … [Read more...] about Evanescent Permanent Collections: Warhol Museum’s & Fisk University’s Stealth Deaccessions

Although I was expecting some pushback when I published my Wall Street Journal review of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's technological transformation, I've been taken aback at how my Twitter "Notifications" feed has been flooded with reactions (way beyond what I posted in my Storify of the first tweets) from SFMOMA's digital team, not to mention numerous other members … [Read more...] about Deferring to Digerati: What Didn’t I Get About SFMOMA’s App?

When I published today's Wall Street Journal piece on the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's technological transformation---Golden Gate Gigabytes (this hardcopy headline is much catchier than the online one)---I knew from the heated tweets inspired by my previous WSJ tech piece that I'd better duck. I'll have more to say about what I admired most about SFMOMA's eclectic … [Read more...] about Twitter Swarm: Reactions to My WSJ Review of SFMOMA’s New Tech

I seem to have landed the museum-tech beat on the Wall Street Journal's "Arts in Review" page. In tomorrow's Personal Journal section (online now), you can read: At SFMOMA, Tech and Culture Meet---my mixed review of the newly expanded San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's digital transformation. In my previous digital adventure---The Brave New Museum Sputters Into Life---I … [Read more...] about Robust App, Weak Tours: My WSJ Review of SFMOMA’s Technological Transformation

The long overdue wresting of control over the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco from a bejeweled socialite and consummate fundraiser, Diane "Dede" Wilsey, is finally occurring under the museums' new director, Max Hollein, who assumed his post on June 1. What we don't yet know is whether Max impelled this change or just got lucky. In her dual role as FAMSF's board … [Read more...] about Willful Wilsey Wilts: Regime Change at Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

"Start on the fourth floor, but make sure not to miss the second floor," New Museum director Lisa Phillips advised me when I arrived with only an hour to spare for the press preview of The Keeper (to Sept. 25)---an ephemera-packed exhibition of the stuff assembled and preserved by obsessive-compulsive accumulators of objects and images. Astutely curated by the indispensable … [Read more...] about “The Keeper” Sleeper: The New Museum Displays the Harrowing “Sketchbook from Auschwitz”

What do the disarray of the Metropolitan Museum's finances and the shakeup of its senior staff say about Tom Campbell's performance as director of this country's preeminent art museum? It could be that directing the Met is too complicated and challenging a task for someone who assumed the post with scant administrative experience. In September 2008, at Campbell's … [Read more...] about The Met Mess: Parsing the Organizational Upheavals at the Metropolitan Museum