Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

If museum exhibitions of contemporary art are increasingly looking like extensions of the commercial gallery system, it's because they are. Those who have paid attention to the funding credits for museums' contemporary shows during the last 10 years have seen a troubling increase in dealer support for displays of the artists whom they represent. What was news to me, until … [Read more...] about Art Museums as Shakedown Artists: NY Times Front-Page Report on Dealers’ Support for Exhibitions

More on this here. What a disappointment! The debut installation at the Met Breuer, unveiled to the press on Tuesday (and to the general public on Mar. 18), fell short of the expectations raised by the Metropolitan Museum itself. I had looked forward to seeing how the museum's formidably erudite curators would rise to the challenge of creatively reimagining their roles by … [Read more...] about “Unfinished” Business: Met Breuer Engulfed by a Dark Cloud of Unknowing

My views on the Edlis Effect at the Art Institute of Chicago struck a chord with Crain's Chicago Business' Lisa Bertagnoli, who interviewed me about James Rondeau's appointment as the museum's director for her Feb. 27 piece analyzing what this change might mean for the AIC. She quoted my misgivings about the restrictions on the 44-work gift from the Edlis/Neeson … [Read more...] about Ripple Effect of My “Edlis Effect”: Crain’s Chicago Business, Lawyer Michael Dorf

Notwithstanding the assertion by Sotheby's CEO Tad Smith that he was "pleased with the progress we’ve made on our strategic objectives," there was much cause for concern in Sotheby's conference call with securities analysts this morning (covering fourth-quarter and full-year 2015). Professing to be "incredibly excited about our prospects," Smith tried to put an upbeat spin on … [Read more...] about Sotheby’s Shortfalls: What’s Missing from CEO Tad Smith’s Earnings Conference Call?

For some, it seems, it's not enough to inhabit an artwork in their imaginations. They want to enter it physically. I'm embarrassed to own up to my own "living in a painting" experience: It occurred nine years ago, when I visited the Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ, for my WNYC radio report on sculpture gardens. The brainchild of artist J. Seward Johnson, Grounds for … [Read more...] about Interactive Hijinks: Putting the Viewer in the Picture

Last year, while he was chair and curator of modern and contemporary art at the Art Institute of Chicago, the museum's new director, James Rondeau, made a Faustian bargain that could come back to haunt him. The museum's press release announcing Rondeau's promotion mentions that "over the course of his tenure, he secured numerous major gifts, most notably in 2015 when he … [Read more...] about Griffin/Geffen & the Art Institute of Chicago’s Edlis Misstep

At about the halfway point in the 80-work Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum (to May 15), I ran into the museum's new president, Daniel Weiss, who asked me the dreaded question: "What do you think?" My usual strategy for deflecting attempts to preview my review is simply to tell the truth: "I'm still looking and thinking." But this time, … [Read more...] about Vigée Le Brun: Flattery Got Her Everywhere, Including the Met (with video)

When a litigant perceives, during the course of a trial, that there's a good chance he'll lose his case, there is an impetus to settle. With many expert witnesses having denied authenticating the disputed Rothko sold by a New York gallery to Domenico and Eleanore De Sole, and with the underlying implausibility of the sudden emergence on the market of a huge trove of previously … [Read more...] about Wroth About Rothko: “Order & Joint Stipulation of Dismissal” in De Sole Case vs. Freedman & Knoedler

As promised in my last post, below is my illustrated companion for In Wisconsin, a Museum Reborn---my review in today's Wall Street Journal of the reinvented Milwaukee Art Museum, which gave me a very warm welcome on a single-digits day: The words in italics, below, are excerpted from my WSJ article. MAM's holdings are not only better preserved, but also shown off to … [Read more...] about A Milwaukee Walk: Photo Companion for My WSJ Review of the Milwaukee Art Museum

For my article on the "Arts in Review" page of tomorrow's Wall Street Journal, (online later today, if all goes according to plan), I had the challenging task of reviewing an entire museum in 900 words. [UPDATE: The article is here and an illustrated companion to my WSJ piece is here.] The Milwaukee Art Museum had recently concluded an ambitious, praiseworthy, top-to-bottom … [Read more...] about Squawking in Milwaukee: My Upcoming WSJ Review of the Milwaukee Art Museum UPDATED

PricewaterhouseCoopers' (PwC's) 4th annual monitoring report on labor conditions on Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Island, recently released by the Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC) of the United Arab Emirates' capital, gives a mixed picture of progress and continued concerns. The latter included a June 8 worker fatality, which occurred "as a result of a construction … [Read more...] about Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Still Stalled, as Monitoring Report is Issued on Saadiyat Island Labor Conditions

Once again, with the recent revisions to the Museum of Modern Art's expansion plans, Diller Scofidio + Renfro's transgressively creative but farfetched architectural follies have been (mercifully) abandoned. All I can say is: I told you so. While we know that some high-profile innovations that had initially piqued MoMA's interest have now left the building, we still have … [Read more...] about MoMA’s New Expansion Plan: Another Reality Check for Diller Scofidio + Renfro

When it comes to major acquisitions of drop-dead gorgeous women, no museum can compete with the deep-pocketed Getty. It has just abducted "Danaë" from the Metropolitan Museum, where she had been on loan from dealer/collector Richard Feigen, until he sent her to auction at Sotheby's. “Danaë” sold to the Getty tonight for $30.5 million with buyers premium, fetching a … [Read more...] about Getty Abducts Another Gorgeous Woman: $30.5 Million for “Danaë” UPDATED

Once again, the Art Institute of Chicago has looked to its own staff to find its new president and director: James Rondeau, chair and curator of modern and contemporary art (departments that merged under his leadership), will succeed Douglas Druick, who announced in October his planned retirement after more than 30 years at the AIC, including more than four years in the top … [Read more...] about Rondeau/Chicago: Veteran Curator Promoted to Art Institute’s Directorship

I've asked Sotheby's to explain a puzzling assertion that its spokesperson made to me and also to the NY Times' Robin Pogrebin at the end of tonight's sale of the late A. Alfred Taubman's old masters: "The success of tonight's sale," according to a Sotheby's email, "reduces our estimated auction guarantee shortfall by half, to approximately $3 million [from $6 million]." In … [Read more...] about Another Erratic Outing: My Live Tweets on the Taubman Old Masters Sale at Sotheby’s