Interview Scratched: My Questions for Jeffrey Deitch Go Unanswered

Block that Pollock! Left to right, LA MOCA co-chairs David Johnson and Maria Bell, director-designate Jeffrey Deitch, Councilwoman Jan Perry, founding chairman Eli Broad

I had a tentative appointment for a phone interview with LA MOCA's director-designate Jeffrey Deitch scheduled for today at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time.

It's been canceled.

Three hours before my scheduled 20 minutes of fame (that was to be all) with Jeffrey, Lyn Winter, LA MOCA's director of communications, called to inform me that the gallerist felt he had already done enough interviews and had nothing more to say.

I assured Lyn (who noted apologetically that retraction of an interview slot was not her customary practice) that I had questions that had not previously been addressed in what has thus far been reported.

Especially since my views on this appointment are already known, Jeffrey might not have been eager to entertain those questions.

Nor is the museum willing to share with me its "employee ethics policy" that was invoked by its co-chairman, David Johnson, in this interview (posted online yesterday) with the LA Times' Mike Boehm.

"It's a private document," Winter told me.

"Why?" I asked.

"It's a private document," was her reply.

I'd contrast this with how Timothy Rub, now director of the Philadelphia Museum, responded at length and with candor to my questions about the Cleveland Museum's decision (made during his directorship there) to deviate from donor intent---a course of which I had been sharply critical. Answering unpleasant but legitimate questions from responsible journalists is what a museum professional does. Rub earned my respect and gratitude by so doing.

In a way Deitch is right, though. I do have enough information now, from what he and the museum's officials have already said, to form an even stronger opinion about LA MOCA's unorthodox course.

I'm strapped for time, with two other pending projects. My next post must be composed with thought and care (and with time given for Jeffrey to reconsider).

For now, I'll just say that Deitch should stop complaining about how hard it is to live on a museum director's salary plus housing allowance (plus, undoubtedly, expenses), while repeatedly describing his lifestyle as spartan.

Why should he need to sell art during his directorship to make ends meet?

Speaking of making ends meet, my warmest thanks go to serial recidivist Repeat CultureGrrl Donor 104 from Boston. My "Donate" button has been sadly dormant, though, since that New Year's Eve benefaction.

Isn't supporting CultureGrrl one of your 2010 resolutions?