Naturally, I went downtown to the Museum of Jewish Heritage yesterday for the ceremony inaugurating the display there of Portrait of Wally, the Schiele painting that has been locked in a warehouse, its ownership the subject of dispute since 1998. (As I've mentioned here and here, it was my 1997 article in The New York Times, which chonicled Rudolph Leopold's "zealous" collecting and how he came to own it, that essentially launched the cases that the heirs of Lea Bondi Jaray (photo, below) won last week.) A lot of … [Read more...]

Eight years ago, about the same time that Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi: Father and Daughter Painters in Baroque Italy was showing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as in Rome and at the Saint Louis Art Museum, two filmmakers were inspired to take on Artemisia in a documentary. A Woman Like That, made by Ellen Weissbrod and Melissa Powell, is now complete, and being marketed. Let me say right here that I haven't seen it, partly because it has had only one showing, at the Berkshire International … [Read more...]

Sarah Cole, Susie M. Barstow, Eliza Greatorex, Harriet Cany Peale, Jane Stuart, Evelina Mount. Recognize any of those names? I thought not. They and a half-dozen or so additional artists are the subject of an exhibit at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site called "Remember the Ladies: Women of the Hudson River School," which sets as its goal the rewriting of that period of American art history. I wrote the story for Smithsonian, so I won't repeat it all here. But here are some key passages: ...These women … [Read more...]

I have an article in today's New York Times (front page in the national edition; A10 in the NYC edition) headlined "Botanical Gardens Look For New Lures" and, alternately, "Botanical Gardens Are Turning Away From Flowers." The first is more accurate, actually, because gardens are mainly adding attractions, not subtracting their focus on flowers and other plants -- as far as I can tell. (Sadly, I wasn't allowed to travel the country for the story.) One key quote comes from Mary Pat Matheson, executive director of the Atlanta Botanical Garden: … [Read more...]

An article on the Chronicle of Philanthropy website the other day piqued my interest: Why Fund Raisers Should Pay Attention to a Donor's Art Collection. It was worse than I imagined. The article reported on a session at the conference of the Association of Prospect Researchers for Advancement, which is took place in Anaheim last week. The session, given by a research analyst at the Alumni Relations and Development Department at the University of Chicago named Linlin Chen, was called "The Art of Valuing Art." Her … [Read more...]

There's good news from the Vatican via The Art Newspaper's website: The Vatican Museums in Rome are set to open a room devoted to the works of Matisse later this year. The move is designed to further boost the profile of its modern and contemporary religious art department. Large-scale preparatory sketches by the French artist, relating to items adorning the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence on the Cote d'Azur, will go on public display for the first time. The works were donated to the Vatican by the artist's son Pierre in 1980. Just to … [Read more...]

Two trips down to Manhattan's West 36th St. this week showed once again how the arts somehow manage to go on, maybe even thrive, on a shoestring: That's where, for the most part, the Midtown International Theatre Festival is taking place in its 11th incarnation, offering plays and readings on several small stages.  If you're looking to take in new works, you could do far worse than making the trip yourself -- the festival of staged plays, readings, musical and short-subjects started July 12 and runs through Aug. 1. (Both … [Read more...]

Attention Video Artists: YouTube and the Guggenheim Museum Want You. They want you to make a creative video, and upload in into their contest, called "YouTube Play, a Biennial of Creative Video" A jury will choose the 20 best ones, and next fall they'll be displayed at the various Guggenheims. Submissions are due by July 31. High-profile art contests are all the rage these days, and with museums everywhere trying to figure out how to use the web to engage worldwide audiences, this one seems noteworthy, for several reasons. For … [Read more...]

Ed Ruscha should be smiling this morning. The word from the White House is that President Obama has given British Prime Minister David Cameron a gift of one of Ruscha's signed color lithographs. Column With Speed Lines was reportedly chosen because it's red, white and blue -- the colors on both countries' flags. Not exactly a reason to choose art, perhaps, but we'll take it. Obama has not been very good at gift-giving, especially with the British. His gifts to former Prime Minister Gordon Brown (including a DVD of 25 American movie classics, … [Read more...]

Yesterday, a small victory. Today, a big vindication. The estate of Leah Bondi Jaray has reached a settlement with the Leopold Museum over Schiele's Portrait of Wally. I won't go through the whole saga -- I foreshadowed the settlement and my role in the origins of this case, which began in 1997, here. Suffice it to say that a settlement that grants both value to Bondi's heir and vindication to those of us who believed her story is a good outcome. The price for the painting, $19 million, is fair. All claims, … [Read more...]