As promised, here's a report on art in Iceland -- mainly from my visits to museums in Reykjavik. I didn't see many art galleries -- though there are many design stores with artist-made goods for sale -- but I'm sure they are there, just not where I was walking.  The city is home to the National Gallery of Iceland and the Reykjavik Art Museum, which has three branches. The Harbor House branch, in the Old Harbor area, shows contemporary art; the main current show while I was there is Perspectives: On the Borders of Art and … [Read more...]

Just what museum are we reading about in this article from today's New York Times? ...the museum is almost out of cash, hurt by fewer visitors than it had hoped for, higher operating costs than it expected and less city support than it had counted on. ...Already, hours have been cut back. ...Museum backers and even civic leaders who do not much like the building [designed by Frank Gehry] still hope for what has come to be known as the "Bilbao effect." ...Part of the problem might have been...the cost, which climbed to more than $45 million … [Read more...]

Today the Museum of Modern Art is announcing that it is raising its admission charges to $25 -- not "suggested," as at the Metropolitan Museum, but mandatory. That's steep, as anyone would acknowledge. The rule-of-thumb comparison used to be with movie tickets, but not any more. From the release: The new prices are $25 for adults, $18 for senior citizens 65 and older, and $14 for students, with children 16 and under remaining free. Tickets ordered online at MoMA.org will be available at a reduced price of $22.50 for adults, $16 for … [Read more...]

Whatever fears you had that the Smithsonian would be punished for mounting Hide/Seek at the National Portrait Gallery should be allayed by the recently released report by the House Appropriations Committee that handles its budget (among many others). It's impossible to tell what would have happened had G. Wayne Clough (pictured), the secretary, not caved in and removed the bowdlerized version of David Wojnarowicz's A Fire in My Belly, but... The committee report proposes $626,971,000 for the Smithsonian's operating budget, which is … [Read more...]

As I've said before, you never know what you'll find in the basement -- even if you work at an art museum. Here's another case in point. Over the weekend, the Cincinnati Enquirer ran an exclusive about a find at the Cincinnati Art Museum: more than 800 antique musical instruments have "languished" in storage for decades, forgotten and untouched. Charles Rudig, a former head of musical instruments for Sotheby's, said about the discovery: They've got a fabulous world music collection. It's wonderful. It's big. … [Read more...]

No, I haven't lost all sense of the news. I've been away for the last five days, on a short vacation to Iceland (pretty good timing, wasn't it -- considering the temperatures reached in NYC while I was away. It was just luck -- the trip was booked weeks ago). For the curious, I'll post a little about Iceland art in a few days, once I upload photos (which comes after I unpack). Meantime, let me just share a very short article that I had in Saturday's Wall Street Journal, a "Backstory" on the Icons page headlined: A 1530s Italian … [Read more...]

Next Wednesday, the Skyscaper Museum in NYC opens a neat exhibition called Supertall. As you can guess, it's a show of "superlative skyscrapers worldwide, featuring projects that have been completed since 2001, are under construction, or are expected to top out by 2016." The museum defines "supertall" as buildings that rise at least 380 meters, or 1250 feet -- the height of the Empire State Building -- not the traditional 300 meters. They each have, or will have, 100 stories or more. The Skyscaper Museum last approached this subject in 2007, … [Read more...]

Forget that newly rediscovered Leonardo, there's been word more recently of a rediscovered Michelangelo. The news has been out in the UK for several days, but it got very little pickup here. The 12 by 27-inch painting was found hanging in Campion Hall, a student residence at Oxford University. Titled "Crucifixion With The Madonna, St John And Two Mourning Angels," it was puchased at Sotheby's in the 1930s, and Italian scholar Antonio Forcellino says it has been misattributed. According to a BBC story: The Campion Hall painting, … [Read more...]

A press release from the Dallas Museum of Art sent me to the website of the National Endowment for the Arts the other day, to see what merited money in the recently announced Access to Artistic Excellence awards. In them, plenty of museums received money for a variety of activities, including the Chrysler Museum, to catalogue its glass collection, and the Montclair Art Museum, to help digitize its permanent collection. Dallas got $85,000 to support its exhibition archives resources online. But it was the earlier round of grants that … [Read more...]

Back to the website of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,* I discovered something quite shocking -- and indicative -- about its history with women artists. Who would you suppose was chosen to receive the first solo exhibition of works by a female artist? Note that this took place in July, 1921 -- 90 years ago. Are you guessing Mary Cassatt? Artemisia Gentileschi? Judith Leyster? Angelica Kauffman? Elisabeth-Louise Vigée-Lebrun? Julia Margaret Cameron? Berthe Morisot? Nope. According to a "Today in History" post on the Met site, the … [Read more...]