Color commentary is still spinning out from last week’s dramatic departure of the Guggenheim’s board chairman Peter Lewis. The affluent and cantankerous insurance company CEO had finally come to blows with the tall and cantankerous Guggenheim director Thomas Krens. And it seems that Krens won this particular battle through the support of the remaining board.
The New York Times (via the International Herald Tribune) has a nice overview of the underlying issues, and comparable board/staff boundary-bending at other monster arts organizations (Vilar and the San Francisco Opera, Ranieri at American Ballet Theatre, Lauder at the Whitney).
The Observer spins some colorful hyperbole into an exploration of the Guggenheim’s international reputation, although the author seems a bit overexcited at the dressing down, using phrases more appropriate to movie trailers than to cultural analysis (‘shoot-out ,’ ‘a row that has rocked the art world,’ and ‘brought one of America’s most prestigious institutions to its knees’).
In the end, such public conflicts are inevitable between rich and powerful board members and the iconoclastic administrative leaders they often select to lead. In the case of the Guggenheim, however, which is thin on endowment and stretched even thinner by international projects carrying its brand, this common tale takes on some added gravitas, and makes it a story worth watching.
