Archives for 2009

Seattle Art Museum director Mimi Gates, speaking at 2007 press preview for SAM's expansionWhen I read last night (here, here and here) that JPMorgan Chase, which has acquired Washington Mutual Bank, was not going to honor WaMu's lease of eight floors above the new Seattle Art Museum expansion, my first thought was that the museum might sue. It has been receiving some $5.8 … [Read more...] about Seattle Art Museum’s WaMu Whammy, Continued: JPMorgan Chase Scotches Lease Deal UPDATED

Taft Museum, CincinnatiLet's leave Washington and go back to Cincinnati, where Eric McCauley Lee, current director of the Taft Museum and director-elect of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, aced his CultureGrrl interview.As promised last week, here are some excerpts from our phone conversation.---On the Kimbell's planned expansion: I think Renzo Piano is absolutely the … [Read more...] about Lee to Lee: My Interview with Eric McCauley, Kimbell Museum’s Director-Elect

Alexander Avdeyev, recently named culture minister of the Russian Federation[Part I is here.]Proponents of the idea of a cabinet-level Secretary of Culture point out that foreign culture ministers currently have no counterpart in the U.S. There's good reason for that.Many foreign countries have a tradition of substantial government subsidies for cultural institutions. When your … [Read more...] about Topple the Culture Czar, Part II: Why “Culture Ministry” is a Foreign Concept

Quincy JonesI've got nothing against better coordination among government programs involving the arts and humanities. Regular meetings of representatives from the relevant offices and agencies could foment creative synergies. Perhaps a White House official with advisory, not managerial, responsibilities could help facilitate this without inserting what we emphatically DON'T … [Read more...] about In Defense of Disorder: Topple the “Culture Czar,” Part I (UPDATED)

Tunesmith Jerome Kern: Inaugural DittyThe deep emotional resonance of the inauguration in Washington today had everything to do with the extraordinary ascent of our first President of color, but little to do with the power of his words. To me, the speech was thoughtful, serious and substantial, but not (as many had hoped) inspired or inspiring in the manner of Lincoln, FDR or … [Read more...] about Inaugural Speech: Lyrics of Barack Obama (to music by Jerome Kern)

"Septimius Severus," Roman, about AD 193-200, the British MuseumFor the ultimate erudite lesson in "those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it," we take you to school with the Don herself, Mary Beard, a Cambridge classics professor and my blogging buddy at A Don's Life, who brings us news from the second century A.D.: One Lucius Septimius Severus has just … [Read more...] about Inauguration Ruminations: Mary Beard on Obama’s “Septimius Severus Problem”

Michael DorfI don't know Michael Dorf, the attorney reported by Allan Jalon of the LA Times to be a frontrunner for the post of chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. But any friend of the late Congressman Sidney Yates, the best political advocate the arts ever had, is a friend of mine.Dorf's bio on the website of his law firm, includes a six-year stint as special … [Read more...] about Michael Dorf, Yates Protégé, Said to Be a Frontrunner for NEA Chairmanship

Jay Kislak, Former Chairman of the State Department's Cultural Property Advisory Commitee Everyone wondered why it was taking so long for the U.S. State Department to act on China's request---pending since May 2004---for the United States to impose sweeping import restrictions on artifacts from that country dating from prehistoric times all the way to 1911. The State … [Read more...] about New China-U.S. Antiquities Agreement: Some Concessions to U.S. Museums and Dealers

I was encouraged earlier this month when my end-of-year post, urging you to decorate my dreary right-hand column with some attractive ads, actually brought two signs of tangible reader support of my efforts for the New Year.Now that my ad space is back to bare, I'm back to wondering how long I should keep CultureGrrl going as a labor of love and a public service (or a public … [Read more...] about And Now a Word for Our (wished for) Sponsors

Old masters gallery at the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth[UPDATE: It turns out that the "Dutch Utopia" show I describe below was NOT conceived by the Taft, as Lee had led me to believe. It was organized by the Telfair Museum, Savannah.]If you watched the video clip that I linked to yesterday at the end of my report on Eric McCauley Lee's appointment to the directorship of the … [Read more...] about More on Eric Lee, Kimbell Museum’s New Director UPDATED

Andrew Wyeth, "Christina's World," 1948, Museum of Modern ArtMany serious art historians have long admired the work of Andrew Wyeth, who died today at his home in Chadds Ford, PA. Most of them are experts in traditional, pre-20th century American art. He's anathema, I now think unfairly, to contemporary art enthusiasts, because his art is so stubbornly traditional, if not … [Read more...] about Andrew Wyeth, 91: A 19th-Century Artist in a 20th-Century World

The next director of the Kimbell: Eric McCauley Lee(Photo by Tony Walsh)I promised not to break the news embargo set by the Kimbell unless someone else did. We were asked to wait until tomorrow (Friday). But another reporter (Janelle Gelfand of the Cincinnati Enquirer) has jumped the gun (or, more likely, got her news independently, from the Taft Museum's staff), so we're off … [Read more...] about Eric McCauley Lee Steps Up to the Kimbell’s Directorship

Nevada Museum of Art, RenoYesterday, in connection with my post about the whirlwind tour of American museums by Italian cultural officials, I issued a rare CultureGrrl correction. I had said that an already touring show of Leonardo drawings from the Biblioteca Reale, Turin, would be be coming to the Nevada Museum, Reno. In fact, it wasn't. I had based my erroneous report on a … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Nevada Museum’s Director Explains the Italian (Mis)connection

George Grosz, "Eclipse of the Sun," 1926, Heckscher MuseumTime magazine's Richard Lacayo, on today's Looking Around blog, takes the deaccession discussion to the next level. Lacayo opines:Why is it that museums routinely do these sales---meaning sales entirely within the rules as the AAMD has devised them---without making any kind of public announcement?...Quiet selling gives … [Read more...] about Deaccession Transparency: Museums’ Websites Should Post Proposed Disposals

Logo of the Italian Culture MinistryReading yesterday's Wall Street Journal article on Mario Resca, Italy's entrepreneurial cultural advisor (and former McDonald's executive), inspired me to surf over to the Italian Culture Ministry's website, and lo and behold, Big Mac has just been traveling all over the U.S., sitting down to Happy Meals with American museum directors and … [Read more...] about Mario Resca’s Whirlwind Tour of U.S. Museums: Exchanges and Exhibitions Discussed CORRECTED