Archives for 2010

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, construction photo, July 2010 [NOTE: This will be my last CultureGrrl post for about two and a half weeks. I'll be fleeing halfway around the world to pry myself away from computers, e-mail and blogging!] Fisk University on Friday filed in Davidson County Chancery Court its 92-page revised plan for a proposed $30-million sale of a … [Read more...] about Fisk/Walton Saga: AAMD’s Admonitory Letter Sent to Wrong Recipient

Installation shot of the Guggenheim Museum's "Chaos and Classicism" showHolland Cotter, in today's NY Times finds the Guggenheim's current exhibition, Chaos and Classicism: Art in France, Italy, and Germany, 1918-1936, to be "totally engrossing" (as did I, in my much-Twittered CultureGrrl review, published Friday). But he doesn't think that you'll react as he did.Cotter … [Read more...] about “Won’t Pull Crowds”? NY Times’ Perverse Attendance Prediction for “Chaos and Classicism”

Installation shots from the big fall shows at the Guggenheim, left, and MoMA, rightThere's an electric energy in New York right now, zapping between two parallel but sharply contrasting shows that have just opened at Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. MoMA's show, focusing on American art after the Second World War, is beautiful but not too bright. (I've touched … [Read more...] about Reactionary vs. Revolutionary: Post-World War I & II Shows at Guggenheim and MoMA

Storm King Art Center's director and curator, David Collens (left) and its chairman, president and co-founder H. Peter Stern (right) look on as president John Stern blows out the sculpture park's 50th-birthday candles.I have always wanted to walk into, rather than gaze down upon, Maya Lin's Storm King Wavefield, her four-acre commissioned earthwork at Storm King Art Center in … [Read more...] about MeTube: Meandering (at last) Through Maya Lin’s “Storm King Wavefield”

Merryl Tisch, Chancellor, NY Board of Regents Robin Pogrebin's three-weeks-after-the-fact post mortem in the NY Times about the NY Board of Regents' astonishing, inadequately explained about-face on deaccession regulations sheds some light on what went on behind the scenes. Robin includes this quote from the influential letter addressed to the Regents by Glenn Lowry, … [Read more...] about NY Times Explores Death of State’s Deaccession Regs; Ignores New Law Subverting Donor Intent

Jackson Pollock's "Number 7, 1950," seen through David Smith's "Australia" (detail), at MoMA's Ab-Ex showWith my typing fingers entangled in ribbons of red tape (related to my late father's estate) I won't have time today to give you my extended take the Museum of Modern Art's artistically rich but interpretively disappointing Abstract Expressionist New York show, which opens … [Read more...] about MeTube: MoMA’s Ab-Ex Show as Curator Ann Temkin Views It

I now have another reason not to set my alarm early today to attend the Guggenheim's roll-out of its new orbiting BMW satellites. Not only has Carol Vogel already done the heavy-lifting for us, but the museum is going to webcast its 10 a.m. news conference live, here.You don't even have to be a journalist to attend the announcement by Richard Armstrong, director of the … [Read more...] about Guggenheim’s Orbiting BMW-Branded Satellites: Watch Today’s Live Launch!

This could conceivably be a case of "great minds think alike": Just one day after I posted what I thought was my own cleverly coined one-word critique of the Guggenheim's deal with YouTube---the "Googleheim"---that same hybrid word was deployed in a Sept. 23 article by Rachel Hewitt that appeared on the website of Chicago Art Magazine.But that ain't all. In a puzzling turn of … [Read more...] about Huff Post’s “Googleheim” Story Pockets My Coinage, Switches Authors UPDATED

My blogging buddy, Jon Lackman of the Art History Newsletter, has a little list that he's extrapolated by crunching the numbers from the National Research Council's just released database assessing U.S. doctoral programs in 62 academic fields.Jon has listed 51 schools in order of their purported rank for art-history PhD programs. Here are his Top … [Read more...] about Scholarly Smackdown: Where are the Best Art History PhD Programs?

Metropolitan Museum director Thomas Campbell, and Asian art chairman James C.Y. Watt, at press preview for "The World of Khubilai Khan"Where are the barbarians when we really need them?The Metropolitan Museum's just opened exhibition of art in China during the period of occupation by Mongol invaders---The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty---is a typically … [Read more...] about The Met’s Timid “Khubilai Khan” Show: No Barbarians at These Gates

NY Assemblyman Jonathan Bing, whose district includes Metropolitan MuseumNew York Governor David Paterson on Sept. 17 signed the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (UPMIFA), which I previously discussed briefly here. It took effect immediately.Widely supported by museums (and sponsored by Assemblyman Jonathan Bing and State Senator Liz Krueger), the new law … [Read more...] about Donor Groaner: Stealth Provision in NY State’s New Law for “Prudent” Endowment Spending

The unexpurgated version of my WQXR "Arts File" segment that you may have heard (in edited form) on the radio or online this morning is now posted on the station's website: New Arts Season, Rising Ticket Prices. You can hear me here right now (click arrow on left), with more comments about my own cut-rate cultural explorations (including a Pitmen pitch) and ending with a plea … [Read more...] about CultureGrrl in the Cheap Seats: WQXR Podcast and MeTube Video

If all goes according to plan, you'll be able to hear me tomorrow morning in an "Arts File" segment on WQXR, New York's public classical music station. I'll be commenting on the high cost of attending cultural events (mostly music and theater, with a little bit of art thrown in). I'll also touch upon the strategies used by the budget-minded NYC cultural consumers … [Read more...] about Coming Tomorrow: My WQXR Commentary on High Ticket Prices

Early Rendering of Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Abu DhabiMy previous post---describing the detailed written agreement protecting the rights of construction workers at the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi---was headlined: Guggenheim's Armstrong Does It Right.But today's post critiquing the agreement on the website of Human Rights Watch (HRW) could have been entitled: "Guggenheim's … [Read more...] about Guggenheim Abu Dhabi: Human Rights Watch Criticizes Workers’ Rights Agreement

When I interviewed Richard Armstrong in February 2009, shortly after he became director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, he assured me that he was sensitive to the concerns repeatedly expressed by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and others about the exploitation of migrant construction workers in the United Arab Emirates, which encompass Abu Dhabi. Armstrong then told … [Read more...] about Guggenheim’s Armstrong Does it Right in Abu Dhabi: Construction Workers’ Rights Agreement