Archives for July 2020

Already battered by the economic ills inflicted by the global pandemic, many art museums suddenly find themselves barraged by attacks from aggrieved staffers and former employees accusing the higher-ups of racism, harassment and micro-aggressions. Striving to quell the unrest, art museum officials have pledged to do better and, in some cases (notably at the Metropolitan … [Read more...] about Nyerges on the Purges: Virginia MFA’s Director Defends Bondil, Himself, Other Beleaguered Leaders

True to her outspoken nature, Nathalie Bondil, the summarily sacked 13-year director of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, is not going quietly. Having gotten a taste of her feistiness and grit during a meeting we had three years ago in New York, I'm not surprised. Bondil, who joined the museum in 1999 as curator of European art, became its chief curator the following year … [Read more...] about Bondil Ordeal: Another Face Off Between a Prominent Museum Official & Staff

After posting my contrarian defense on Tuesday of Gary Garrels, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s distinguished (now deposed) senior curator of painting and sculpture, I ducked, anticipating a pile-on of invective. Instead, I got confirmation of what I've always known: I've got a classy readership---intelligent, civil and reasonable...even while contesting my … [Read more...] about Garrels Quarrels: BlogBacks on My Defense of SFMOMA’s Deposed Curator

In the second of what threatens to become a series of parlous CultureGrrl posts, I'm again risking the wrath of the thought-police by coming to the defense of another consummate museum curator who has had the misfortune of wandering into the cancel-culture crosshairs. Joining Keith Christiansen, the Metropolitan Museum's chairman of European paintings, in this predicament is … [Read more...] about Garrulous Gary Garrels: The Thought-Police Nab Another Unguarded Curator

I did a double take at the end of Donald Trump's long-winded July 3 paean to the four Mount Rushmore-enshrined Presidents, which devolved into a diatribe against "the violent mayhem we have seen in the streets of cities that are run by liberal Democrats in every case...the predictable result of years of extreme indoctrination and bias in education, journalism, and other … [Read more...] about Trump’s New Sculpture Park for “American Heroes”? Fuhgedaboudit! The Bronx Already Has that Covered

As I had anticipated, government strictures prevented Sotheby's from realizing its tentatively announced plan to hold "live evening and day auctions of Contemporary and Impressionist & Modern Art...in New York the week of 29 June...pending the lifting of certain restrictions and confirmation from the relevant authorities that we can proceed." When it became apparent … [Read more...] about “Live” But Not Too Lively: Auction Torpor (not Fever) at Sotheby’s Evening Sales