Archives for December 2020

This was the year when I had to solve this conundrum: How do you sustain an art blog when the only art you've seen since early February is what's in your own apartment? As someone in a virus-vulnerable category (seniors), I've been ultra-cautious and led a mostly boring life since the pandemic hit: Not only did I eschew museums; I haven't even ventured into Manhattan … [Read more...] about The Year in CultureGrrl, 2020 Edition: It’s not over until the Deaccession Diva sings

I didn't disclose my contrarian reaction to the Whitney Museum’s ambitious, widely acclaimed Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945 at the time when it opened last February. But with it now in the last stretch of its run (extended to Jan. 31, due to the Covid pause), I feel less compunction about tempering the praise lavished by art critics on this … [Read more...] about New York Chauvinism? “Groundbreaking” Show at the Whitney Builds on Dartmouth College’s Lead

Artnet's art-market reporter Eileen Kinsella beat me to the punch today in reporting on Sotheby's rebuttal of the NY Attorney General's complaint that accused the auction house of complicity in a client's allegedly "fraudulent avoidance of sales tax." Eileen cited but didn't link to Sotheby's 27-page Memorandum of Law, which seeks the court's dismissal of the AG's complaint. … [Read more...] about “No Duty to Police Clients”? The Continuing Saga of NY Attorney General’s Sales-Tax Suit vs. Sotheby’s

While many museums are experimenting with quirky new ways of organizing (or disorganizing) their permanent-collection displays, the Frick Collection, currently closed, is going in the opposite direction: It will use its planned temporary occupation of the Whitney Museum-owned Breuer building (the eventual fate of which is still undetermined) as an opportunity to unveil a more … [Read more...] about Frick Tricks: Reinvention to Convention, as Peripatetic Displays Move from Brutalist to Beaux Arts (with cocktails)

The sorry tale of of the Baltimore Museum of Art's (BMA's) deaccession debacle, chronicled on this blog in real time in successive posts (six links), got a comprehensive recap on Sunday from the indispensable Sebastian Smee and Peggy McGlone of the Washington Post. Their main takeaway from this saga is that "the still-reverberating controversy didn’t just leave … [Read more...] about Deaccession Dejection: Whither the Embattled Baltimore Museum of Art? (plus: Brooklyn’s castoffs)

An expression that I've always liked has particular resonance in these times when nothing seems certain about whether or when we can resume life as we once knew it. Derived from a Yiddish proverb, this saying was popularized by Woody Allen: If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.[Yiddish Proverb: “Der mentsh trakht un got lakht."---Man thinks. God … [Read more...] about A Role Fit for Me: Who Will Play Alice Walton in Upcoming Netflix Series? (& other dubious plans)