Meet the New Year. Same as the Old Year. My riff on "Meet the New Boss. Same as the Old Boss"---the cynical sign-off of The Who's counterculture anthem, “Won’t Get Fooled Again”---is my summation of our situation at the end of 2021, with our lives still on hold at year's end, as they were at the beginning, and with pestilence having taken its grim toll. Those of us who were … [Read more...] about The Year in CultureGrrl, 2021 Edition: Searching for Signs of Intelligent Life in a Covid-Clouded Universe
Archives for December 2021
“African Origin” Show’s Shortfalls at Metropolitan Museum: Facile Face-Offs, Repatriation Equivocations
The chief raison d’ètre for The African Origin of Civilization, the Metropolitan Museum's homage to "cultural diversity" (as its wall text terms it), is that it provides display space for some of the museum's outstanding works of African art that have been displaced by the Rockefeller Wing's temporary status (until 2024) as a construction zone. Opening in conjunction with the … [Read more...] about “African Origin” Show’s Shortfalls at Metropolitan Museum: Facile Face-Offs, Repatriation Equivocations
Metropolitan Museum’s Rockefeller Wing Keeps Its Name, Refreshes Its Approach
As a NYC cultural journalist and critic for more than five decades, I've covered many landmark events at the Metropolitan Museum. But my excitement on Monday, when I was on hand for yet another celebratory Met occasion, was tempered by my fear of being infected at what looked likely to be major Covid-spreading event. Double-masked, I hung back from the main crush, which … [Read more...] about Metropolitan Museum’s Rockefeller Wing Keeps Its Name, Refreshes Its Approach
Sacklers Sacked: Metropolitan Museum Strips Their Names from 7 Exhibition Spaces
Having already announced the renaming of its Southwest Wing, to the tune of $125 million, the Metropolitan Museum today has bestowed upon itself seven more renaming opportunities. This just in from the Met's press office: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and descendants of the late Dr. Mortimer Sackler and Dr. Raymond Sackler today announced that seven named exhibition … [Read more...] about Sacklers Sacked: Metropolitan Museum Strips Their Names from 7 Exhibition Spaces
Oscar Tang Dynasty: Met Renames Wing for $125-Million Donor & Ups Its “Emergency Relief Fund” to $100 Million
At some cultural institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum, naming rights can have expiration dates. That famously happened with the renovation of the former André Meyer Galleries for the Metropolitan Museum's 19th-century European paintings, and it looks like it's about to happen at the Met again: Move over, Lila Acheson Wallace! It seems that the late co-founder and … [Read more...] about Oscar Tang Dynasty: Met Renames Wing for $125-Million Donor & Ups Its “Emergency Relief Fund” to $100 Million