CultureGrrl

Eli Broad, who died a week ago in Los Angeles at 87, knew full well that his abrasive, no-nonsense approach towards achieving success---both in his businesses and in transforming his adopted city's cultural life---rubbed people the wrong way. He not only took perverse pride in that; he wrote a book on it: "When you really believe that the shortest distance between two points is … [Read more...] about The Late Eli Broad: My Talk with the Under-Appreciated Overachiever Who Energized LA’s Cultural Life

Was this a case of glass-ceiling syndrome? Two years ago, when the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA, named Brian Kennedy, then director of the Toledo Museum, to succeed its distinguished longtime director, Dan Monroe, I had wondered why Lynda Hartigan hadn't gotten the nod. The PEM's spokesperson confirmed to me last week that "Lynda [then PEM's highly accomplished, … [Read more...] about Lynda Hartigan, Peabody Essex Museum’s Passed-Over Deputy Director, Belatedly Gets the Top Spot

Let me cut to the chase before embarking on a long digression: At this writing, the Metropolitan Museum is safe and so am I. That said, for a brief time during my visit there Monday afternoon, I feared for my life. Admittedly, I tend to panic when being evacuated due to a bomb scare. (I've read The Goldfinch and seen the movie.) As luck (or lack thereof) would have it, I … [Read more...] about CultureGrrl, the Metropolitan Museum & the Bomb Scare

There's been only one constant in the erratic trajectory of Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi" since it publicly emerged as the most expensive artwork ever auctioned, only to be submerged (hopefully not literally) ever since. The only thing that's certain about the fate of this elusive painting is that the story about why it hasn't publicly surfaced since it was sold more … [Read more...] about Profusion of Confusion: Unraveling the Tangled Tale of “Salvator Mundi” (& my theory on why he’s a no-show)

Taking a page from the problematic playbooks of the Berkshire, Everson and Baltimore museums, the Greenville County Museum of Art (GCMA), South Carolina, has become the latest poster child for deplorable deaccessions. Below is the "poster"---a painting by the vibrant colorist, Alma Thomas, sold privately by the GCMA to an anonymous buyer for $2.8 million (as reported last week … [Read more...] about Doubting Thomas: Greenville County Museum Sells “Alma’s Flower Garden” in a Non-Transparent Transaction

In my previous report on Syracuse University's Deaccessioning After 2020 virtual symposium, I highlighted a few eyebrow-raising comments by a new crop of museum directors and curators [and their attorney-enabler], "who have embraced social and political progressiveness..., even if that means sacrificing important artworks acquired by distinguished predecessors in order to … [Read more...] about Syracuse Musings: Words of Wisdom (or not) from Panelists at the Deaccession Symposium

Although last week's Syracuse Symposium was nominally about Deaccessioning After 2020, it was mostly focused on the new museum imperative---advancing DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Access) by any means possible, even at the cost of dismantling, monetizing and redefining the "permanent" collection to further those sociopolitical goals. So what's wrong with that? For … [Read more...] about Obtuse in Syracuse: How the University’s Deaccession Symposium Got Compromised by Conflicts of Interest

What this week's Deaccessioning After 2020 symposium, on Zoom from Syracuse University, should ponder (but probably won't) is a proposal that art disposals by museums be formally regulated. Museum professionals have instinctively recoiled at the thought of government interference in their activities, insisting that they can police themselves. But from the National Academy in … [Read more...] about What Should Be on the Syracuse Symposium’s Agenda: The Urgent Need for Museum Deaccession Regulations

Is the "slippery slope" on the verge of becoming even more treacherous? In conversations with its members this week, the Association of Art Museum Directors discussed whether the organization should consider (not immediately enact) an indefinite extension of the two-year relaxation of its time-honored deaccession guidelines, which had prohibited the use of art proceeds for … [Read more...] about AAMD’s Deaccession Dilemma (& the Met’s Equivocations)

The Metropolitan Museum's controversial consideration of adopting the Association of Art Museum Directors' relaxed deaccession standards has now become a fait accompli: As the Met's spokesperson confirmed to me yesterday, the museum's board at its meeting this week "updated [its] guidelines to align with the temporary AAMD policy." That policy allows proceeds from art sales to … [Read more...] about Cue the Regulators! Met’s Deaccession Regression Attracts the Critical Eye of NYS Attorney General’s Office CORRECTED

The Metropolitan Museum's premature revelation that it might take advantage of the Association of Art Museum Directors' relaxed deaccession standards, by selling art to help pay for "care of the collection," was an object lesson in how not to roll out a controversial, temporary policy change. The predictable chorus of condemnation that ensued caught the attention of NPR's … [Read more...] about Pandemic Polemics: Metropolitan Museum’s Off-Key NPR Message vs. Cleveland’s Harmonious Storage Show UPDATED

We haven't reached the promised land. We've got a long way to go. The above marching orders, alluding to the words of Martin Luther King Jr.'s last speech, are the last words of the widely praised HBO documentary, Black Art: In the Absence of Light. They were spoken by the late art historian and artist David Driskell, whose landmark 1976 exhibition, Two Centuries of Black … [Read more...] about “Black Art’s” Blackout: Who’s Absent from HBO’s Survey of “Today’s Top African American Artists”?

I once impetuously declared that Michael Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art since 2006, was "worth a million bucks." But the shocking images of the demolition of four buildings from a museum that I've admired and enjoyed during my visits to LA over several decades jolted me out of the trance that had kept me under the influence of LACMA's charismatic … [Read more...] about Can a New LACMA Rise from the Rubble? Quaffing Michael Govan’s Kool-Aid

LACMA has now fleshed out its cryptic response to my questions sent last weekend about the possible impact of the nearby tar pits on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's sweeping capital project. Consulting with its building team to provide more detailed answers to my follow-up questions, Jessica Youn, the museum’s interim communications director, sent me this: ROSENBAUM: … [Read more...] about Another Dip into the Viscous Pit: My Q&A Follow-Up on LACMA’s Crane Drain

In decades of covering new, expanded and renovated museum buildings, I've mostly refrained from "reviewing" a building that hasn't gone up yet. That's why I've hung back from weighing in on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's self-destructive (literally) capital project-in-progress, which has now leveled most of the museum's longstanding buildings (designed by William … [Read more...] about Govan’s Folly? Stuck in the LACMA Quagmire