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"I'm going to Seattle," I told a friend yesterday. "You're going to see what?" CultureGrrl readers probably already know what I'm going to see. But I'm bound by my usual Wall Street Journal gag rule, so I can't tell you about the main thing that I'm going to see in Seattle before I tell the WSJ's readers. Judging from what happened when I went to Boston, I'll probably find … [Read more...] about Addled in Seattle

Apparently my highlights tour, posted Friday---images of important works in the Metropolitan Museum's "permanent" display of Greek and Roman art that are not there permanently---created confusion in some readers' minds: The Modern Kicks blog expressed uncertainty the next day over whether I was "trying to imply that there's something unusual or not proper about their presence … [Read more...] about More on the Loans to the Met’s Greek and Roman Galleries

To squelch recent speculation that it has changed its position on sending the Parthenon Marbles to Greece, the British Museum on Friday issued this official statement, which essentially restates its longstanding objection to releasing the frieze to Athens: The Trustees have for years been looking to see if there is any reasonable ground on which a way forward with Greek … [Read more...] about British Museum: No Movement on the Marbles

First, back home today from a perfect weekend visiting my graduate-student daughter, making a poor attempt at golf with the more adept duffers of my family. Why do foursomes behind us keep hitting into us? Are they trying to tell us something? We also met my daughter's new boyfriend, whose name is Lee. My son's longtime girlfriend, Lisa, is nicknamed Lee. And CultureGrrl's name … [Read more...] about Where in the World Is Lee Going?

Please raise a mouse to me some time today: It's CultureGrrl's First Anniversary! I must confess that no one read CultureGrrl for the first two weeks: I did it without telling anyone, to see if I liked it. For better or worse, you see that I did. Then I sent the URL to a few people I respected in the artworld. The reaction was uniformly positive, except for one blog-averse … [Read more...] about Happy CultureGrrl Anniversary

In a situation reminiscent of the Parthenon Marbles contretemps between the British Museum and Greece, Egypt is asking the Altes Museum, Berlin, for a temporary loan of its famed bust of Nefertiti. Both museums are understandably leery of lending to nations that have previously insisted that ownership of these antiquities should be transferred to the source country. Agence … [Read more...] about Should Berlin Lend Nefertiti to Cairo?

This just in from the Athens News Agency, regarding the flurry of premature excitement over the supposed softening of the position of British Museum director Neil MacGregor on the question of whether the Parthenon marbles might be temporarily reunited in the nearly completed Acropolis Museum: [Greek] Culture Minister George Voulgarakis on Thursday commented..., "I read with … [Read more...] about Will the Parthenon Marbles Reunite?

(Part I is here.) Below are some of the objects that you won't see reproduced in today's NY Times piece by Michael Kimmelman. The newspaper's chief art critic uses the final installment of the reinstalled Greek and Roman galleries as an occasion to propagandize for the Metropolitan as a "universal museum." (Can't we just call it the "encyclopedic museum," and leave Mars and … [Read more...] about The Met’s New Greek and Roman Galleries–Part II

The link at which you can hear what I said on this morning's New York Public Radio news program about the Metropolitan Museum's new Greek and Roman galleries is here (or you can click below). It's not on the "Morning Edition" page of WNYC's website---the link that I gave you yesterday. They bumped me to the station's homepage! I must confess that I have not heard myself yet, so … [Read more...] about CultureGrrl on New York Public Radio (Yet Again)

J.M.W. Turner, "Glaucus and Scylla," Kimbell Art Museum (again) O my prophetic soul! In my post last June, As the Turner Turns, I wrote this about the Kimbell Art Museum's restitution of its only work by that artist, which was found to have been seized from its World War II-era owners by the Nazis and sold at a 1943 auction of "Jewish property": Maybe, as often happens, the … [Read more...] about Restitution Follies: As the Turner Turns…and Returns

Leon Levy and Shelby White Court, Pre-Ribbon Cutting Shelby White (left) Chatting with Philippe de Montebello It was one of those quintessentially celebratory New York moments: Gov. Spitzer and Mayor Bloomberg (not to mention the famously beleaguered benefactor, Shelby White) were on hand Monday morning to cut the ribbon for what is undeniably one of the Metropolitan … [Read more...] about The Met’s New Greek and Roman Galleries–Part I

Robert Cooper Kudos for Tennessee Attorney General Robert Cooper, who is earning a place in the pantheon of CultureGrrl heroes for his handling of the proposed Fisk University deaccessions. Elizabeth Ulrich reports in the blog Nashville Scene [via]: In a motion filed Monday in the Davidson County Chancery Court, Cooper's asked for permission to intervene in the lawsuit [between … [Read more...] about Tennessee’s AG Gets Two-Fisted With Fisk

You'd think these people might know better: Daniel Grant reports in the Maine Antique Digest that among the empty-handed investors who filed suit against Bruce Taub, CEO of the belly-up art hedge fund, Fernwood Art Investments (scroll to second item), were: Ashton Hawkins, former secretary, counsel, and executive vice president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and president of … [Read more...] about The Fernwood Collapse: Even the Savvy Get Soaked

The quest to tame the Museum of Modern Art's monstrous atrium continues. Its best use so far was the installation of Jennifer Bartlett's 1976 "Rhapsody," which fit so well that it looked as if the work had been created for the space. After seeing this last May, I commented that "this success suggests that MoMA's intimidatingly cavernous anteroom might best be conquered by … [Read more...] about Humanizing MoMA’s Atrium: The Next Attempt

I didn't get what I wanted: I had applied for an available faculty position in the arts journalism program at my alma mater, the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and got rejected Monday. They have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy about the reasons behind their decisions, but I suspect my lack of university teaching experience didn't help me. I put that … [Read more...] about CultureGrrl in Academia: You Get What You Need