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Unmentioned in the excitement over the four breathtakingly ambitious starchitect museums being planned for Abu Dhabi are the serious human rights questions recently raised about construction workers' conditions in the United Arab Emirates. In a report released last November, Human Rights Watch, an an independent, nongovernmental watchdog organization, charged: As the United … [Read more...] about Uneasy in Abu Dhabi: Will UAE Eschew Past Construction Worker Abuses in New Museum Projects?

In Jeremy Kahn's excellent article in yesterday's NY Times, Is the U.S. Protecting Foreign Artifacts? Don't Ask, he provides a detailed analysis of the State Department's secretive Cultural Property Advisory Committee, which studies requests by foreign countries for U.S. import restrictions on cultural objects. No such request has ever been turned down by the State Department, … [Read more...] about Why Does the State Department Favor Import Restrictions on Cultural Property? Why Is CPAC’s China Recommendation Still Secret?

The names of the winners of the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, their projects and affiliations are here. For the names (but no further information) arranged by fields, go here. There are 17 fellows in fine arts, five in photography, eight in film, two in video and audio. … [Read more...] about 2007 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships Announced

With the sad news today of the death of Sol LeWitt, this very atypical initiative by MASS MoCA---its plan to transform a three-story, 27,000-square-foot building on its North Adams campus into a "quasi-permanent living archive" for 50 of his wall drawings---seems all the more a stroke of genius. It now becomes a living memorial. The galleries were designed by the artist. The … [Read more...] about MASS MoCA’s Memorial to Sol LeWitt, and My Postcard

I'm going to break my self-imposed three-day blogging gag to direct you to a must-read in tomorrow's NY Times "Arts & Leisure" section: Jeremy Kahn's detailed exploration of the controversies embroiling the State Department's Cultural Property Advisory Committee, which considers requests of foreign governments for U.S. import restrictions on cultural patrimony deemed at … [Read more...] about Cultural Property Advisory Committee: NY Times Exposes the Secrecy

Having posted fast and furiously yesterday, I've begged my boss for a three-day weekend, and CultureGrrl graciously acceded. This weekend encompasses the trifecta of Good Friday, Easter and (still) Passover, so I suspect few of you want to hear my whining and kvetching anyway. I leave you with this link to what I thought was a terrifically well written review by NY Times movie … [Read more...] about Blogging Addiction Rehab

Finally, a State Attorney General with teeth: Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper today announced that he had rejected the proposed settlement whereby Fisk University would sell its "Radiator Building" to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum for $7 million. In return for being allowed to purchase the painting at what the AG termed a "bargain-basement price," the O'Keeffe Museum had … [Read more...] about Breaking News on Fisk’s O’Keeffe: AG Rejects Sale to O’Keeffe Museum

This welcome announcement is many years in the making: The Kimbell Museum, Fort Worth, is finally set to expand. Since tacking on an extension to Louis Kahn's celebrated masterpiece was unthinkable, the museum had acquired in 1998 a site across the street (next to the Tadao Ando-designed Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth) for a new building. The annex to be designed by Renzo … [Read more...] about Kimbell to Build Long-Awaited Annex, Designed by Piano

In the April issue of the Art Newspaper, Brook Mason reports on Guggenheim director Lisa Dennison's recent public plaint about the proliferation of "friends" groups, consisting of American benefactors providing financial support for foreign museums. What neither has mentioned is the aspect of these groups that most troubles me: their use of the U.S. tax code to encourage … [Read more...] about Donating to Foreign Museums for U.S. Tax Deductions

In an article published today (online last night), Elisabetta Povoledo of the NY Times compensates for Carol Vogel's recent failure to mention the ownership dispute with the Italian town of Monteleone over the Metropolitan Museum's Etruscan chariot. Vogel had published a detailed article last Thursday about restoration of the ancient bronze vehicle, without touching on the … [Read more...] about “Umbrian Umbrage”: Chariot Contest Makes a Belated NY Times Debut

Will someone please tell the Senate Rules and Administration Committee to update its Witness List for the Apr. 11 Smithsonian Oversight Hearing? A certain Lawrence Small is listed as lead-off speaker. And while we're making corrections, please tell the NY Times that when they report in an article datelined March 29 that the Smithsonian hearing will occur "next Wednesday," that … [Read more...] about Smithsonian Follies: Gaffes by a Senate Committee and the NY Times

UPDATE: Turns out it's the Boston Globe that's going to run a clarification tomorrow. Confusion continues to cloud the controversy over the Matter "Pollocks"---not only regarding their attribution, but also concerning the accuracy of the NY Times' story yesterday on the controversy. Randy Kennedy indicated in yesterday's Times that dealer Ronald Feldman had bought some of the … [Read more...] about Tangled Web of the Matter “Pollocks” Gets More Convoluted

Why are there no great woman theater critics? Maybe it's the sudden spring budding of feminist art shows (here, here and here) that has gotten my dried-up women's lib juices flowing again: I can't help thinking that the dearth of female Broadway theater critics has something to do with the dismissive reception from several major reviewers for Joan Didion's maiden voyage (why … [Read more...] about The Year of Male-Chauvinist Thinking

Sometimes deaccessioners get lucky: A work that belongs in the public domain stays in the public domain. Such was the case with the life-size granite figure of Shiva as Brahma, Chola Period, ca. 10th-11th century, sold March 23 at Sotheby's for $4,072,000 with buyers commission ($3.6 million hammer), an auction record for an Indian stone sculpture. It had been in the … [Read more...] about Albright-Knox Shiva Finds a Good Home

While I abandon you for the rest of the day, here are a couple of links to keep you busy, both from the just arrived Apr. 9 issue of The New Yorker: ---Slide show illustrating Rebecca Mead's "Den of Antiquity: The Met Defends Its Treasures," which (despite its title) is very Metropolitan Museum-friendly and Shelby White-friendly. Regarding the ownership controversy over the … [Read more...] about The New Yorker’s Big Art Week: Greeks, Romans and Feminists