main

Brandes Residence, Sammamish, Wa. Photo by Alan Weintraub/arcaid.co.uk I want this house! Where the heck is the Sammamish Plateau, anyway? I found out how easy it is to find Frank Lloyd Wright houses that are up for sale when I did my article about the restoration of Fallingwater for the Wall Street Journal. If you go to the site for the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy … [Read more...] about Frank Lloyd Wright on the Market

The matter of the Matter "Pollocks" gets curiouser and curiouser: The Harvard-based conservation experts who conducted an independent, pro-bono scientific examination of three paintings from the group of 32 works found among the possessions of Jackson Pollock's friend, the late Herbert Matter, yesterday issued a 13-page analysis (with images), which reported: Some pigments … [Read more...] about “Pollocks” Flunk Harvard, Attend Boston College

If Jed Perl isn't careful, he may inherit the Hilton Kramer honorary mantle for critical stodginess. His cover story for the Feb. 5 issue of The New Republic strains to coin a new catch-phrase, "laissez-faire aesthetics," while positioning Perl squarely in the dubious tradition of critics who are so stuck in the past that they can't see the art of the present. Today's big-money … [Read more...] about Jed’s Jeremiad: Perl Hurls Brickbats at the Art Scene

It's been a long time since I stood in front of a class of young students, so when I recently initiated a sixth-grade class into the sacred mysteries of the journalistic fraternity, I had forgotten about the final pedagogic handshake---the arrival in the mail of a packet of thank-you letters, penned by each member of the class. Here's the one that stood out: Thank you, Mrs. … [Read more...] about My Letter from a Future Journalist

Maybe the Metropolitan Museum was jealous of the Metropolitan Opera and wanted to go to the movies too! How else to explain the spring offerings of learned(?) discussions and full-length multiple moving screenings devoted to Greta Garbo, Cary Grant, and that newcomer, Woody Allen? Two lectures devoted to Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, with film clips and recordings, are … [Read more...] about Movie Nostalgia Comes to the Metropolitan Museum

I knew that major orchestras, including the NY Philharmonic, are offering downloads of live concerts on iTunes. But this morning was the first time I heard such a download played on a classical music radio station. Maybe this is old news, but it's the first time I've noticed it, and I listen a lot. This morning, New York's WQXR played the Beethoven Seventh, with Esa-Pekka … [Read more...] about Classical Radio Broadcasts iTunes for the Vinyl Generation

It's a tough job to cover two days of feminist art symposia, but somebody (not CultureGrrl) had to do it . Holland Cotter, early in his dutiful account for today's NY Times, makes this startling assertion: Curators and critics have increasingly come to see that feminism has generated the most influential art impulses of the late 20th and early 21st century. There is almost no … [Read more...] about Feminist Festivities: The Sisterhood’s Art Reunion

I've already picked Philippe de Montebello's successor at the Metropolitan Museum. So why not Lorin Maazel's successor as music director of the New York Philharmonic? I heard him conduct last night, and he is (drumroll)...Riccardo Muti. Of course, we all know that Maazel has already named the conductor he wants to succeed him---Daniel Barenboim who, at 64, is a year younger … [Read more...] about Who Should Succeed Maazel at the NY Philharmonic?

After searching in vain for an online version of the press release or a description of the Neue Galerie's upcoming van Gogh show, I perused the museum's website and discovered that at least one artworld luminary took my suggested New Year's resolution seriously: The Neue Galerie has finally gotten around to posting the provenance of works in its collection. But you decide … [Read more...] about Neue Galerie Finally Posts Nazi-Era Provenance (Sort Of)

It was the one story I felt sorry I wrote after I wrote it: In March 2000, I published an article in the Wall Street Journal (linked at the bottom of this article), in which I suggested that Austrian-born investment fund manager Wolfgang Flöttl might have become the owner of the elusive "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" by van Gogh, which had set an auction record in 1990 when it sold … [Read more...] about “Dr. Gachet” Sighting: It WAS Flöttl!

As expected, Columbia University Professor James Beck's just published book, "From Duccio to Raphael: Connoisseurship in Crisis" (European Press Academic Publishing) takes issue with several high-profile attributions, including, of course, the Metropolitan Museum's Duccio. What I didn't expect was my being cited in the book---Page 169. There, Beck mentions the use in a NY Times … [Read more...] about Beck is Ba-a-a-ck with His New Book (and CultureGrrl Is in It)

I know that newspapers are going through hard times, but this is ridiculous: The NY Times is hawking sports memorabilia on its website, including a Phil Simms Signed Football ($400), Lawrence Taylor Autographed Mini Replica Helmet ($300), Mark Messier Signed Puck ($200). These are not ads for some outside retailer; these are being sold by the Times itself, through its New York … [Read more...] about Tough Times in the Newspaper Biz: NY Times Hawks Collectibles

Martin Bailey today reports in The Art Newspaper that the Rijksmuseum is negotiating to buy "one of Britain's greatest privately-owned Rembrandts"---"Portrait of Catrina Hooghsaet." The price was expected to be about £40 million ($78.8 million), he said. The painting, from from Penrhyn Castle in North Wales, is currently on loan to the Amsterdam museum. If the sale goes … [Read more...] about Rijksmuseum Covets Pricey British Rembrandt

I've always felt uneasy about publishing people's salaries and I've generally refrained from doing so: It feels to me like an invasion of privacy, even though this information is publicly available, as it should be, on the annual 990 tax returns of nonprofits. But every time a journalist gets hold of information about the salaries of the top officials of major cultural … [Read more...] about Getty Trust Publishes Compensation for New Museum Director and President

Yet another major city has just been rescued from the buffoonery of the Broadcast Bozos: One Washington, D.C. radio station (WETA) took on Bach and Beethoven on Monday, the same day that another (WGMS) dropped them in favor of Sheryl Crow. At least the new classical music outpost, in comparison to the old, has a stronger signal---the strongest in Washington. The recent … [Read more...] about Capital Solution to Broadcast Bozo-ism