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In a recent post on the NY Times' online Talk to the Newsroom feature, one Jacob Silverman asked the newspaper's book review editor, Sam Tanenhaus, "why the Book Review seems to review a significantly greater amount of nonfiction than fiction." And here is Tanenhaus' learned answer: For the simple reason that so much more nonfiction is published. There must have been … [Read more...] about Roman à Clef: NY Times Book Review Locks the Door on Fiction

In its December issue, The Art Newspaper published a photo of the "Getty Bronze," along with this stunningly erroneous scoop: As we went to press, the Getty announced the return to Italy of the remaining antiquities claimed by the country. In fact, the Getty announced it would return only 26 of the 52 objects that Italy was seeking, and emphatically refused to relinquish its … [Read more...] about The Art Newspaper Gives Italy the “Getty Bronze” (and Dewey Beats Truman)

UPDATE: More on the fundraising campaign here. Does anyone still remember what happened when the Boston Athenaeum announced that it was selling its celebrated Gilbert Stuart portraits of George and Martha Washington to the Smithsonian in Washington for $5 million? Back in 1980, the venerable, cash-strapped Boston library bowed to intense pressure to keep the portraits in … [Read more...] about What Should Happen with Eakins’ “The Gross Clinic”

This is even worse than what just happened to classical music radio in Boston: Can it really be that our nation's capital, home to the National Endowment for the Arts, Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian, not to mention our federal government, may possibly soon be without any classical music radio station? Don't at least a few of our nation's leaders need to kick back with Bach … [Read more...] about Broadcasting Bozo-ism as a Capital Offense

As far as I can tell by doing an "Alagna" search on the ArtsJournal music blogs, no one has taken on the latest Temperamental Tantrum in Opera, Roberto Alagna's unceremonious mid-performance departure from the stage of La Scala last Sunday. Now you can see it yourself, as a video on YouTube. All I can say is that the last few notes (which is all we hear) of "Celeste Aida," … [Read more...] about Alagna’s YouTube Moment: Lend Me a Tenor

If you Google "gifts for the man who has everything," what do you get at the end of the third search page? CultureGrrl's gold penis shield! Happy Hanukkah, everyone! … [Read more...] about Holiday Shopping Tips

It's my job as a blogger to have strong, informed opinions on the topics within my purview. But there's one crucial issue about which I've written extensively without taking a stand---the question of who should possess the hotly contested ancient Greek bronze statue of an athlete, which caused the breakdown in negotiations between the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Italian … [Read more...] about Should the “Getty Bronze” Go Back to Italy?

South Carolina artist Tom Durham responds to Why is There No Current American Political Art?: I do agree that on the surface there is no or very little political art on the scene. Why you should ask? First, galleries today are interested in sales, not art statements, so often they refuse to show or display art with any political or social content for fear of offending a … [Read more...] about BlogBack: On the Dearth of Political Art

… [Read more...] about COMING TOMORROW: SHOULD THE “GETTY BRONZE” GO BACK TO ITALY?

The carabinieri's hits just keep on coming. Marta Falconi of the Associated Press reports this afternoon: They [the Italian police] have uncovered an international art trafficking ring based in Rome and have recovered about 100 artifacts. Rome Carabinieri police said 35 people, including an architect and an antique dealer, are being investigated in connection with charges … [Read more...] about Italians Bust Another Art Trafficking Ring

While I'm on the subject of the Wall Street Journal, do not miss today's museum-related article on the estimable page for which I write, "Leisure & Arts" (on which there is nary an advertorial or infomercial). It's a piece with possible lessons for other single-collector museums that are chafing against the restrictions imposed long ago by their founders. Milo Beach, former … [Read more...] about Freer Freedom: How a Single-Collector Museum Cut Loose

Pure coincidence, no doubt. But it was almost as if Peter Kann, the chairman of Dow Jones & Co. (which publishes the Wall Street Journal), had read CultureGrrl's recent critiques of the UBS contemporary-art newspaper supplement that was folded into the WSJ, as well as my dismissal as "essentially an infomercial" of an WSJ online video clip, in which its own reporter interviewed … [Read more...] about “Art Journalism” UBS-Style: WSJ’s Boss Blasts Advertorials

Art Basel Miami didn't release any estimates of sale totals for the fair ending Sunday. So figure-happy journalists had to do some improvising. Among the most enterprising was Bloomberg's Lindsay Pollock, who yesterday informed us that "three top sellers estimated that sales totaled between $200 million and $400 million." What exactly does this mean? Apparently, three anonymous … [Read more...] about Basel Miami Sale Totals: The Making of Art Market Myth

Actually, there is: U.S. artists today are still addressing issues of racial, sexual and economic politics. What people really mean when they ask this question, which came up again at a New York panel discussion about the art market that I attended at the Museum of Modern Art last night, is: Why is there no art engaging our current military misadventures? That question is … [Read more...] about Why is There No Current American Political Art?

The big art story in today's NY Times is not in the Arts section; it's the Business section's article by Landon Thomas Jr. about the mutual courtship between the newest art connoisseurs, hedge-fund kings, and donation-seeking art museums: In the fast-shifting sands of New York's moneyed classes, the explosion of hedge fund wealth has created a new financial pecking order. A … [Read more...] about New Barbarians at the Museum Gates