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Kaywin FeldmanHaving dipped its toes into the roiling social-media waters with its AAMDIndy tweets (which chronicled last month's annual meeting), the Association of Art Museum Directors recently launched a permanent MuseumDirectors page on Twitter. At this writing, it features only one substantive tweet---a link to Kaywin Feldman's first president's letter. That missive … [Read more...] about AAMD Tweets (again): President Feldman’s Inaugural Missive UPDATED

Egon Schiele, "Portrait of Wally," 1912 It's getting to be a familiar scenario: After years of legal wrangling, a cultural-property dispute gets settled in favor of the claimants, right on the brink of the trial date. It happened last year, when the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum settled with the heirs of Paul and Elsa von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, the Nazi-era … [Read more...] about “Portrait of Wally” Freed: $19-Million Settlement to Nazi Victim’s Heirs

[CLARIFICATION: Due to the Philadelphia Museum's inaccurate characterizations of the images that it originally sent me, my comparative analysis, below, of "The Gross Clinic," before and after conservation, is in error. For my clarifying post, with the correct before-and-after images, please go here.]This is going to take some getting used to.Thomas Eakins' celebrated "The Gross … [Read more...] about “The Gross Clinic’s” Startling Restoration: Before-and-After Photos of Eakins’ Masterpiece CLARIFIED

Over at HuffPost Arts, I've amplified a bit on my recent CultureGrrl post about the Museum of Modern Art's new Matisse show. I included a couple of additional photos and quoted from the conclusion of curator John Elderfield's remarks to the press, which got cut off at the end of my CultureGrrl Video.When I opened my July 26 issue of the New Yorker today, I was amused to find … [Read more...] about HuffPuff: My Further Matisse Musings for the Huffington Post

On the Outskirts: The Rose Art Museum on the Brandeis campus mapLast Wednesday I reported that Brandeis University's Rose Art Museum had suddenly subbed a Rosenquist exhibition for its previously announced fall show, "Atmospheric Conditions," which was to have featured works by Bill Viola, Eric Fischl and April Gornik. The museum's website had said (and still says, at this … [Read more...] about Rose Blows: Protest Withdrawal by Three Artists from Brandeis Museum’s Fall Show

Rendering of "Culture Shed," a planned new facility for the Hudson Yards redevelopment project on West Side of Manhattan Photo: Diller Scofidio + Renfro/The Rockwell Group In the latest manifestation of his "Art Works" campaign to promote the "arts as an economic engine," Rocco Landesman, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, yesterday announced 21 grants … [Read more...] about National Endowment’s City Design Grants: The Fallacy of “Great Outcomes”

The Critic Sees: Peter Schjeldahl of the New Yorker ponders Matisse's celebrated "Blue Nude," 1907, from the Baltimore Museum's Cone Collection I felt about Matisse: Radical Invention (which opens to the public on Sunday at the Museum of Modern Art) much as I had felt a month ago about Picasso Looks at Degas (to Sept. 12 at the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA). Both … [Read more...] about MeTube: Elderfield and D’Alessandro Describe “Matisse: Radical Invention”

Frederick Lawrence, Brandeis University's next presidentBrandeis University last week announced the selection of its new president, Frederick Lawrence, George Washington University's Law School dean, who will succeed Jehuda  Reinharz on Jan. 1. Both the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe immediately solicited Lawrence's views on the university's Rent-a-Rose plan---a … [Read more...] about Brandeis Names New President (who endorses Rent-a-Rose)

My Huffington blogger headshot (Where's Jill Krementz when I really need her?)Don't worry, art-lings. You will still find CultureGrrl in the same place and in the same irreverent form, on ArtsJournal. I'm just branching out.Some of you are already aware that the Huffington Post has recently added an arts page to its mix. They have invited me to be one of their bloggers, … [Read more...] about New Huffington Post Arts Blogger: CultureGrrl

In its first annual meeting tweeting, the Association of Art Museum Directors revealed on its AAMDIndy Twitter page that it was contemplating "clear protocols and guidelines" for "exhibition of private collections in museums" (likely inspired, in part, by the New Museum's recent controversial "Skin Fruit" show of Dakis Joannou's contemporary collection). Given the usually … [Read more...] about Single-Collector Museum Shows: CultureGrrl’s Seven Recommended Ethical Guidelines

Michael Tilson Thomas, left, and Frank Gehry, speaking at a recent New York press lunch Those of you who are not just art-lings but also sport-lings are riveted today by a Miami basketball story. But let's take a look at a another major Miami match-up: conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, architect Frank Gehry and the New World Symphony---an educational and performance … [Read more...] about MeTube: How Museums Influenced Concept for Gehry’s/Tilson Thomas’ Symphony Campus

"The Three Graces," Roman, Imperial period, 2nd century A.D., copy of Greek work from 2nd century B.C., displayed in the Metropolitan Museum's Greek and Roman sculpture courtBack on May 12, CultureGrrl broke some news that the Met has finally confirmed in a press release that hit my inbox very early today: An ancient Roman group statue of great importance and beauty---a … [Read more...] about Met’s New Acquisition, New Curator: Late-Breaking News, Broken Late

Let's get this party started!On its AAMDIndy Twitter page, the Association of Art Museum Directors listed this as one of the hot-button topics to be discussed at last month's annual meeting: Exhibition of private collections in museums: clear protocols and guidelines needed.Nothing more on this has emerged publicly since that meeting, but at least the need has been recognized … [Read more...] about CultureChat: Single-Collector Museum Shows

Please do join me today at 3:30 p.m. for our second online CultureChat: The topic is "Single-Collector Museum Shows"---the upsides and the pitfalls. I've described the kind of issues we''ll be discussing here. You can get an idea of the format of the chat by clicking the replay button for the first CultureChat. The technology is simple and similar to instant messaging: Just … [Read more...] about CultureChat Reminder: Today’s Live Online Chat at 3:30 p.m.

J.M.W. Turner, "Modern Rome---Campo Vaccino," 1838-9, just purchased by the GettyIn an e-mail that just hit my inbox, the J. Paul Getty Museum wasted no time in announcing that it today purchased what it called "one of the greatest paintings by Turner to come on the market": "Modern Rome---Campo Vaccino," offered by Sotheby's, London, at today's just concluded evening sale of … [Read more...] about The Getty’s Mega-Purchase: $44.94-Million Turner at Sotheby’s UPDATED