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Have my CultureGrrl posts seemed a little light lately? That's because I was struggling with a tight deadline for a recondite piece that only my Wall Street Journal editor could have loved. (That's why he and I click!)Everyone whom I called for an interview: a) marveled that a mainstream-media publication was actually interested in a serious exploration of this esoteric topic; … [Read more...] about My WSJ Piece Tomorrow on the Frozen BHA and Future of Art Bibliography

NYU Professor Philippe de Montebello, left; Mariët Westermann, provost, NYU Abu Dhabi, at podiumEdited photo: Max Anderson's TwitPic pageNYU Abu Dhabi, which is inaugurating its academic course offerings this September, is emphasizing its connections to the museum world with a two-day conference, yesterday and today, on Art Museums Here and Now. Capitalizing on NYU Professor … [Read more...] about Abu Dhabi Museum Conference: Philippe on Met’s “Parthenogenesis”

Rocco Landesman, the NEA's chairman, addressing U.S. mayors and New York's cultural and governmental officials yesterdayThe Rocco Show, fresh from its Congressional gig and its Idaho run, arrived at New York's Five Angels Theater yesterday for the 46th national session of the Mayors' Institute on City Design (MICD). The National Endowment for the Arts' chairman addressed the … [Read more...] about MeTube from the Mayors’ Institute: Rocco Speaks His Mind, Patti Harris Speaks for Bloomberg CORRECTED

Would you like to see, in rapid successsion, every painting from the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection now on display on the fourth and fifth floors? Now you can, in a two-minute tour posted to YouTube, which MoMA itself recognizes (on its Twitter page) as a complete record of its current installation. (This is a test: How many of the artists can you name?): … [Read more...] about YouTube Presents: The Two-Minute MoMA

Rediscovered Michelangelo? "Saint John the Baptist Bearing Witness," oil and gold on wood, 29 3/4 x 82 1/2 in., Metropolitan Museum of ArtHaving recently mounted Velázquez Rediscovered, a show that convincingly proposed that a painting by that master had been hiding for years in plain sight in the permanent collection, will the Metropolitan Museum soon be presenting … [Read more...] about Michelangelo Rediscovered: Another Met Attribution Upgrade? UPDATED

Rocco Landesman, NEA's chairman, speaking in Boise, IdahoPhoto: NEA staffWant to make a charitable donation to the federal government? You can! Long a part of the National Endowment for the Arts' website, the Donate page solicits various forms of personal and corporate largesse to this federal agency---from one-shot benefactions to annual giving to post-mortem support:You may … [Read more...] about Landesman’s Congressional Testimony: “American Masterpieces” Axed for “Our Town”

Painting the Golden Theatre "Red"In John Logan's play Red, which I saw a little over a week ago, Mark Rothko (played by Alfred Molina, who formerly channeled Diego Rivera) comes across as an intensely committed, brilliant artist, but one given to verbiage that's frequently tendentious and pretentious. This makes for a night of theater that is sometimes exhilarating but often a … [Read more...] about Rothko on Broadway: Words Fail, Art Speaks

SFMOMA trustee Bob Fisher, son of Doris and Donald Fisher, who are pictured on screen behind him After Neal Benezra, director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the second happiest person about the relocation of the 1,100-work Donald and Doris Fisher Collection to SFMOMA may be one of the Fishers' sons, Bob. That's because the creation of a trust to lend the blue-chip … [Read more...] about Fisher Collection’s Saga Demonstrates Perils of Single-Collector Museum

Carol Vogel, in tomorrow's  NY Times "Inside Art" column (online tonight), finally got around to reporting about the very X-rated Picasso painting soon to be shown at the Metropolitan Museum (which owns it). Candace Jackson of the Wall Street Journal reported on it last January, followed by CultureGrrl. The Met's getting a lot of publicity mileage out of this very … [Read more...] about NY Times Timing: Last on Picasso, First on Panza

Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage MuseumMegan Stack of the LA Times has reported that an audit of Russian museums, ordered by then President Vladimir Putin after the 2006 discovery of the theft (which was an inside job) of about 226 objects from the State Hermitage Museum, revealed that "at least 87,000 pieces have vanished. Hundreds of those … [Read more...] about Russian Museums Audit: Some 87,000 Objects Missing

Are there signs of life in the frozen Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA)?The Getty Research Institute, which on Apr. 1 withdrew financial support from this essential tool for scholars (but made the existing database, without further updates, available free online), has received a grant from the Kress Foundation to help organize an Apr. 20 meeting at the Metropolitan … [Read more...] about BHA Crisis: Emergency Meeting on the Future (or not) of Art Bibliography

Halsey MinorHalsey Minor's lawyer never got back to me with an answer to my question as to whether the founder of CNET would appeal the $6.64-million court judgment against him in the U.S. District Court case of Sotheby's v. Minor. Minor himself did, in an e-mail that hit my inbox at 9:14 tonight:Lee, I will be appealing. This is not a financial issue. I will put up my money … [Read more...] about Halsey Minor Comments on the “Sotheby’s v. Minor” Decision

Edward Hicks, "The Peaceable Kingdom with the Leopard of Serenity," 1846-48Photo: Sotheby'sChilde Hassam, "Paris, Winter Day" (aka "Carriage in Winter"), 1887Photo: Sotheby's[See UPDATE here.]I love perusing art-related court decisions, because they sometimes impart a rare look into convoluted dealings that are otherwise kept secret. CultureGrrl readers may remember the tangled … [Read more...] about $6.64 Million Judgment: Halsey Minor Case Provides Inside Look at Sotheby’s Deals

For you late night art-lings, below is some evening entertainment. In case your art history's a little rusty, there's an illustrated guide to many of the parodied paintings here. (Scroll down to the comments at that link, for a more complete list.) This has apparently been around since late February, so you may have already viewed it. In that case, watch it again! … [Read more...] about Funky Mash-terpieces: A Little (artsy) Night Music

Fisk University President Hazel O'Leary, centerToday seems to be CultureGrrl's follow-up day.This just in: Still tirelessly seeking court approval for its $30-million collection-sharing deal with Alice Walton's Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, AR, Fisk University has now filed a motion in Davidson County Chancery Court seeking a trial to determine whether it can legally … [Read more...] about Fisk Continues Legal Quest to Share Collection, for $30 Million, with Crystal Bridges