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Edward Durell Stone's 1964 Gallery of Modern Art, aka "The Lollipop Building"In the same spot on Columbus Circle, Brad Cloepfil's Museum of Arts and Design, aka "The 'H' Building," with CNN's offices behind it and Norman Foster's Hearst Tower beside itIf all goes according to plan, you can hear my impressions of the new Museum of Arts and Design this morning at about 6:46 a.m. … [Read more...] about My New York Public Radio Commentary on the Museum of Arts and Design This Morning

It's a wrap: NY Times enveloped in NBC-TV adsNY Times subscribers awoke this morning to a strange hybrid on their doorsteps: Three of the five sections of the paper were encased in ads for NBC-TV's new season, which usurped both sides of each section's back page (as well as the page facing the inside back page) and flapped over to the front (above). In addition, the bottom of … [Read more...] about NBC’s Art of NY Times Product Placement: Is Alec Baldwin the New Jeremy Piven?

I've just returned from a full-day audio-editing workshop at my alma mater---Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism---so I couldn't restrain myself from bringing you these soundbites excerpted (and spliced together) from Tom Campbell's press conference that occurred the day after he was named to become the next director of the Metropolitan Museum.Here, he (sort of) … [Read more...] about Press Conference Podcast: Tom Campbell’s Views on Antiquities and Contemporary Art at the Met

Sid Bass, amateur art critic and MoMA vice chairman, at the press previewDo we really need another van Gogh show?If the show in question is Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night, opening Sunday at the Museum of Modern Art, the answer is probably no. Will it be a blockbuster? Probably yes.Nothwithstanding the fact that Roberta Smith in her favorable take on this focus exhibition … [Read more...] about Sid Bass and MoMA’s Dark Night of Van Gogh

New York's new commercial gallery has some major museums in the bag. Memo to the Albright-Knox Gallery, Art Gallery of Ontario, Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum, Smith College Museum, Blanton Museum, Rose Art Museum, Neuberger Museum, Montclair Art Museum, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Nasher Collection … [Read more...] about The Launch of Haunch of Venison: Museums Go Commercial

The scene at Sotheby's, LondonNo matter what the NY Times and Bloomberg are telling you today, Damien Hirst's self-titled $200.75-million two-day auction, "Beautiful Inside My Head Forever," did NOT achieve results that exceeded its presale estimate (notwithstanding what Sotheby's asserted in its postsale press release, dutifully echoed by many scribes). I've previously … [Read more...] about “Beautiful Inside My Wallet”: London Sunday Times, WSJ Have First and Last Words on Hirst Sales

Oliver Barker wielding the Hirst hammer yesterday at Sotheby'sThere are two widely held misconceptions about yesterday's Hirst auction: I had predicted in my last post that reporters would misleadingly claim that the auction had exceeded its presale estimate, because they would make the apples-to-oranges comparison between the sale total INCLUDING the buyer's premium and the … [Read more...] about Dead Shark Postmortem: Ramifications and Misinterpretations of the Hirst Auctions

Peace Offering? "After the Flood," the final lot in today's Hirst saleWild whoops, mad applause (including claps from auctioneer Oliver Barker directed towards the deep-pocketed attendees). What more can one say?Sotheby's Hirst sale results are already online here, with the auction just concluded. The sale totaled $127.26 million (with buyer's premium); bidding on only nine of … [Read more...] about Hirst Auction a Paradigm-Smashing Success UPDATED

Live-blogging the Sotheby's Hirst auction webcast. (I'm not taking the time now to convert to dollars.)"Thank you SO-O-O-O much!" the auctioneer exclaimed at the £8.5 million bid on the newly hatched Hirst shark, "Kingdom," that had been estimated at £4-6 million. The Black Sheep was less coveted, at £2.3 million (est. £2-3 million). The highest-estimated work and likely top … [Read more...] about Sotheby’s Hirst Auction Off to Rip-Roaring Start UPDATED

Quick! Get me rewrite!That's what someone must have bellowed in the newsroom (or at Sotheby's) when they saw the headline on Carol Vogel's initial online version (on the International Herald Tribune's website) of her pre-Hirst auction piece, which I linked to a little after midnight today. By the time you read this, I would not be surprised if the IHT has taken down its … [Read more...] about NY Times Rewrites “Hirst Goes for Broke” Headline

Lot 9: Hirst's "Black Sheep" to the slaughter?Pass the formaldehyde and sacrifice your cows and sheep as propitiatory offerings to the capricious artworld gods. Today, apprehensive art-lings, is the day when Damien Hirst goes for broke and, some believe, may take the contemporary art market along with him.You can watch Slaughter on New Bond Street from the comfort of your own … [Read more...] about Hirst’s Audacious Auction: Coming to You Today, Live From London

Thomas Campbell, with Philippe de Montebello (center) and Harold Holzer, the Met's senior vice president for external affairs, at his backEd Winkleman in a blog post yesterday astutely pointed out what may lie behind Tom Campbell's excess of discretion at Wednesday's press conference introducing the Metropolitan Museum's next director to art scribes.Winkleman opined:She [me] … [Read more...] about More on the Discreet Charm of Tom Campbell UPDATED

Gary Tinterow, right, with his curatorial cohorts at the Met's Turner press preview This tribute is not much of a consolation prize for being one of the runners-up in the Metropolitan Museum's directorship race. But for all that I've criticized Gary Tinterow on matters of museum policy (and I'm NOT going to link to those posts on this occasion), the museum's de facto … [Read more...] about In Praise of Gary Tinterow: 19th-Century Curator Par Excellence

I'm off the Guggenheim for a press lunch previewing the new season. Will we also get to preview the expected new director? I doubt it. Carol Vogel didn't have the announcement in today's NY Times...or is there a new, fairer news release method afoot among New York museums? The way that the Met rolled out its Tom Campbell announcement, and the fact that at a recent press … [Read more...] about Onwards to the Guggenheim…to Meet the New Director???

Defensive Postures: Philippe de Montebello (left) and Tom Campbell at today's press conferenceLet's get this over with quickly, if not painlessly: If you're going to hold a press conference, you've got to be willing to say something substantive to the assembled writers.I'm not going to bother listing all the questions that Thomas Campbell, chosen to succeed Philippe de … [Read more...] about Campbell’s Soup: Met’s Director-Elect Serves Thin Broth at Press Conference