Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

Reasonable people can disagree, and I disagree with just about everyone on the Smithsonian "Hide/Seek" controversy. To cement my reputation as an artworld contrarian, I have posted an OpEd-style piece on HuffPost Arts, "Hide/Seek" Gamesmanship: National Portrait Gallery is Wrong Target.I don't usually link from this blog to my Huffington Post columns, because they closely … [Read more...] about Alienating Everyone: My Huffington Post Piece on “Hide/Seek”

Cézanne, "Madame Cézanne in the Conservatory," 1891, Metropolitan Museum of Art Last month, the NY Times astonishingly called for the return to Egypt of Nefertiti and the Rosetta Stone, while praising the Metropolitan Museum for its return to Egypt of some minor antiquities. But the Times has been surprisingly silent, so far, on the latest news development related to … [Read more...] about Heir Files Claim for Met’s ex-Morozov Cézanne: Is Bolshevik Loot Like Nazi Loot?

[CORRECTION: Mary Haus, director of marketing and communications at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, called me on Dec. 16, asking me to correct this post to reflect the fact that Peter Marzio had died of cancer, but he did not have prostate cancer, as an early version of the Houston Chronicle obit had stated. The family, Haus said, is "not disclosing what he had."]The Houston … [Read more...] about Peter Marzio, 67, Director of Houston MFA, Dies UPDATED and CORRECTED

Cézanne, "The Card Players," 1890-92, Metropolitan Museum of ArtI can't wait to see the newly expanded "Card Players" when they return to New York!According to Carol Vogel's report in today's NY Times, the Metropolitan Museum's iconic  Cézanne painting, "The Card Players" has swollen eightfold! These guys have been sitting around too long and must have put on a lot of … [Read more...] about NY Times Scoop: Met’s “Card Players” on Steroids!

New cases in the former librarian's office of the Morgan Library and Museum [Part I is here.] It has taken me far too long to complete my two-part post, expanding upon my Wall Street Journal piece, Morgan in a New Light, which assessed the restoration and reinstallation of the Morgan Library and Museum's original McKim building. My travels and several breaking news … [Read more...] about MeTube: Morgan Library’s Glorious Restoration, Before and After—Part II

Kaywin Feldman with her museum's antiquitiesTwo astoundingly intemperate and, to my mind, wrong-headed NY Times editorials published in the past eight days made me wonder if someone new had been assigned the arts beat on the Times' editorial board. But it looks like Verlyn Klinkenborg is still the only one described as a culture pundit on the newspaper's list of its 15 … [Read more...] about Editorial Madness X2: NY Times on Museum Repatriations, “Hide/Seek” Controversy

Jonathan Katz, co-curator of "Hide/Seek" show at National Portrait GalleryJonathan Katz, director of the doctoral program in visual studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo and co-curator with David Ward of the National Portrait Gallery's controversial Hide/Seek exhibition, takes strong exception to CultureGrrl's take on the issues raised by that show: As the … [Read more...] about Jonathan Katz, “Hide/Seek” Curator, Blasts CultureGrrl; More News

Well this certainly wasn't what I expected when I visited the Boston Museum of Fine Arts yesterday to view its new Art of the Americas wing! Just as the museum was closing this afternoon at about 4:40 p.m., while my husband and I were on the coatcheck line, an alarm sounded and the museum was hastily evacuated. I still have not been able to find out from the museum whether … [Read more...] about MeTube: Boston Museum of Fine Arts Evacuated UPDATED

I just learned of this, it's Sunday and I'm away in Boston, so I haven't gotten the Smithsonian's side of this story. But to some degree, this video speaks for itself. You can hear the guard several times warning the cameraman that no photography is allowed in the gallery:Here's the coverage (with full names) in the Washington City Paper. The protesters assert that the video … [Read more...] about YouTube: Protesters Bring Banned Video (on iPad) into National Portrait Gallery

My Late Parents, in healthier timesI'm going to try, once again, to make it all the way to Boston today, for a short stay. As you may remember, I had to do a U-turn three weeks ago, when I was heading for the press preview of the new Norman Foster-designed expansion of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, because of my mother's suddenly deteriorating condition. My mother was a … [Read more...] about Lost in Boston: Getting Back on Course

"Hide/Seek," the catalogueI've received some thoughtful comments, pro and con, about my take on the National Portrait Gallery's video controversy, and I'll publish a few, below. But first, a news update (in addition to AAMD's just released statement and another from the Association of Art Museum Curators) and a few additional comments from me:David Wojnarowicz's controversial … [Read more...] about BlogBacks on “Hide/Seek” (and new exposure for Wojnarowicz) UPDATED

Sometimes composing a forceful, principled statement takes time. This just in: the Association of Art Museum Directors' statement on the "Hide/Seek" controversy at the National Portrait Gallery (online here): It is extremely regrettable that the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery, a major American art museum with a long history of public service in the … [Read more...] about AAMD’s Strong Statement on “Hide/Seek” Controversy

Sotheby's Five-Year Stock Price Chart There have been mixed messages about how sales are doing at the still-in-progress Art Basel Miami, which I have once again perversely failed to attend. So while all you CultureGrrl readers are away from your computers, catching the rays and perusing the booths, here's a bullish market signal to contemplate: Sotheby's has gotten … [Read more...] about Non-Basel Art Market Indicator: Sotheby’s Ups Its Guarantees

I guess it just had to happen.While I was focused on Washington, this slipped in yesterday from Nashville:Fisk University announced today that it has filed a notice with the Davidson County Chancery Court that it will appeal the ruling of the Court concerning Fisk's request to enter into a sharing arrangement with the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas for … [Read more...] about Fisk to Attorney General: Let’s Go to the Court of Appeals!

A meditation on the fragility of the human flesh.That's how National Portrait Gallery director Martin Sullivan---in today's NPR segment, Smithsonian Under Fire For Gay Portraiture Exhibit---described David Wojnarowicz's incendiary (literally and figuratively) video, "A Fire in My Belly," which had become the center of a political firestorm. But this harsh, grating piece is no … [Read more...] about Audio’s Up: NPR’s “Hide/Seek” Podcast (and me)