Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

Are you back from Art Basel yet? Are you still in London for the big auctions? What if I throw a party and nobody comes? Readers' questions and comments on "The State of the Blog" (both CultureGrrl and art blogs in general) are invited at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time. I've got it all set up. I've practiced with the software. But there will be a big moment of technological suspense … [Read more...] about CultureChat Reminder: Today’s Live Online Chat, 3:30 p.m.

Today was a good-news day for me, personally and professionally. I accompanied my close friend, who had lung cancer, for her post-chemotherapy scan, and her doctor pronounced her cancer-free, predicting she'd live to be 100. (The latter declaration may be slightly exaggerated, but the former was sufficient to make our summer.) I returned home to this e-mail from the J. Paul … [Read more...] about Art Bibliography Saved! ProQuest Takes Over the Dormant Research Database

National Academy's spiral staircase The National Academy, New York, which famously ran afoul of the Association of Art Museum Directors because of its stealth deaccessions to pay for capital expenses and operations, has just announced that its exhibition galleries and lobby (including its shop) will be closed next month and remain so until September 2011. The stated reason … [Read more...] about National Academy Closes Beleaguered Museum’s Galleries for Renovations

How meaningful is this blog's two million-hit milestone, which has just been attained this morning? Not very: Due to the vagaries of Internet searching, a great many people arrive at CultureGrrl by sheer accident, Googling things like "museum of murder and mayhem" (having to do with some TV show episode) or "rose image" (wildly popular around Mothers Day), they arrive at the … [Read more...] about CultureGrrl’s Two-Millionth Hit and Our Upcoming Live Chat

Withdrawn Lot: Chuck Close, "'5 C' (Self Portrait)," 1979, estimated at $50,000-70,000An 11th-hour agreement has been reached between the seller---PBE Corporation---and some of the photographers whose images are being offered at Sotheby's four-session auction of works from the Polaroid Collection. The disposals begin today at 5 p.m. As part of the agreement (which former … [Read more...] about Polaroid Auction Agreement: A Chuck Close Is Among 9 Works Removed from Sale UPDATED

This is not a CultureGrrl parody. It's an actual headline and photo from an authentic MOCA press release! (NOT kidding!)Move over, Jerry Saltz. Jeffrey Deitch is coming to a boob tube near you.From that most soap opera-ish of art museums (The profligate former director! The brash upstart director! The manipulative megabucks collector!) comes a soap opera-related press … [Read more...] about Deitch Watch: LA MOCA, The Soap Opera

Maxwell Anderson, director of Indianapolis Museum of ArtMax Anderson, director of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, responds to MeTube: "Populist" Arnold Lehman Strikes Back:Arnold's comments are on target. I was quoted in the NY Times article about exhibitions that lack merit, but certainly didn't intend to single out Brooklyn. As you note, several leading institutions found … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Max Anderson Defends Arnold Lehman

Margot Adler, NPR correspondent[UPDATE (and a second update below): You can hear me now, by going to NPR's online audio. (My remarks begin at about 1:21 into the piece.) I recommend that you listen to Margot's commentary, rather than just reading the text posted last night online (which I link to here, two paragraphs below this one). The radio report offers greater detail and … [Read more...] about My NPR Soundbite: Polaroid Controversy on Tomorrow’s “Weekend Edition” UPDATED

Arnold Lehman, left, director of Brooklyn Museum, with Tom Campbell, director of Metropolitan Museum, at press preview for the "American Woman" show at the Met[NOTE: Read more from my interview with Arnold Lehman, here.]The Brooklyn Museum's fundraising gala in April famously featured an Andy Warhol piñata, anticipating the museum's big summer show, Andy Warhol: The Last … [Read more...] about MeTube: “Populist” Arnold Lehman Strikes Back

Denise Bethel of Sotheby's at the presale exhibition of of the Polaroid CollectionAt the press preview yesterday for Sotheby's highly controversial upcoming sale, June 21-22, of selections from the Polaroid Collection, the director of the auction house's photography department, Denise Bethel, fielded reporters' questions about the dispersal of more than 1,000 works (presale … [Read more...] about MeTube: Sotheby’s Photography Head Discusses Controversy Over Polaroid Sale

George Goldner, chairman of drawings and prints at the Metropolitan Museum and drawings curator at the Getty Museum from 1984-93, succinctly responds to After the Mourning: Reimagining the Getty (in which I quoted his prior comments criticizing the J. Paul Getty Trust's priorities and administrative structure): The issues I brought up in 1998 still hold true and the sad results … [Read more...] about BlogBack: George Goldner on Rethinking the Getty

The new Rick Mather-designed McGlothlin Wing of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts I've gone far afield from Richmond since I began fleshing out my Wall Street Journal article about the 165,000-square foot expansion of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. But I've still got one more CultureGrrl photo essay to go, in completing our tour of the recently renewed and reopened VMFA. … [Read more...] about Rick in Richmond: Virginia MFA’s Architectural Hits and Misses

The Getty Villa, MalibuIn his LA Times piece today, Jason Felch returns to his Getty beat, reporting that Getty Foundation director Deborah Marrow would be named today (as has now been officially announced) as the J. Paul Getty Trust's interim president and CEO. Felch also provided details on the cause of death of James Wood, the president and CEO of the Trust: He died in his … [Read more...] about After the Mourning: Reimagining the Getty

James WoodIf all goes according to plan, I'll be sharing my thoughts about James Wood, the late president of the J. Paul Getty Trust, on Warren Olney's Which Way LA?, broadcast over public radio station KCRW, 7 p.m. LA time (10 p.m. on the East Coast). My segment is supposed to air at 7:19 p.m. [See update below.]You've already read some of my reminiscences about this … [Read more...] about Coming Today: My “Which Way LA?” Commentary on KCRW about James Wood UPDATED

Today's a good day to think about the theater, post-Tony Awards, and it's a particularly good day to think about the state of American musicals, which both Charles Isherwood of the NY Times and Charles McNulty of the LA Times criticized, in their pre-Tony musings, for "stitch[ing] together new narratives with already recorded (and popular) music" (Isherwood's words) so that … [Read more...] about CultureCougar: My (forced) Bit Part in Off-Broadway’s “Andrew Jackson”