Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

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

Deborah Gribbon, Cleveland Museum of Art's interim directorIt's about time we followed up on the Cleveland Museum of Art's Bricks-and-Mortar Morass:Although it sought and in early October received court permission to do so, the CMA has not yet tapped any money intended for art purchases to help bankroll its major expansion project. The museum obtained the legal go-ahead to … [Read more...] about Cleveland Museum Hasn’t Tapped Acquisition Funds for Bricks and Mortar (yet)

John Leighton, director general, National Galleries of ScotlandThe High Museum's exhibition program leans heavily towards crowd-pleasers---currently The Allure of the Automobile, to be followed in August by Dalí: The Late Work. Largely as a result of the revenue generated by such blockbusters, the Atlanta museum's earned income accounts for a bigger percentage of its operating … [Read more...] about MeTube: John Leighton of National Galleries of Scotland on the £50-Million Titians

Breaking news: The Getty has just sent me its press release detailing what it yesterday called its "very good news" that it had "worked hard to make...possible," regarding the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA), a premier art-history resource.The "solution" to the problem posed by its withdrawal of financial support for maintaining and updating the Bibliography of the … [Read more...] about The April Fools Solution: Getty Puts Existing BHA Database Online, No Updates

Max Anderson (above), director of the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA), is the rare art museum director who is willing to speak out forcefully against misguided practices of professional colleagues. His outspokenness in defense of core principles endears him to me and other journalists, but perhaps not to some fellow museum directors.His latest salvo appeared Monday on the … [Read more...] about No “Trading Up”: Max Anderson on Dodo Deaccessioning

As CultureGrrl readers know, the Getty reported on its website that, due to financial constraints, it would discontinue paying for and maintaining the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA), which in 2008 was renamed the International Bibliography of Art (IBA). The Getty's support for that premier art-history research database was to end Jan. 1 (later extended to today, Mar. … [Read more...] about Getty Announcement Today: Will BHA Art Research Database Be Saved? UPDATED

I'm flushing the matzo out of my brain cells with strong coffee and have returned to posting, thanks to those of you who met the CultureGrrl Challenge (more on that below).So here's the moment you've all been waiting for---CultureGrrl in Swedish! As I mentioned last week (scroll to bottom), I was interviewed by Mårten Arndtzén, art critic/reporter for Sveriges Radio (Swedish … [Read more...] about CultureGrrl in Swedish: Hear Me on Sveriges Radio UPDATED

I have lashed myself to the mast and plugged my ears so that I cannot be tempted by the booting-up siren song of the computer this week. As I mentioned at the end of this post, I'm taking off today and tomorrow for the first two nights of Passover, and then intend to resist blogging for the rest of this holiday week, unless five readers let me know, by clicking my "Donate" … [Read more...] about A Week With Matzo But Without CultureGrrl (unless…)

Edmund Pillsbury, left; Charles Ryskamp, rightEdmund (Ted) Pillsbury and Charles Ryskamp, both of whom died late last week, were members of a dying breed---the museum director/connoisseur.Pillsbury, who from 1980-98 served as the Kimbell Art Museum's second leader, may have been the last of the buccaneering museum directors. Armed with a connoisseur's sharp eye and his … [Read more...] about Death of Two Connoisseurs: Kimbell’s Ted Pillsbury, Morgan’s and Frick’s Charles Ryskamp

Ryue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima, 2010 Pritzker Prize winnersNew York's New Museum can now boast of having had its new facility designed by this year's winners of the prestigious Pritzker Prize for architecture. Ryue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima of SANAA, the Tokyo-based architectural firm, won for their explorations "of continuous space, lightness, transparency, and materiality … [Read more...] about Sejima and Nishizawa, Architects of the New Museum, Win the Pritzker Prize

Are we about to see the end of visual arts scholarship as we know it? As reported on several art history-related websites (but not, as far as I've seen, in the mainstream media), one of the most lamentable results of the J. Paul Getty Trust's budgetary cutbacks is the Getty Research Institute's withdrawal of financial support for what it had previously called "one of the most … [Read more...] about The End of Art History: Getty Abandons Preeminent Research Database