Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

At this rate, I'm never going to make it to my goal of 100 CultureGrrl Donors (I've got 92) by the end of this year (let alone by Hanukkah, which begins this Friday night). 'Tis the season for me to take time off.I'm going out now to view a museum exhibition and buy some presents for my family. When I return, I hope to be pleasantly surprised. That "Donate" button is rendered … [Read more...] about Donor Dearth: CultureGrrl’s Day Off

Left to right, at Kennedy Center Honors: Mel Brooks, Bruce Springsteen, Michelle Obama, President Obama, Vice President Joseph R. Biden (not pictured: honorees Dave Brubeck, Grace Bumbry, Robert De Niro)Pool photograph by Martin H. SimonYou already know what I think of Rocco Landesman's new slogan for the National Endowment for the Arts. I was reminded of what a dud it is when … [Read more...] about President Obama Crafts a Better NEA Slogan: “Art Strengthens America” UPDATED

That's right, art-lings. I'm not at Art Basel Miami again! Maybe I'll surprise you (and myself) by going next year.In the meantime, for my money (what money?) the best you-are(sort of)-there feeling can be had at the Miami Herald, which flooded the zone with four reporters and posted both a video and slide show to take you into the action. I also appreciated the coverage in the … [Read more...] about Fourth Annual Art Basel Miami Sour Grapes Soufflé UPDATED

Without much warning, the Barnes Foundation e-mailed on Tuesday a "Dear Friends" newsletter announcing that in January it will close five galleries on its second floor: Rooms 14 through 18 will become a large temporary conservation suite in preparation for the move [from Merion to a new facility in Philadelphia], and will therefore close to the public.Here are some works you … [Read more...] about Last Chance to See the Barnes Intact: Some Galleries Are Closing UPDATED

The Pulitzer Board: Adminstrator Sig Gissler, front row, third from rightDevoted art-lings, you may remember that when I rashly entered CultureGrrl in the Pulitzer Prize competition for work done in 2008, I got tossed out at "hello." For the first time this year, blogs were considered as potentially Pulitzer-worthy, so I thought I'd give it a shot.But when I entered my series … [Read more...] about Pulitzer Prize Lifts the “CultureGrrl Exclusion Rule”

The NY Times' gold-background Velázquez, in today's paperVelázquez, "Portrait of a Man," ca. 1630Image from the Metropolitan Museum's websiteNY Times art critic Karen Rosenberg, addressing today a topic that I nosed around on Monday, has been done in by her own photo editors.I imagine that NY Times uses something more sophisticated than my computer's rudimentary Photoshop … [Read more...] about Shoot the Photo Editor: NY Times Gilds the Velázquez CORRECTED

Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, left, accepting this year's Pritzker Prize in May from Tom Pritzker, chairman of the Art Institute of Chicago In the tradition of "nattering nabobs of negativism" (R.I.P. William Safire, who penned that phrase when he was speech writer for Vice President Sprio Agnew), we now can enunciate a new alliterative putdown: "mediocre morsel of … [Read more...] about Architect Watch: Mies Down in Chicago; Zumthor Up in LA

Velázquez, "Portrait of a Man," ca. 1630, Metropolitan Museum of ArtDid you think I was just kidding when I promised you a "comparative assessment of Velázquez noses"? Art-lings, would I kid you?Yes. But not in this instance.When I arrived at the press preview for the Metropolitan Museum's dossier exhibition on its "rediscovered" Velázquez---the previously downgraded "Portrait … [Read more...] about Scholarly Smackdown: Is Velázquez the Subject of the Met’s “Rediscovered” Velázquez?

Tom Campbell yesterday presided over his second press lunch since becoming director of the Metropolitan Museum last January. His delivery was more relaxed and "directorial' than at any previous time I've seen him, and he even leavened his talk with two moments of well received humor---one at his own expense, the other (arrgggh!) at mine. But first, the serious part. Here's Tom, … [Read more...] about MeTube: Tom Campbell Meets the Press (and twits CultureGrrl)

The somewhat forbidding, sign-less façade of the Pulitzer Foundation for the ArtsI  hadn't kept up with the Pulitzer.When I arrived two weeks ago in the gritty part of St. Louis where the Tadao Ando-designed Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts is situated, on a street that, on that weekday morning, had few pedestrian or vehicular passersby, I had expected to find something … [Read more...] about Irreverent Video Essay: Pulitzer Foundation, St. Louis Contemporary

From the Museum of the Unbuilt: Toyo Ito's scrapped model for the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive Lawrence Rinder, fresh from conversing on Oct. 27 with his former Whitney Museum mentor, Max Anderson (who now directs the Indianapolis Museum of Art), announced on Wednesday a disappointing development that must have given Max traumatic flashbacks: The Berkeley Art … [Read more...] about Architectural Trauma: Downsized Berkeley Art Museum Plans May Not Include Toyo Ito

Mies van der Rohe's Test Cell building at Illinois Institute of TechnologyPhoto by Edward LifsonA minor work of Mies van der Rohe, who is being celebrated in the Museum of Modern Art's current Bauhaus show, is being demolished in Chicago, a city very closely tied to his architecture.For months, my blogging buddy, Ed Lifson, has been waging a relentless but futile campaign to … [Read more...] about Mies van der Rohe: Celebrated at MoMA, Destroyed in Chicago

The poignant image now on Christo's and Jeanne-Claude's homepageI got a chance to talk at length with Jeanne-Claude, who died last night at the age of 74, back in 2005 when "The Gates" captured the imagination of all New Yorkers, not to mention visitors from around the world. This glorious transformation made me see my childhood haunt, Central Park, with fresh, enlivened eyes, … [Read more...] about Jeanne-Claude, 74, Gatekeeper of the Christo/Jeanne-Claude Artistic Partnership

Knox Martin's protest art: what remains of his "Venus" mural (with his recently added signature)Last month, CultureGrrl. This week, the New Yorker!The Knox Notch (scroll down) hit the Big Time in the magazine's Nov. 23 issue (which landed in my snail-mailbox yesterday), with its appearance in a full-page photo of Jean Nouvel's in-construction 100 Eleventh Avenue.You can see the … [Read more...] about Knox-ious Notoriety (and the MoMA Monster mash): “Knox Notch” in the New Yorker