Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

NY Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, would-be slayer of the MoMA MonsterAt its review session Monday, New York's City Planning Commission gave its go-ahead for Jean Nouvel's MoMA/Hines tower, as modified by the City Council's Land Use Committee. The project still needs to be approved by the full City Council, which may well happen at its Oct. 28 meeting. The full Council almost … [Read more...] about Only Two More Hurdles for the MoMA Monster: City Council and the Economy

It's not on the website at this writing, but the Center for Curatorial Leadership has just announced its 2010 fellows. (How did the Metropolitan Museum gets TWO spots?)Here are the chosen dozen, who intend to hone their "administrative, managerial, and fundraising expertise":Christophe Cherix, Curator, Department of Prints and Illustrated Books, Museum of Modern Art, New … [Read more...] about Center for Curatorial Leadership Names 2010 Fellows

Merryl H. Tisch, Chancellor, NY State Board of RegentsThe NY State Board of Regents yesterday bought more time: It unanimously revised and extended its emergency rules on deaccessioning by museums and historical societies, postponing the adoption of final rules, which had previously been planned for this month's meeting. This is is the latest of six emergency actions on this … [Read more...] about Deaccession Regulations: NY State Regents Extend (and revise) Temporary Rules

Click above, to show you care.I'm not wealthy and I don't make many donations. I give almost exclusively to entities that have greatly enhanced my own quality of life---primarily the educational institutions that I've attended. And as soon as I finish writing this post, I intend to make a contribution to WQXR, the New York classical music station that I listen to daily and rely … [Read more...] about Why I’m Donating to WQXR (and why you should support CultureGrrl)

While we await the next stage (back today to the City Planning Commission) in the MoMA Monster's journey through New York City's convoluted government approval process, let's have a return engagement today of the CultureGrrl Channel's video star, the Museum of Modern Art's director, Glenn Lowry. You can watch him argue for the benefits to MoMA of Jean Nouvel's Empire State … [Read more...] about MeTube: Glenn Lowry Defends MoMA Monster; Knox Gets Notched

They trashed my show! If reviews could kill, Bye Bye Birdie would be posting a closing notice. Fortunately, the power of the NY Times reviewer to make or break a production is diminished in this era when word of mouth (and tweet of smart phone) can have a bigger impact on theatrical fortunes than Brantley rants or Teachout clouts. I hope there are enough people who felt about … [Read more...] about I Love You, “Birdie”! (no matter what the critics say) UPDATED

Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait, "The Life of a Hunter: A Tight Fix," 1856, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art CultureGrrl readers are a devoted, savvy bunch: Two different museum curators wrote to inform me that BOTH Crystal Bridges-owned works in the Metropolitan Museum's current American Stories exhibition were previously owned by mega-collector Richard Manoogian---not just … [Read more...] about Manoogian Maneuvers: Michigan Collector Owned Crystal Bridges’ Tait; May Have Purchased National Academy’s Church, Gifford

Dana Schutz, "How We Would Drive," 2007, purchased with funds from the Rose Purchase Fund Endowment and funds from the Rose Museum Board of Overseers (image courtesy of Zach Feuer Gallery)This just in from the Boston Globe:A Suffolk Probate Court judge denied yesterday a motion [by Brandeis University] to dismiss a lawsuit filed by three members of the Rose Art Museum's board … [Read more...] about The Rose Row: Judge Allows Court Case Against Brandeis Art Sales to Continue

Dietrich von Bothmer, about 1980 (photo courtesy of Metropolitan Museum)The Art History Newsletter reports that Dietrich von Bothmer, 90, the Metropolitan Museum's former chairman of Greek and Roman art, has died. He enriched the museum's collection during an earlier era of antiquities collecting practices that was characterized by "don't ask, don't tell" when it came to issues … [Read more...] about Dietrich von Bothmer, Former Met Chairman of Greek and Roman Art, Dies UPDATED

The one section of the large site for the planned Downtown Whitney that has thus far been cleared for construction, as seen from the High Line Carol Vogel optimistically reported in Monday's NY Times that the Whitney Museum is "forging ahead with plans to build a second museum at the entrance to the High Line, the abandoned elevated railway line that has recently been … [Read more...] about This is “Forging Ahead”? Whitney Must Cough Up $18 Million for City-Owned Site

Hilt Fitting from the Staffordshire HoardI've given up trying to sell you links: No one's buying Lee's List, my failed quest for micro-donations. The best links in life are (alas) free:---To Catch a Looter: On today's NY Times Op-Ed page, Roger Atwood, citing a Peruvian model as an example for Iraq, calls for citizen patrols of artifacts-rich sites as the best means to keep … [Read more...] about Lee’s (free) List: What CultureGrrl is Reading

The American Stories exhibition that opened today at the Metropolitan Museum is an astonishing display of the museum's masterpiece-borrowing macho. Time and again I caught my breath at the audacity of the New York museum's requests for other institutions' signature works---Copley's Paul Revere from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and his Watson and the Shark from the National … [Read more...] about Now at the Met: Crystal Bridges-Owned Painting Sold in 1994 by the National Academy

Glenn Ligon, "Black Like Me #2," Hirshhorn Museum, chosen for the Obamas' personal quarters at the White HouseDid Scott Veale, the NY Times' "Arts & Leisure" editor, and/or Jon Landman, the paper's new culture editor, get Ted Gallagher's memo? In a response to my two-part critique of the Times' cultural coverage, CultureGrrl reader Gallagher had criticized the paper for a … [Read more...] about NY Times Does It Right: Today’s Visual Arts Coverage (and some ObamArt musings)

Without yet saying when the transfer will take place, the French government has agreed to hand over to Egypt five fresco fragments in the Louvre that were recently demanded by Zahi Hawass, the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. The French museum said it had acquired them in good faith in 2000 and 2003. The BBC, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse have the … [Read more...] about Louvre Bows to Hawass’ Demand: Will Return Five Fresco Fragments

Michael Sillerman, attorney for the planned MoMA/Hines towerThe NY City Council's Land Use Committee today approved by a 12-2 vote the City Planning Commission's reduction of the height of the MoMA/Hines tower from 1,250 to 1,050 feet. The developer, Hines, acceded to this reduction during negotiations with Council members after the hearing held Tuesday by the Council Land Use … [Read more...] about MoMA Monster Downsized: City Council Committee Approves 200-Foot Height Reduction