Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

Rocco LandesmanEven a federal agency, in rolling out news of great interest to the entire nation's arts community, has a NY Times-first policy. The official announcement of Rocco Landesman's confirmation as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts states:Mr. Landesman will not be available immediately for media interviews [emphasis added]. However, those interested in … [Read more...] about The Rocco Landesman Show: A Mixed Review

The signature image on Twitter of "artdetective," my enablerI'm an ambivalent tweeter. I started because several people said that if you blog, you gotta tweet. The young(er) Bloomberg reporter who successfully convinced me to try it (during our chat at the Met's "Afghanistan" preview) wrote back approvingly that I'd soon become addicted. Mercifully, that hasn't happened. The … [Read more...] about Twitter Dependency: Addicts in Painful Blather Withdrawal

Send a micro-donation of $1.50 my way (via my "Donate" button in the middle column), and I'll shoot you my latest links: Tennyson, Keats (for all you literary fans), Sifton (several links), MoMA/Hines (two links).Meanwhile, Canada actually did respond to yesterday's Schnorrer Shoutout: Many thanks to CultureGrrl Macro-Donors from Detroit, MI (that's pretty close) and (YES!!!) … [Read more...] about Lee’s List: What CultureGrrl is Reading Today

Remarks by two leading British museum directors---Neil MacGregor and Nicholas Serota---during a recent public conversation (scroll to July 7) at the London School of Economics and Political Science, elicited notable comments from two CultureGrrl readers:Alan Wallach, Professor of Art. Art History and American Studies at the College of William and Mary, reponds to Serota and … [Read more...] about BlogBacks: Readers Respond to Comments by MacGregor and Serota

It's not exactly prime time, but the post on The Art of Blogging About Art in the Art Beat blog (not to be confused with the ArtsBeat blog) of public television's "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" features CultureGrrl (along with the LA Times' Culture Monster and the Poetry Foundation's Harriet). CultureGrrl had the distinction of being the only single-author blog in the bunch.One … [Read more...] about My Star Turn with PBS’s “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” (on its blog)

Send a micro-donation of $1.50 my way (via my "Donate" button in the middle column), and I'll shoot you my latest links: Brooklyn Museum tech, new university museum guidelines, Sotheby's finances (2 links), Guggenheim radio broadcast. And here's my favorite---The Art of Blogging About Art, featuring:I'll have more to say about that bit of unsought, welcome publicity, COMING … [Read more...] about Lee’s List: What CultureGrrl is Reading Today

Sam SiftonFrom the NY Times' Culture Editor to...its RESTAURANT CRITIC?!? I had to rub my eyes and read John Koblin's NY Observer article twice. Then I checked my calendar to make sure it wasn't Apr. 1. This, apparently, is for real, art-lings. Koblin quotes the staff memo from Times executive editor Bill Keller, regarding the designation of Sam Sifton to succeed Frank Bruni as … [Read more...] about NOT a Spoof: Sam Sifton Named NY Times’ New Restaurant Critic UPDATED

A still (taken at the site of the planned Philly Barnes) from Don Argott's new documentary, "The Art of the Steal"Based on the research in John Anderson's 2003 book chronicling the battle over the fate of the Barnes Foundation, Art Held Hostage (reviewed here by Eric Gibson of the Wall Street Journal), a new documentary, "The Art of the Steal," directed by Don Argott, will be … [Read more...] about “Art of the Steal”: Documentary on the Barnes Battle at Toronto Film Festival

Send a micro-donation of $1.50 my way today (via my "Donate" button in the middle column), and I'll shoot you these links: African art market, Andy Warhol Museum, new book on blogs, Charles Gwathmey obit, Detroit Institute's restitutions.As expected, I've attracted some criticism for charging for links that other bloggers bestow for free. So let me try to explain: ---First, I'm … [Read more...] about Lee’s List: What CultureGrrl is Reading Today

Even in the dog days of summer, the Museum of Modern Art and Hines, the real estate developer, managed to assemble their heavy hitters for the City Planning Commission's public hearing on July 22 regarding architect Jean Nouvel's proposed mixed-use glass tower, which would include space for MoMA's expansion. Left to right: Glenn Lowry, MoMA's director; Michael Sillerman, … [Read more...] about Defending the MoMA Monster at City Planning: No Crowds, No Shadows

Art Buchwald, champion museum sprinterThe NY Times editors were so pleased to have one of Michael Kimmelman's sporadic contributions from abroad that they privileged with Page-One placement the peripatetic culture critic's dog-bites-man story about the short attention spans of visitors at the Louvre. This yielded an opportunity to publish an appealing photo of 16th-century … [Read more...] about Slow News Day: Kimmelman on Museum Visitors’ Attention Spans UPDATED

I know, art-lings. You're anxiously awaiting my report/photo essay on the City Planning Commission testimony by Lowry, Nouvel and other proponents of Jean's Beanstalk, the 85-story sliver that developer Hines wants to plant on a small plot adjacent to the Museum of Modern Art. But first, let's round out our airing of the opponents' views. Below is a video now posted on the new … [Read more...] about Attack of the NIMBYs: Video Shoots the MoMA Monster

I got to the hearing room early on July 22 for the 10 a.m. meeting of the City Planning Commission, claiming a ringside seat for the slugfest between high-powered proponents of the MoMA/Hines project and the neighborhood NIMBYs. As it happened, the MoMA Monster's turn for discussion came up dead last, at 12:15 p.m. Almost three hours after that, when I finally fled the scene, … [Read more...] about MoMA-Monster Smackdown: Tilting at Skyscrapers at the City Planning Hearing UPDATED

Send a micro-donation of $1.50 my way today (via my "Donate" button, in middle column), and I'll shoot you these links: De Montebello's talk in Maine Contrarian Melikian says art market is booming Flaw in the Rose overseers' case Art Capital Group Inc. v. [Annie] Leibovitz Art and Science of Getty's Conservators Criticizing the British National Portrait Gallery's copyright … [Read more...] about Lee’s List: What CultureGrrl is Reading Today

Joseph Medicine CrowPresident Obama has just send a tellingly symbolic message about the difference in priorities [please see UPDATE, below] of his administration from those of the Bush Administration---his just-announced list of 16 recipients of the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor.On Jan. 13, in the waning days of his administration, … [Read more...] about Obama’s Presidential Medals of Freedom: Diverse Game-Changers UPDATED