Robin PogrebinIn her National Academy update in Saturday's NY Times, Robin Pogrebin lost me at the first sentence:In December the National Academy unleashed a firestorm of controversy when it announced that it was selling two important Hudson River School paintings to pay its bills.Announced??? As anyone who has followed this controversy surely knows, the Academy never … [Read more...] about Correction Please: NY Times’ National Academy Story Riddled with Errors UPDATED
BlogBack: Michael Rush, Rose Art Museum’s Director, on His CBS-TV Soundbite
Michael Rush showing CBS-TV's Martha Teichner around the Rose Art Museum, aired yesterdayMichael Rush, embattled director of Brandeis University's beleaguered art museum, responds to yesterday's post, in which I criticized his "million-dollar babble" during his conversation with correspondent Martha Teichner on CBS-TV's Sunday Morning show:I respect your passion about sale of … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Michael Rush, Rose Art Museum’s Director, on His CBS-TV Soundbite
It’s 12 a.m. Do you know where CultureGrrl’s “Donate” button is? UPDATED
UPDATE: One gentle reader has affirmatively and generously answered the call of this post's headline. Thanks to my new benefactor, I'm up and blogging. And the rest of you...?I hate goading you, art-lings. But whenever I try to wake up and shake down my devoted readers, someone actually realizes that he does value what I do, and decides that it's high time to show support.Could … [Read more...] about It’s 12 a.m. Do you know where CultureGrrl’s “Donate” button is? UPDATED
More Than 50 Rose Family Members Condemn Vitiation of Brandeis’ Rose Art Museum
Michael Rush taking CBS-TV's Martha Teichner on a tour of the Rose Art Museum (aired today)This just in from the kin of Edward and Bertha Rose, founders of Brandeis University's Rose Art Museum:More than 50 members of the Rose family have come together to condemn the actions of the current Brandeis administration in closing the Edward and Bertha C. Rose Art Museum and selling … [Read more...] about More Than 50 Rose Family Members Condemn Vitiation of Brandeis’ Rose Art Museum
Shops Flop: Met’s Bottom Line Hurt by Unprofitable Retail Operations
The Met's satellite store at New York's JFK Airport, Terminal 8Last month, the Metropolitan Museum announced that it was closing 15 of its "under-performing satellite shops around the country" and had also "instituted a museum-wide hiring freeze." (Eight of the 15 stores had already closed.)The action seemed counterintuitive, because shops are supposed to help the bottom line. … [Read more...] about Shops Flop: Met’s Bottom Line Hurt by Unprofitable Retail Operations
In Case You Missed Me…
As you can see from the prior post, I'm (very happily) back in the blogging business, after having endured Medical Wednesday and Thursday at the hospital. Putting my mother through a difficult test was tough, but had a happy ending: We had indications that she might have had a recurrence of something no one wants to recur, but, so far, this appears to have been a false alarm. … [Read more...] about In Case You Missed Me…
National Academy and Rose Museum Contretemps Featured on CBS-TV This Sunday
Martha Teichner, correspondent for CBS News' "Sunday Morning"CBS-TV's Sunday Morning news show this week will feature a report on the National Academy's and Rose Art Museum's art-disposal controversies---"The Art of Survival: Deaccessioning Artworks" (Scroll down to the bottom of the list of this Sunday's stories.)Here's the description of the segment: With arts institutions … [Read more...] about National Academy and Rose Museum Contretemps Featured on CBS-TV This Sunday
The National Academy/AAMD Contretemps: Preliminary Accord Reached
Dan Monroe, chairman of the AAMD's Art Issues Committee and director of the Peabody Essex Museum---one of those who met this week with Carmine Branagan, director of the National AcademyThe National Academy, in discussions this week with representatives from the Association of Art Museum Directors, agreed not to sell the two works---by John White Alexander and Robert Blum---that … [Read more...] about The National Academy/AAMD Contretemps: Preliminary Accord Reached
Perils of the Single-Collector Museum: Terra Foundation’s Museum of American Art Giverny Folds
The late Daniel Terra in the now defunct Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 1987 I'm a little late getting this news, which I discovered from a Feb. 18 post by my French blogging buddy, Didier Rykner, in his Art Tribune. Didier reported that the Musée d'Art Américain Giverny (MAAG) had "closed its doors to make way for the Musée des Impressionismes. The Terra Foundation … [Read more...] about Perils of the Single-Collector Museum: Terra Foundation’s Museum of American Art Giverny Folds
Artists’ Jobs: Even Worse than NEA’s New Report Suggests
The National Endowment for the Art's recently unveiled report about the "sharp increase in unemployment" among visual and performing artists' makes the job situation look bad. Actually, it's worse.Based on recent U.S. Census Bureau surveys that were conducted on behalf of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the report's findings apply only to those for whom art is their "primary … [Read more...] about Artists’ Jobs: Even Worse than NEA’s New Report Suggests
WSJ Gives a Deserved Rave to Met’s French Bronze Show
Louis Garnier (Medallions by Simon Curé; Later additions by Augustin Pajou), "The French Parnassus," 1718-1721; Pajou additions, 1762 and 1777, Musée National de VersaillesI guess James Draper and Ian Wardropper didn't really need me to protect them from Ken Johnson's bashing in the NY Times after all:Finally, the Metropolitan Museum's Cast in Bronze: French Sculpture from … [Read more...] about WSJ Gives a Deserved Rave to Met’s French Bronze Show
Noortman Paintings, Reported Stolen, Recovered 22 Years Later UPDATED
Noortman Master Paintings, MaastrichtThe NY Times isn't touching this one with a 10-foot pole.I need to be careful too, so all that I'm going to do, for now, is link to this story from Great Britain's Times, which quotes a detective making damaging allegations about the late Maastricht old masters dealer, Robert Noortman, whose gallery was acquired by Sotheby's in 2006, shortly … [Read more...] about Noortman Paintings, Reported Stolen, Recovered 22 Years Later UPDATED
NY Times’ Gagosian Profile: More “Style” than “Business”
Larry GagosianNOTE: I was holding this piece for tomorrow morning, but since ArtJournal's newest blogger, Judith Dobrzynski, this evening discusses what she calls, "the most interesting arts story in Sunday's New York Times," I thought I should weigh in now with my contrarian view.The long profile of mega-dealer Larry Gagosian by David Segal, on the front page of today's NY … [Read more...] about NY Times’ Gagosian Profile: More “Style” than “Business”
Jeremy Strick’s New Gig: Not Your Founder’s Nasher
Inside (and outside) the Nasher Sculpture Center If you connect the dots in my Q&A with Jeremy Strick, published yesterday, you will note that I found (literally) 10 different ways of asking him what mistakes he made that contributed to LA MOCA's near-fatal financial crash. Jeremy found 10 different ways of admitting that he bore some responsibility, while evading my … [Read more...] about Jeremy Strick’s New Gig: Not Your Founder’s Nasher
National Academy’s Branagan to Meet with AAMD Representatives
Carmine Branagan, director of the National Academy Following up on the Association of Art Museum Director's stated willingness to "revisit its decision" blackballing the National Academy for its desperation deaccessions, and taking it up on its offer to meet with "the National Academy's leaders to clarify their intentions for the future of the collection," Carmine Branagan, … [Read more...] about National Academy’s Branagan to Meet with AAMD Representatives