Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

We geezers who were college students in the late Sixties felt a rush of déjà vu at the sight of today's front-page photos in the NY Times and Wall Street Journal showing confrontations between student demonstrators and police. I came of age in the tumultuous era of Vietnam War protests and racial tensions. I participated in the former, both at Cornell and in Washington. I … [Read more...] about Campus Ruckus: Back to the ’60s

In what would seem to be a new technique for explicating an exhibition that's exasperatingly inexplicable, the NY Times gave three critics---Jason Farago, Travis Diehl and Martha Schwendener---a shot at trying to make sense of "Even Better Than the Real Thing" (EBTTRT, for short)---perhaps the most confusing and confused iteration (in my decades-long professional lifetime) of … [Read more...] about A Show So Nice, the NY Times Reviewed It Thrice: The Whitney’s Bifurcated Biennial

In this DEIA-oriented era, I may incur censure by mildly disparaging The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism---an exhibition that, before its Feb. 25 public opening, had been prematurely hailed as "the Met's new blockbuster," in the words of artnet's Feb. 22 "Art Angle" podcast by the webzine's art critic, Ben Davis, and art scholar Bridget Cooks, a member of the … [Read more...] about Harlem Renaissance Renegade: Metropolitan Museum’s Over-Hyped, Underachieving “Blockbuster”

Please forgive my going somewhat off-topic in this usually art-centric blog, but all professional fields (including the artworld) are impacted by the plight of migrants seeking to enter and remain in the US. As the daughter of an immigration lawyer (who died in 2010 (at the ripe age of 96), I was forcefully struck by the resonance of two opinion pieces offering two very … [Read more...] about The Migrant Crisis: Who Gets to Remain & Work in the United States (now & in the future)?

In my previous post, which concluded with my brief, favorable take on the tenure of Ian Wardropper, soon to retire from the Frick Collection's directorship, I mentioned only one (self-centered) reason for my admiration---his professional courtesy towards me. But there are more substantive reasons why he not only earned my respect but also merits yours. The Frick's recent … [Read more...] about Wardropper Plaudits: Elevating (to the 2nd floor) the Frick’s Visitor Experience

Perhaps because the job of managing museums has been complicated by the complexities of "woke-ness," there's recently been a head-spinning turnover in the Director's Office, with DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) as an overriding imperative. Max Hollein, the straight white male who in 2018 assumed the directorship of the Metropolitan Museum, got in just under the wire before … [Read more...] about Changing the Chains of Command: The Turbulent Turnover in Museum Management

Sometimes it can be fun to wander around an unfamiliar art museum with no clear plan, relying on aimless serendipity to lead you to unexpected visual delights. But more often, if you're an art aficionado and regular visitor, you crave some structure for your visual encounters, and you'd like to know that your can still find your favorites where you had previously savored … [Read more...] about Creel’s Reel: Travelin’ Like Gavin in the Met’s Reinstalled European Paintings Galleries (& my take on that rehang)

Last month, the Louvre and the Palace of Versailles were evacuated due to bomb threats (that were later downplayed as "no real threats"), and pro-Palestinian demonstrations in France were banned as "likely to generate disturbances to the public order." In a post at that time on "X" (the late, lamented Twitter), I wondered if NYC museums might be experiencing similar jitters in … [Read more...] about Security Insecurity: Metropolitan Museum Seeks an “Incident Response Manager” (Pistol Permit Required)

Sotheby's managed to snatch a victory (Pyrrhic?) from the jaws of defeat by prearranging successful sales of all 31 works offered Wednesday night from the Emily Fisher Landau Collection of modern, postwar and contemporary art. Auctioneer Oliver Barker was able to announce at the end of that very uneven evening that 100% of the offerings had found buyers (aka: "a White-Glove … [Read more...] about “White Glove” Treatment: Sotheby’s Fishy Fisher Landau Claim (plus: Fond Farewell to Christie’s Jussi Pylkkänen)

Is the bronze statue that was seized-in-place by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg really from Bubon (the ancient city in what is now Turkey), as claimed by the DA in support of his effort to dislodge it from its longtime home at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), relocating it to Turkey, its supposed country of origin? Notwithstanding the unequivocal claims made by … [Read more...] about Bubon(ic) Plague: Serious Doubts About the Supposed Ancient Home of Cleveland’s Contested Statue

I did a double-take when I saw this image (below) of a bronze statue that the museum-raiding Manhattan District Attorney's office is attempting to wrest from a museum far outside its home territory---the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA): That ancient dignitary immediately brought to my mind another statue, on conspicuous view in the Greek and Roman galleries of New York's … [Read more...] about Statues & Statutes: Feisty Cleveland Museum Fights Back in Dispute with Manhattan DA (CORRECTED)

I did a double-take last week upon seeing the Wall Street Journal's belated rave for what the newspaper's art writer, Lance Esplund, described as an "enchanting, community-curated show" of Pueblo pottery (Grounded in Clay, to June 4, 2024). It had opened at the Metropolitan Museum some three months before the WSJ's review appeared. As CultureGrrl readers know, I had serious … [Read more...] about Metropolitan Museum’s Curators are Grounded by Its Uneven “Grounded in Clay” Display

UPDATE: I have reluctantly taken down the video that I had originally included in this blog post, in response to the request that I received from the scholar whose comments I had taped at Monday's "Rosh Hashana Pop-Up"---a public talk about two important manuscripts that were displayed at the Met. Two "Renaissance Masterpieces of Judaica," as described in the Metropolitan … [Read more...] about Jewish Scribes & Christian Artists: High-Holiday Torah Study at the Metropolitan Museum (UPDATED)

With the Jewish Museum's imminent change of leadership, I can soon revisit its landmarked 1908 Warburg mansion on 5th Avenue in New York (which I've largely avoided under the 11-year directorship of Claudia Gould), feeling much more confident that it is under auspicious auspices. James Snyder, who had directed the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, for 22 years, has been named to assume … [Read more...] about Jerusalem Musings: My Hour in Israel with James Snyder, Now Director-Designate of NYC’s Jewish Museum

I guess it was just a matter of time before the Barnes Foundation, once an intimate, inviting setting for enjoying art and nature in bucolic surroundings, took the (once unthinkable) step of making temporary art loans to other institutions---a deviation from the late Albert Barnes' trust indenture, which set forth specific strictures governing the operation of his eclectic, … [Read more...] about Albert Barnes’ Shaken Foundation: Deviating from Founder’s Strict Dictate That His Trove Remain Intact