Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

I recently got tapped by Apollo magazine to tackle the topic listed on the lower-right corner of the January cover (above): "The trouble with museum franchises." Little did I know how timely this would turn out to be, thanks to the just released 2014 independent monitor report on employment practices at projects (including the Louvre Abu Dhabi) on Saadiyat Island, where the … [Read more...] about My Apollo Magazine Debate on Satellite Museums; Plus: Latest Abu Dhabi Workers’ Rights Report

I visit museums to admire and understand the work produced by the most talented people in their fields, not to try my hand at doing what they do. That means I'm probably not the ideal visitor for the reconceived, interactive Cooper Hewitt that has finally reopened after a too-long, three-year hiatus. All photos by Lee Rosenbaum It's not that I don't appreciate the … [Read more...] about The DIY Museum, Part I: New Souped-Up Cooper Hewitt (with video)

As a lover of painting, I was rooting for the curator Laura Hoptman's survey of current art in that venerable genre---The Forever Now, which opened yesterday (to Apr. 5) at the Museum of Modern Art. Sadly, this show didn't do much to help the cause. I had high hopes that this 17-artist exhibition of works featuring pigment that is applied by hand, not digitally … [Read more...] about “Forever Now,” Forever Yesterday: MoMA’s Failed Defense of 21st-Century Painting

I'm not the only one speculating about Neil MacGregor's reasons for temporarily losing his Marbles. New York playwright Spence Porter responds to Preparing for Lawsuit? Why Might Neil MacGregor Be Doubling Down on His Elgin Marbles Bet?: I'm not an attorney so this may be totally off base, but I can't help thinking of another reason for the British Museum to do the Russian … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Spence Porter on British Museum’s Elgin Marble Loan

Jane Freilicher, the deftly atmospheric figurative painter whose death at the age of 90 was announced yesterday by her New York gallery, Tibor de Nagy, was one of the artists I interviewed for a Mar. 7, 1993 piece in the NY Times "Arts & Leisure" section (no link available) on "older" artists (then in their 50s and 60s) who were well known but had fallen out of … [Read more...] about Stubbornly Figurative in an Age of Abstraction: Jane Freilicher, 90, Dies

In his sudden, astonishing campaign to make piecemeal loans of Parthenon Marbles to foreign museums, Neil MacGregor---a lawyer before he became a museum professional---may be laying the groundwork for the British Museum's defense against the Greek government's contemplated lawsuit to reclaim the so-called Elgin Marbles. After I posted my perplexity as to why the always … [Read more...] about Preparing for Lawsuit? Why Might Neil MacGregor Be Doubling Down on His Elgin Marbles Bet?

More on this here. Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, is not a stupid person. So what can he have been thinking when he recently said (as reported by BBC Radio 4) "that he hoped the Greek government would be 'delighted'" about his institution's loan to the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, of the River-God Ilissos---a reclining male figure originally from … [Read more...] about Neil MacGregor Plays Russian Roulette with the Acropolis Marbles

I had planned a more buoyant announcement of my "exciting personal news," as I called it in a draft written this afternoon. But it's hard to be self-congratulatory about relatively trivial matters when many of us in the NYC area tonight are mourning a "grotesque and outrageous" miscarriage of justice. So here, without embellishment, is my bit of news: I've been awarded the … [Read more...] about Blogger’s Bounty: CultureGrrl Receives Arts Writers Grant

The architects on the Guggenheim's six-firm shortlist for its proposed (but not yet government-approved) Helsinki facility are neither starchitects nor Scandinavians. The names and designs of the six finalists were released today at 4:14 a.m., NYC time (a more civilized hour in Helsinki). As I mentioned in yesterday's post, the architectural firms have now been publicly … [Read more...] about No Gehry Guggenheim: Six Outliers Are Finalists for Helsinki Outpost

More on this here. When we awake in the U.S. tomorrow (unless you're an insomniac or even more of a night owl than I am), the Guggenheim will have announced the six finalists chosen from the 1,717 anonymous submissions in the architectural competition for its proposed Helsinki satellite facility (which has not yet received government approval). The decision of the 11 jurors is … [Read more...] about Good Morning, Helsinki: Guggenheim Poised to Announce Six Shortlisted Architects

Kevin Murphy, curator of American art at the Williams College Museum of Art (and previously at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art), elaborates on Flight from Bentonville: Ex-Crystal Bridges Curator Kevin Murphy on Why He Left: I worried slightly when I read your initial blog post, because I do tend to err on the side of candor. The Afghanistan comment riled some Arkansan … [Read more...] about “Willful Provincialism”: More From Williams Curator Kevin Murphy on Crystal Bridges

In the Detroit Institute of Arts' recent ordeal, there's a sweeping, important takeaway for the entire museum field that went unmentioned in my Wall Street Journal article last week on the broader significance of that museum's expensive, protracted legal battle to protect the integrity of its collection. The legal proceedings (which, fortunately, went the DIA's way) … [Read more...] about From Detroit to Delaware: Why We Need Government Deaccession Regulations

Part I is here. Kevin Murphy's lament, posted last week on CultureGrrl, about his disheartening curatorial experience at Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, AR, struck a responsive chord with the museum's founding curator, Chris Crosman. Titled "chief curator" for most of the six years that he worked on the museum's development, Crosman left Crystal Bridges less than two … [Read more...] about Flight From Bentonville, Part II: Chris Crosman, Crystal Bridges’ Founding Curator, on Its Brain Drain

Sotheby's goals and strategies have changed under its newly constituted board, but Bill Ruprecht, the firm's savvy, steely CEO since 2000, may not have changed along with them. That's my speculative takeaway from yesterday evening's cryptic but not surprising announcement that Ruprecht and Sotheby's would be parting ways. In listening over the years to the quarterly … [Read more...] about Bill Ruprecht’s Planned Departure from Sotheby’s: Changed Priorities, Competitive Pressures

For the long beleaguered Detroit Institute of Arts, there's been a happy ending, fittingly celebrated at the museum's gala, which by happenstance occurred the day after Judge Steven Rhodes' favorable ruling. But unless they take preemptive action, other museums with city-owned collections might not be so lucky, as I discuss in After Detroit's Close Call, my article on the … [Read more...] about What Happened in Detroit Stays in Detroit? My Wall Street Journal Takeaway on Detroit Institute’s Ordeal