Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

UPDATE: My Wall Street Journal review of the Kimbell's Piano Pavilion is here. Wanna see a video preview of the new Renzo Piano addition to the Kimbell Art Museum, opening to the public on Nov. 27? Now your can! This tour of the exterior, posted by KERA, the public broadcasting outlet for North Texas, is narrated by Eric Lee, the Kimbell's director. You'll hear him state … [Read more...] about Another Elaborate Roof: Video Previews of Renzo Piano’s Pavilion for Kimbell Art Museum

Did he really say that? In connection with a case that is scheduled to be heard in court tomorrow, the NY State Attorney General's office, in sharp contrast to its silence on the Hispanic Society of America's coin sell-off and the New York Public Library's American paintings disposal (which included Asher B. Durand's celebrated "Kindred Spirits"), has issued a strongly … [Read more...] about Sleeping Watchdog Awakes! Attorney General Speaks Up on Behalf of Cole Landscape at Seward House

More on this here. In four decades of writing about the art market, I can't recall a more wildly excessive binge of presale promotion than Christie's press release for its upcoming auction of the Jeff Koons' "Balloon Dog (Orange)," 1994-2000, consigned to this fall's evening sale of contemporary art by Greenwich, CT, collector Peter Brant, chairman of Brant Publications (which … [Read more...] about Brant Rant: Christie’s Inflated Hype for Koons’ Puffed-Up “Balloon Dog (Orange)”

This Jewish High Holiday season is a good moment for me to draw some attention to Jack Goldstein X 10,000 at the Jewish Museum, New York (to Sept. 29), an exhibition that has haunted me ever since I viewed it at last May's press preview. Moving me more deeply than most shows I've experienced, it has an elemental force, literally invoking the four elements---earth, fire, … [Read more...] about The Elusive Jack Goldstein Reappears at the Jewish Museum (with videos)

If you feel a need to compromise journalistic principles in order to get first crack at a news story, that's a scoop not worth getting. Writing in today's NY Times about the Gagosian Gallery's planned November show of 10 late de Kooning works, Carol Vogel, a highly accomplished, deeply experienced reporter, seemed demonstrably unconfortable in omitting the most newsworthy … [Read more...] about Gagosian Motion: Pace Gallery’s (not-so-)Exclusive de Kooning Representation UPDATED TWICE and CLARIFIED

As predicted by me and by David Ross (who, as former director of the Whitney Museum, oversaw more than two thousand paintings, watercolors, and drawings from Edward Hopper's estate), the Association of Art Museum Directors will raise no objection to the decision of one if its members, Harry Philbrick, director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, to sell an important … [Read more...] about AAMD’s Blind Eye: No Objections to Pennsylvania Academy’s Upcoming Hopper Sale

David Ross, chair of MFA Art Practice at New York's School of Visual Arts (and former director of the Whitney Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Boston ICA), responds to Hopper Whopper: More on Pennsylvania Academy’s Deplorable Deaccession; Why AAMD Should Act: You are both right and wrong about the proposed Hopper sale. You are right, in that a museum with only … [Read more...] about BlogBack by David Ross on Why AAMD Shouldn’t Intervene, Even Though Pennsylvania Academy Should Keep Its Hopper

The Hopper painting to be sold on Dec. 5 at Christie's by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is the less important of the two paintings by that artist in PAFA's collection, according to the press release issued by museum this morning to announce its planned December sale at Christie's of one of only two Hopper oils in the entire city of Philadelphia. In yesterday's … [Read more...] about Hopper Whopper: More on Pennsylvania Academy’s Deplorable Deaccession; Why AAMD Should Act

More on this, here. This deplorable deaccession couldn't come at a worse time. How can the Association of Art Museum Directors convincingly argue for "the City of Detroit's responsibility to maintain and protect an invaluable cultural resource [the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts] that has been entrusted to its care for the benefit of the public,” when one of the … [Read more...] about Hopper Whopper: Pennsylvania Academy to Sell Prized Streetscape to Buy Contemporary Art

  When I read Sarah Maslin Nir's, Patricia Cohen's and William Rashbaum's NY Times report fingering a particular painter who lived in Queens as the artist suspected by federal authorities of having produced "most, if not all" of the purported (but now questioned) Abstract Expressionist works (many allegedly sold by the now defunct Knoedler & Co. gallery) that are … [Read more...] about Knoedler Curdler: NY Times’ Astonishing Scoop; Plus: Indictment Bombshells in USA v. Rosales

By now you've undoubtedly read about the deplorable looting and damage at religious, cultural and archaeological sites during the recent widespread unrest in Egypt. The Malawi National Museum in the city of Minya, south of Cairo, was particularly hard hit, sustaining the loss of "more than 1,000 other artifacts in the biggest theft to hit an Egyptian museum in living memory," … [Read more...] about Cultural Casualties of Egyptian Unrest: Photo List Released of Objects Lost from Malawi National Museum

Poker-faced David Franklin, director of the Cleveland Museum, called Sicily's bluff and won the hand. But Sicily also walked away from the negotiation table as a winner. Just in the nick of time, the Cleveland Museum and Sicily reached a compromise deal that will bring to Ohio, on schedule (Sept. 29-Jan. 5) and without the additional fees that Sicily had demanded, the entire … [Read more...] about I’ll See Your Charioteer and Raise You a Caravaggio: Cleveland Museum and Sicily Both Win at Exhibition Poker

Having just returned home yesterday from a mini-vacation (during which I played golf and tennis, changed CultureGrandson's diapers and assiduously avoided looking at any art), I found myself embroiled in a friendly Twitter debate with Roberta Smith, the NY Times' co-chief art critic, regarding the merits (her side of the argument) and possible pitfalls (my side) of shows … [Read more...] about Bending for Sonnabend: My Twitter Debate with NY Times Critic Roberta Smith on MoMA’s Dealer Show

UPDATE: More on this, here. People like me who believe that museums should keep the commercial artworld at arms length may have raised an eyebrow at the Museum of Modern Art's announcement last week regarding its first-ever show paying tribute to a commercial dealer---the late Ileana Sonnabend, who died in 2007 in possession of a huge trove of landmark works by a wide range of … [Read more...] about Bending for Sonnabend: Should MoMA Break Precedent by Mounting a Dealer-Tribute Show? UPDATED

As I suggested in my Wall Street Journal review today---Rewriting the History of Abstract Expressionism---the Parrish Art Museum's "uneven but tantalizing sampling" of the work of Alfonso Ossorio emphasizes the phase from his voluminous output that I find least engaging: the works created when he was under the spell of his friend, Jackson Pollock. Ossorio's laborious, clotted … [Read more...] about More Ossorio: Hits and Misses of Parrish Show, Plus My Side Trip to Ossorio Foundation (with video)