Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

It's not yet time to panic, but if you care about federal arts funding, it is time to make some noise. The House Appropriations Committee's proposed Fiscal 2014 Budget (beginning Oct. 1) for Interior, Environment and Related Agencies, includes what would be, if adopted, draconian cuts in the budgets of arts-related federal agencies and museums. The following percentage … [Read more...] about Cultural Politics: House Appropriations Committee Lacks Art Appreciation

The Detroit Institute of Arts, whose rich collection is owned by the destitute City of Detroit, today posted this statement on its website regarding the news that the city has filed for bankruptcy: Like so many with deep roots in this city, the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is disappointed that the Emergency Manager determined it was necessary to file for bankruptcy.  As a … [Read more...] about Detroit Institute of Arts Issues Statement Regarding City’s Bankruptcy Filing Today

Criticized by me on CultureGrrl and on WNYC public radio for over-hyping its rotunda installation as "one of [James] Turrell’s luminous and immersive Skyspaces,” the Guggenheim Museum, I've just learned, has posted a video about how "Aten Reign" differs from (and, I believe, falls short of) true Skyspaces. A link to that video was tweeted yesterday by @MOMAPS1, whose Meeting, … [Read more...] about Guggenheim Acknowledges Its Turrell “Skyspace” Isn’t One (plus my video of Turrell explaining how “Aten Reign” was made) CORRECTED

In articles on two successive days at the beginning of this month, the NY Times reported on cultural-property controversies regarding the restitution of artworks with sketchy Nazi-era ownership histories, and the repatriation of antiquities thought to have been illicitly exported from their countries of origin. In both articles, writers Patricia Cohen and Tom Mashberg, … [Read more...] about Repatriation and Restitution: Crimes of Omission in NY Times’ Cultural-Property Coverage

Last Monday, in my second post lamenting the Dia Art Foundation's planned sale of some about 30 works (including all its Cy Twomblys, its only Barnett Newman and two John Chamberlains displayed in the Guggenheim Museum's 2012 retrospective), I wrote that Philippe Vergne, the foundation's director, had "offered to speak with me on Monday [that is, today]. I'll report on that … [Read more...] about Dia Founders Blast Art Disposals: “Complete Betrayal of Trust”

On yesterday's Cleveland Plain Dealer website (and, I assume, in today's hardcopy), Steven Litt reported on an unspecified "economic proposal" made by Sicily to the Cleveland Museum regarding the critically acclaimed (now jeopardized) Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome. Readers commenting on Litt's article, blasting this as "extortion," have been making … [Read more...] about Your Money or Your Show: Sicily Makes Cleveland an Offer It Can (and should) Refuse for “Art and Invention”

Both of these late-breaking developments are hard to swallow. The LA Times' ace arts reporter, Jori Finkel, whom I called "estimable" while she was writing for the NY Times and whose reliable, informed and comprehensive reports I've cited repeatedly since she moved to the West Coast, has been laid off by the financially strapped Los Angeles newspaper. In an … [Read more...] about Here’s to the Losers: LA Times Dumps Jori Finkel; Cleveland Museum Mourns Its Scuttled Sicily Show UPDATED

Now you can! Below is the video of today's White House ceremony for the 24 recipients of the National  Medals of Arts and Humanities. Ironically, despite Obama's appreciation (as stated during the ceremony) of the arts' and humanities' power "to open up minds and nourish souls," he hasn't yet managed to nominate new chairpersons for the National Endowments for the … [Read more...] about Wanna See Ellsworth Kelly Receiving the National Medal of Arts from President Obama?

Why has Philippe Vergne, the Dia Art Foundation's director, green-lighted the wrongheaded plan to raise acquisitions funds by substantially weakening the existing "permanent" collection? Dia's director has yet to grant my requests to discuss with him the rationale behind the decision to auction at Sotheby's all of the foundation's Cy Twomblys, plus key works by John Chamberlain … [Read more...] about More on the “Dia-ccessions”: Honoring Twombly, Discarding Twomblys (and Chamberlains, Newman)

Even after the county legislature had voted in favor of renovating, rather than demolishing, the Paul Rudolph-designed Orange County Government Center in Goshen, NY, there were those who believed that the rescue of this distinctive building was still not a done deal. They were right. Chris Mckenna of Orange County’s Times Herald-Record now reports: Demolition is back in … [Read more...] about Goshen Commotion (not again!): Paul Rudolph’s Orange County Government Center Remains Imperiled

It's beginning to look like Italy's left hand doesn't know what its right hand is doing. At the same time that American institutions are celebrating the Year of Italian Culture in the U.S.---including stellar loans from Italy to the Metropolitan Museum of a Velázquez portrait (to July 14) and the astonishing, over-lifesize Boxer at Rest (to July 15), it appears that American … [Read more...] about Cultural Exchange with Italy (or not): “Boxer at Rest” in Metropolitan Museum vs. Sicily’s Newly Combative Stance (with video) UPDATED

  [UPDATE: More on this, here.] In one of the most problematic art disposals in recent memory, the Dia Art Foundation has announced through Sotheby's that it plans to unload "nearly 30 works" by Cy Twombly, John Chamberlain and Barnett Newman that are "estimated to bring in excess of $20 million." Astonishingly, these include all of Dia's holdings by … [Read more...] about A Cy-ing Shame: Dia Ditches All Its Twomblys

The audio for my conversation with Bloomberg architecture critic James Russell about the in-construction Downtown Whitney is now online. You can hear us here: Although it graciously offers some hat-tips to the Marcel Breuer-designed building that's been the Whitney Museum's home since 1966 (grid-like ceiling, spacious elevators opening directly onto the galleries), the … [Read more...] about James Russell’s and My WNYC Commentary: Meet the New Whitney, Not Like the Old Whitney

UPDATE: More on this, here. Yesterday, the Whitney Museum invited members of the art and architecture press to peruse the not-ready-for-primetime Downtown Whitney. If all goes according to plan, you can hear my premature opinionating about this in-construction cultural anchor for the southern end of the High Line at about 8:30 a.m. on WNYC, New York Public Radio. (You can … [Read more...] about Tomorrow on WNYC: Architecture Critic James Russell and I Double-Team the Downtown Whitney

UPDATE: My Foulkes commentary was used this morning as a news item, not as a full-fledged segment. The WNYC link to that item is here. The piece showing the dead Lone Ranger and Mickey Mouse in drag, which I referred to in this news item, is "The Last Outpost," the second work in my slideshow, below. Here's the podcast for what aired. I was a bit unprepared for the … [Read more...] about Quick Study: My WNYC Speed-Date with Llyn Foulkes at the New Museum UPDATED