Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

What do you do when you sign onto what sounds like a very promising project---the Metropolitan Museum's Regarding Warhol exhibition (now closed), only to find that it's a popular success but a critical train wreck? You reconceive it. Eric Shiner, director of the most sympathetic place to see Warhol's work---the Andy Warhol Museum, where the show travels (Feb. 3-Apr. … [Read more...] about Warhol Museum Regards the Met’s “Regarding Warhol,” Plans Major Changes

The world of architecture is in mourning. Ada Louise Huxtable, the Pulitzer Prize-winning, high spirited, fiercely opinionated architecture critic, revered by architecture historians and feared by developers, was the pioneer who brought serious, informed architecture criticism to daily newspapers. Her writing was invariably erudite, lucid and witty. The few times when she … [Read more...] about Ada Louise Huxtable, Doyenne of Architecture Criticism, Dies at 91

Late on Friday, a CultureGrrl reader/librarian and a spokesperson for the U.S. Postal Service almost simultaneously e-mailed to me the list I was waiting for---the names of the museums that own the originals reproduced on the glorious Modern Art in America stamps, above, to be issued on Mar. 7 (but available for pre-order now). The Whitney Museum is one of three institutions … [Read more...] about Masterpiece Postage: Museum-Owners of “Modern Art in America” Identified

UPDATE: The first day of issue for the "Modern Art in America" stamps will be Mar. 7. The release will be celebrated at New York's very different but identically named Armory Show at Piers 92 and 94, which opens to the public on the same day when the stamps will be issued. Should a new stamp be launched in connection with the opening of a commercial art fair? Maybe it should … [Read more...] about Masterpiece Postage: USPS Commemorates the Armory Show’s 100th Anniversary UPDATED

Readers of the Letters column of the NY Times may have been surprised to see this Invitation to a Dialogue: An Art Market Bubble? by one William Cole of Sitges, Spain, who "is working on a book [to be published by whom?] on art connoisseurship." He is one of the growing gaggle of contemporary art detractors who deride high-priced works as "outright junk." Times readers are … [Read more...] about Who Is William Cole and Why Is He Leading a NY Times Online Discussion on the Art Market?

Jonathan Landman First Landesman. Now Landman. Jonathan Landman, who was named the NY Times' culture editor in September 2009, announced by e-mail to his staff today (as reported by Andrew Beaujon on the Poynter website) that he would be taking a buyout and leaving the newspaper. No successor has been announced at this writing. (The similarly named Rocco Landesman, as you … [Read more...] about Culture Editor Jonathan Landman Leaves the New York Times; Blogger Andrew Sullivan Leaves the Daily Beast

While the idiocracy in Washington makes its non-plans to keep us teetering on the edge of the fiscal cliff, do not forget, art-lings, that today is the last day of the year to make your non-tax deductible contributions to support CultureGrrl. That said, tomorrow is the first day of next year to make your non-deductible contribution to supportthis blog'scontinued existence. … [Read more...] about The Year in CultureGrrl, 2012 Edition

The American Folk Art Museum's previously preeminent donor and former chairman, the criminally convicted jewelry mogul Ralph Esmerian, made a lot of promises he couldn't keep. When I visited AFAM's Compass: Folk Art in Four Directions (to Feb. 3) at the South Street Seaport Museum last August, I was surprised to see so many objects (including the one above) bearing the … [Read more...] about Esmerian Bankruptcy Deal: American Folk Art Museum May Get to Keep 53 of 263 Works Promised by Disgraced Donor

The short answer: YES! After having been frustrated by the wire barrier (not to mention the dense crowd) when "The Scream" was exhibited at Sotheby's before being sold last May for the highest price ever achieved by an artwork at auction, I finally got to see it up close and personal last week at the Museum of Modern Art, where it's on view to Apr. 29. It was even better … [Read more...] about Eyeballing “The Scream” at MoMA: Is It Worth $120 Million?

For those, like me, who may need a Christmas alternative today, let's blog-travel to Israel, where one of my chief takeaways from my two-week trip last month was how multicultural the Jewish people have been over the centuries. (I had tweeted about this from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, with images: here, here, here, here and here.) Jewish cultural diversity, dependent upon where … [Read more...] about Multicultural Judaism and Landmark Hasidic Exhibition at Israel Museum (with video)

Many thanks to my six December CultureGrrl contributors, including the four who clicked my "Donate" button in response to yesterday's "Participatory Financing" appeal. May I hope for 10 more supportive art-lings by the end of the year? Then we can all go over the Fiscal Cliff together! Meanwhile, my 6,000th follower, relatively new to Twitter and new to me, recently … [Read more...] about Thanks from CultureGrrl: New “Participatory Financiers” (plus 6000th follower)

The crass term for it is begging, but the French prefer a loftier description: "participatory financing." So begins the front-page article by Doreen Carvajal in today's NY Times about how French cultural institutions, notably the Louvre, are passing the chapeau for contributions towards acquisitions and refurbishment. As my art-lings may have noticed, I've grown weary of … [Read more...] about CultureGrrl’s “Participatory Financing” (plus: Who wants to be my 6,000th Twitter follower?)

When I traveled to China two years ago, my group's first stop was, of course, Tiananmen Square, where one can see one of the few publicly displayed portraits of the formerly ubiquitous Chairman Mao: I learned when I was there that the very mention of Mao to many Chinese has become taboo. In a turnabout-is-fair-play scenario, he has become almost a non-person in his homeland, … [Read more...] about Behind the Ban of Warhol’s “Mao” in China: Purging the Chairman’s Presence

The Chicago-based Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy today announced that its exhaustive efforts to save from a developer's wrecking ball the David Wright House, which the celebrated architect had built in 1950-52 for his son in Phoenix, had succeeded, with its sale to an undisclosed preservation-minded benefactor. According to the conservancy's press release: The … [Read more...] about Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy Engineers Rescue of Phoenix’s David Wright House

By Fall 2014, when the Metropolitan Museum's in-construction, four-block-long entrance plaza is expected to reopen to the public, you'll gaze upon new fountains, granite paving, plantings, tables, chairs and dramatic nighttime illumination. But you won't see this... Rendering of the proposed (now eliminated) information and ticketing kiosk, designed by architect Rick … [Read more...] about Mather Matters: Famed Architect’s Kiosks Axed from Metropolitan Museum’s Plaza Renovation (with videos)