Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

LA MOCA's Boardroom It's amazing what a little investigative reporting can do. Kudos to Katya Kazakina and Christopher Palmeri of Bloomberg, who dug out documents and interviewed concerned MOCA trustees to uncover the most disturbing picture yet of the state of the disarray in LA MOCA's finances and governance. This moves the ball way down the field from previous … [Read more...] about LA MOCA’s Financial Morass: Bloomberg’s Kazakina and Palmeri Expose the Shortfalls

In a comment posted to my Wall Street Journal review yesterday on shows of contemporary Native American art in New York, reader Dar Horn wrote:This art will show up in galleries when there is a demand for it. That will only happen when the art buying public is aware of it. Shows like these help. A slideshow in this article would have, too.Dar, your wish is my command. As you … [Read more...] about Native American Slideshow: Objects Cited in My WSJ Review

They were celebrating last night at the Detroit Institute of Arts, as voting results indicated success for the museum's millage. Mark Stryker of the Detroit Free Press reports: A crucial millage for the Detroit Institute of Arts passed easily in Wayne and Oakland counties, but was approved by the slimmest of margins in Macomb County as the final votes were … [Read more...] about Party Time at Detroit Institute: Champagne Spillage for the Millage

[Part I is here.] Last Thursday, I took note of the "alarming number of art museums [that] are currently in extremis or slowly recovering from near-death experiences," and I focused on two formerly moribund but now rebounding institutions---the Rose Art Museum and the American Folk Art Museum (whose current show at the South Street Seaport Museum was favorably reviewed the … [Read more...] about Endangered Art Museums: An Alarming Trend—PART II UPDATED

Donald "Babe" Hemlock, "Ironworker Cradleboard," 2011Photo by Lee RosenbaumI've reviewed many large surveys of Native American art, but never one exclusively devoted to contemporary work. Usually, the recent pieces are shown alongside their historic counterparts, as if to lend them a kind of "legitimacy." In my latest Wall Street Journal piece, Native, North American, New, … [Read more...] about Online Now: My WSJ Piece on Contemporary Native American Art

The likely part-time home of Fisk University's Stieglitz Collection: Crystal Bridges Museum's gallery for early 20th-century American art Photo by Lee Rosenbaum While we're on the subject of endangered art museums, this just in from C. Michael Norton, Fisk University's lawyer in the Stieglitz Collection case, regarding the final disposition of the eminent collection of … [Read more...] about News Flash: Court Order to Send Fisk’s Stieglitz Collection to Crystal Bridges in Fall 2013

On the Upswing: The American Folk Art Museum's former satellite facility at Lincoln Square, now headquarters for the downsized institutionPhoto by Lee RosenbaumNotwithstanding somewhat improved economic conditions since the 2008 meltdown, an alarming number of art museums are currently in extremis or slowly recovering from near-death experiences. Considered together, these … [Read more...] about Endangered Art Museums: An Alarming Trend–PART I

Christopher Bedford, incoming director of Rose Art Museum When Christopher Bedford dives into the directorship of the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, in mid-September, he may find himself in troubled waters. I'm not referring to the Rose's recent choppy stretch (now, thankfully, behind it). I'm alluding to the first exhibition that will open when Bedford walks in … [Read more...] about Rose Shows: Brandeis’ New Museum Director, Christopher Bedford, to Face a Thorny Issue

Elena Stolyarik, the American Numismatic Society's collections manager, serving up a tray of recovered Huntington coins that had been sold in March by the Hispanic Society of AmericaPhoto by Lee RosenbaumRichard Doty, senior curator of numismatics for the Smithsonian Institution's National Numismatic Collection at the National Museum of American History, responds to A Visit to … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Richard Doty, Smithsonian’s Senior Numismatics Curator, on the Recovery of Huntington’s Coins

Public Access Restored: Visigothic coins from Archer Huntington's collection, sold in March by the Hispanic Society of America, now (thanks to a generous donor) back on long-term loan at American Numismatic Society Photo by Lee Rosenbaum Below is Part II of my CultureGrrl Video report on the American Numismatic Society's triumphal retrieval of more than half of the nearly … [Read more...] about A Visit to the ANS Vault: American Numismatic Society Sorts the Coins Recovered from the Dispersed Huntington Collection (with video)

Ute Wartenberg Kagan, executive director, American Numismatic Society, in her New York office Photo by Lee Rosenbaum They've done it again! Last month, I broke the happy news that the American Numismatic Society (ANS) had retrieved about 10,000 of the 37,895 coins from Spain and Spanish-speaking countries that had been on loan to the ANS since 1949 from the Hispanic … [Read more...] about News Flash (with video): American Numismatic Society Retrieves Another 9,000 Coins Sold by Hispanic Society

Roberta Smith, NY Times' co-chief art critic [UPDATE: Paul Schimmel, MOCA's departed chief curator, obliquely breaking his silence on the MOCA Mess, linked to this CultureGrrl post on Facebook and wrote this comment about what I wrote: "I am afraid this may be right."] Very late in the day, Roberta Smith, the NY Times' rightfully admired co-chief art critic, has finally … [Read more...] about NY Times’ Roberta Smith in Denial: Her Improbable Action Plan for LA MOCA’s Deitch UPDATED

MOCA"s Geffen Contemporary facilityIn my last post on the MOCA Mess, I decried the "low profile" of Jeffrey Deitch, the museum's embattled and under-performing director, at a tumultuous time when confidence-inspiring leadership was desperately needed.I wrote:As the serious criticism relentlessly piles up from within MOCA's ranks and from outside commentators, MOCA needs to … [Read more...] about MOCA Mess: Jeffrey Deitch Speaks! (via his museum’s blog); LA Times Editorializes

David Bomford, incoming director of conservation, Houston Museum of Fine Arts David Bomford, a casualty of the J. Paul Getty Trust's regime change, had landed on his feet: He is returning to the U.S. and his first love, art restoration. Gary Tinterow, who has hit the ground running as the new director of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, today announced that Bomford would be … [Read more...] about Bomford Bounces Back: Getty’s Ex-Acting Director Goes to Houston

With all the talk lately about faux Pollocks, I'm acquiring one that I can wear!Call me tacky, but when I an e-mail hit my inbox today from the Pollock-Krasner House, trumpeting a "special limited edition [!?!] of Crocs' signature clog, printed with details of the spattered colors on Pollock's studio floor," I ordered a pair. After all, my $39.99 (plus shipping) helps support a … [Read more...] about My Pollock’s a Croc, Plus the Continuing Saga of Iowa’s “Mural”