Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

Detroit Institute of ArtsDesperate times call for desperate measures. I would ordinarily question a museum's trying to circumvent the usual government taxation and appropriation process, as the Detroit Institute of Arts now seems to be doing. DIA has launched a campaign seeking voter approval on Aug. 7 of a three-county (Wayne, Macomb and Oakland, which is the state's … [Read more...] about Motor-City Woes: Detroit Institute of Arts Seeks Tri-County Property Levy CORRECTED

I'm a sucker for Jill Krementz's photographic portraits of me. This time, she caught me at a Whitney Museum press preview, in the act of preparing my blog post on the Kusama retrospective. These were originally posted in Jill's NY Social Diary photo essay about Kusama at the Whitney: Juggling my trusty Bic pen, discontinued Panasonic Lumix camera, Sony voice recorder and … [Read more...] about Grrl at Work: CultureGrrl Juggling Electronic Paraphernalia at Whitney’s Kusama Preview

Kimerly Rorschach, incoming director of Seattle Art MuseumNo sooner had the Association of Art Museum Directors tweeted about its president Kimerly Rorschach's love of North Carolina (where she is founding director of the Rafael Viñoly-designed Nasher Museum, Duke University, which opened in 2005) than the Seattle Art Museum announced that she would become its new director this … [Read more...] about Kimerly Rorschach Named to Become Seattle Art Museum’s Director (and remains AAMD president)

Lincoln Center's new Claire Tow Theater---the small glass box atop the larger Vivian Beaumont Theater, at the end of the reflecting pool (with the Henry Moores). Metropolitan Opera House is on left.Photo © by Francis Dzikowski / EstoIt shouldn't be big news when the NY Times' architecture critic composes a straightforward architecture review that appraises a signficant new … [Read more...] about Hugh Hardy’s Lincoln Center Theater: NY Times’ Kimmelman Finally Reviews Architecture!

[UPDATE: The last remaining artist on MOCA's board, Ed Ruscha, has now also departed.] The LA Times keeps coming up with daily dispatches about the MOCA mess. Having reported on Friday about artist John Baldessari's protest resignation from the museum's board, it followed up yesterday with news of two more artist-trustee departures---Barbara Kruger and Catherine Opie. In … [Read more...] about Artist Power! Kruger, Opie Join Baldessari in Protest-Resignations from LA MOCA’s Board UPDATED

MOCA's Saturday Night FeverIn his LA Times piece today---MOCA's Board Exits Pile Up---on the defections from the ranks of LA MOCA's trustees, the indispensable Mike Boehm quotes artist John Baldessari on his reasons for resigning from the museum's board: "To live with my conscience, I just had to do it," Baldessari said in an interview Thursday after e-mailing his decision to … [Read more...] about John Baldessari, Defecting MOCA Trustee, on the Tone-Deafness of Jeffrey Deitch

Christopher Bedford, incoming director of the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis At long last, Brandeis University's resurgent Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA, has named a new permanent director, according to Bill Burger, Brandeis' associate vice president for communications: Christopher Bedford, chief curator of exhibitions at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio since late … [Read more...] about Rose Grows: Christopher Bedford of the Wexner Named Brandeis Museum’s New Director UPDATED

Kusamania: Lifelike Yayoi Kusama mannequin in window of Louis Vuitton flagship store, Fifth Avenue, New York. (LV sponsored the Whitney's show and collaborated with Kusama on an extensive, expensive product line.)Photo by Lee RosenbaumKusama avatar's glossy, tacky LV handbag: $3,650Photo by Lee RosenbaumThe return of the resolutely unconventional, relentlessly self-promoting … [Read more...] about Kusama-rama: Spotty at the Whitney (with video)

Leon Black The Wall Street Journal's Kelly Crow reported online yesterday that anonymous sources informed her that Leon Black was the buyer of Munch's "The Scream." The 1895 pastel sold at Sotheby's on May 2 for $119.92 million, the record auction price for any work of art. Black, listed in the current issue of ARTnews as one of the world's top 10 collectors, is founder, … [Read more...] about Did Leon Black Buy Munch’s “The Scream”?

Dorothy Kosinski, in front of Helen Frankenthaler's "Canyon," 1965Photo: © Mary Noble OursIt's not uncommon for art museum directors and visual artists to be named to the National Council on the Arts, the advisory body to the National Endowment for the Arts, which reviews NEA's grants, guidelines and initiatives. (James Ballinger, director of the Phoenix Art Museum is currently … [Read more...] about Dorothy Kosinski, Phillips Collection’s Director, Named to National Council on the Humanities (plus some musings on NEA)

Harold Holzer: Downsized job descriptionHarold Holzer, the Metropolitan Museum's veteran senior vice president for external affairs, is not in the habit of publicizing director Tom Campbell's and president Emily Rafferty's internal staff memos. But he apparently got authorization to release this one, which just landed in numerous inboxes (including mine): THE METROPOLITAN … [Read more...] about Memo Re: Harold Holzer—Metropolitan Museum Seeking New Head of Communications, Marketing, Visitor Services

Eli Broad In all my years covering museums, I've never heard the kind of rhetoric applied to museum practices that Eli Broad employs in his Op-Ed piece for tomorrow's LA Times (online today). I've also never seen a "life trustee," who is not even a voting member of the museum's board, become the sole spokesperson for that institution during a time of crisis. Today, the LA … [Read more...] about Eli Broad Becomes LA MOCA Spokesperson: Seeking “Cost-Effective” Exhibitions

Jeffrey Deitch As I mentioned in my KCRW radio commentary, Jeffrey Deitch was hired as director of LA MOCA (effective June 1, 2010) to be a game-changer. It's important to remember, though, that there was nothing wrong with MOCA's curatorial game as it existed under previous director Jeremy Strick. MOCA's exhibition program was already widely esteemed and shows organized by … [Read more...] about Fiscal Fizzle: Jeffrey Deitch’s MOCA Fundraising

My apologies for giving you the wrong live-listening link on my last post. But you can now hear me (lead-off witness, coming back again near the end), LA Times art critic Christopher Knight and Robert Storr, dean of Yale University's School of Art, discussing the future of LA MOCA, pegged to Paul Schimmel's recent, sudden departure from its chief curatorship. Just click the … [Read more...] about Hear Us Now: Christopher Knight, Robert Storr and Me, Broadcasting on the MOCA Mess

Warren Olney, host of KCRW's "Which Way, L.A.?"If all goes according to plan you can hear me comment on the MOCA mess this evening on KCRW radio , along with LA Times art critic Christopher Knight and Robert Storr, dean of Yale University's School of Art. I'll be crunching numbers and they'll be crunching Jeffrey Deitch on Warren Olney's Which Way, LA?. You can listen live to … [Read more...] about Coming Soon: My LA MOCA Commentary (with Knight, Storr) on “Which Way, LA?” UPDATED