Search Results for: max hollein

I have to hand it to Holland Cotter: For better or worse, the NY Times' co-chief art critic was right. I was wrong. In criticizing as "shockingly tone-deaf" Cotter's 3,000-word think piece published almost five months ago, I had opined that his sweeping plan for reinventing museums during their pandemic-related closures was a non-starter at a time when "museums have to … [Read more...] about Consciousness Raised, Budgets Cut: Irreconcilable Imperatives at Metropolitan (& other museums)

The thought-police have come for Keith Christiansen, the Metropolitan Museum's chairman of European paintings. I'm posting (a blog entry, not bond) to bail him out. As reported in yesterday's paper by the NY Times' Robin Pogrebin, Keith's ill-advised (now removed) Juneteenth entry on his personal Instagram feed (also vanished) has ignited a firestorm of indignation for … [Read more...] about Instagram Slam: Don’t Cancel the Metropolitan Museum’s Embattled Keith Christiansen

In a striking departure from their customary reluctance to take strong political stands that would alienate some visitors, art museums around the country, speaking separately but with one voice, responded to the asphyxiation of George Floyd. The Metropolitan Museum arguably had the most startling response, in the form of today's stark banner at the top of its … [Read more...] about The George Floyd Fallout: Art Museums Take a Knee

What if you threw a birthday party and no one could come? That's what happened earlier this month to the most sociable member of my family---CultureGranddaughter, who just turned 4. And that's what happened today to the Metropolitan Museum, which turned 150 on a plague-day when no visitors could enter, let alone celebrate. If you've already seen the Max-&-Dan … [Read more...] about Pollock’s Guest Appearance in the Metropolitan Museum’s Subdued 150th-Birthday Video

When I returned home Mar. 12 from my proud-grandma visit to California (where I had what was probably my last chance for some time to cuddle my newborn granddaughter and her 3-year-old brother), I had to work my way through the announcements of museums' temporary closures that flooded my art-centric inbox. As it now stands (four weeks later), no art museum would be so … [Read more...] about Small Consolation: Museums’ Hit-&-Miss Attempts to Engage Audiences Via “Virtual Exhibitions” UPDATED

The Metropolitan Museum's jittery staff members, some of whose livelihoods are likely to be jeopardized due to the virus crisis, have been granted a month-long reprieve, as outlined in a new letter from President Daniel Weiss and Director Max Hollein. Faced with mounting pushback against its plan to consider implementing cutbacks beginning Apr. 5, the Met (as reported in the NY … [Read more...] about More on Shuttered NYC Institutions: A Brief Reprieve for Met’s Endangered Staff; A “Frick Breuer” Update

At a moment when museums around the country are shattered, shuttered and bracing for hard times, what could be more shockingly tone-deaf than Holland Cotter's 3,000-word "manifesto," published on the NY Times' website on Wednesday (and appearing in the Sunday hardcopy)? In America’s Big Museums on the Hot Seat (aka, "How to Save America's Biggest Museums: A Manifesto"---the … [Read more...] about Cotter Fodder: The Met Museum’s Sober Plan for the Virus Crisis vs. A Critic’s Pandemic Polemic

Say his name! It was disheartening to realize that almost all of the statements issued yesterday by museums and their professional organizations "condemn[ing] the targeting of cultural sites for destruction" (in the words of the American Alliance of Museums) failed to cast blame for those shameful threats directly where the blame lies---on President Trump. As most of you … [Read more...] about Pusillanimous Pussyfooters: Museums Object Mildly to the (unattributed) Threats to Iran’s Cultural Sites

This was the year of our national discontent and contentiousness, as manifested in the artworld by the rallying cry, "Decolonize Museums!" (a euphemism for "Demonize Museums"). The Metropolitan, Whitney and Guggenheim museums and the Museum of Modern Art were all targets of this year's protest demonstrations. For me, as someone who came of age in the '60s and participated in … [Read more...] about The Year in CultureGrrl, 2019 Edition: Museums Become Easy Targets in Difficult Times

How could this have happened? In what seems to have been a "smash-and-grab" theft of major proportions, burglars last week staged a raid, shortly before 5 a.m., on the Historic Green Vault---the repository for treasures of the Dresden Royal Palace---making off with what the Dresden State Art Collections understatedly described as "11 whole items, parts of two others and a … [Read more...] about Blaming the Victim: The Shocking “Green Vault” Assault at Dresden’s Royal Palace (with video)

Max Hollein "is willing to do bold things; he is willing to disrupt the normative practices of the museum," Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, comments approvingly near the beginning of Robin Pogrebin's NY Times appraisal of the Metropolitan Museum's first year under its new director. The fact that "disrupting normative museum practice" is perceived as a … [Read more...] about Monkman Mischief: How Kent’s “Miss Chief Eagle Testickle” May Prank the Met

...or maybe not. The Metropolitan Museum last year had agreed to let the Frick Collection take over the Met's lease next summer on the Whitney Museum's Marcel Breuer-designed former home, conveniently located just a few blocks north of the Frick. But whether this bit of musical chairs will actually happen remains uncertain. The Frick still hopes to mount displays next … [Read more...] about “The Frick Breuer”? Metropolitan Museum May Hand Over the Keys for the Whitney’s Rental in July…

"Times Change" is a time-dishonored argument for justifying moral lapses, whether they're #MeToo transgressions (Plácido Domingo version) or retention of antiquities that were likely looted (Philippe de Montebello version). Those accustomed to the old rules need to get with the new program: The operative slogan has changed from "Times Change" to "Time's Up!" Speaking of … [Read more...] about The “Times Change” Excuse for Past Antiquities Misdeeds: Kapoor/Metropolitan Museum Edition

Having previously shown a fondness for the non finito in old master paintings, the Metropolitan Museum has made a virtue of necessity by doing it again---relying on a repeat loan (to Oct. 6) from the Vatican Museums of a single unfinished painting by Leonardo da Vinci---"Saint Jerome Praying in the Wilderness"---to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the artist's … [Read more...] about “Unfinished” (again) at the Met: A Lone Loan of “Jerome” for Leonardo’s 500th Anniversary (video)

In yesterday's post, I had suggested that the Metropolitan Museum could show its support for the fire-ravaged Notre-Dame Cathedral by returning to it the Head of King David now in the Met's collection, for eventual installation at the building for from which it had been removed during the French Revolution. Today, the Met announced that it would offer a free "informal … [Read more...] about To Be Returned? Met’s Own Notre-Dame Sculpture Figures in Museum’s Program on the Cathedral