You the Man Now Dog

I haven’t updated in a bout week. After returning from New York I was swamped with art students trying to print their final projects. Everything will be back to normal this coming week. I’m hoping to post a recap of art viewing from my trip and a recap of what is going on with MOCA. In the meantime, The New York times has an article on next years Whitney Biennial curators. Former BAS guest Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari have been named curators of the 2010 show.

via the New York Times:

“…First, the Biennial. Although it seems as if there just was one (there was, ending in June), officials at the Whitney Museum of American Art are already plotting the sequel, scheduled to open in March 2010. This week they are announcing the choice of curators, who in years past have consisted of
all-Whitney teams, groups of outsiders, or variations in between.

This time the museum has paired Francesco Bonami, 53, a seasoned Italian-born curator with an international reputation, and Gary Carrion-Murayari, 28, a homegrown senior curatorial assistant. Mr. Bonami will serve as curator for the Biennial, with Mr. Carrion-Murayari acting as associate curator.”

Read the entire article here

Eli Broad at BCAM

Last week I reblogged that LA’s MOCA was having some serious financial problems. Here is a brief recap of last week’s events.

Following the report of MOCA’s woes Jeremy Strick sent an e -letter in response to the report. In the LA Time’s post a reader points out that MOCA’s 990 statement posted to Guidstar.com shows that Strick not only makes about half a million a year but also that the institution has loaned him about another half mill for a house. The comments are totally worth checking out.

On the 20th art critic Christopher Knight asked the two questions: “Are you freakin’ kidding me? What on Earth do you think you’re doing?”

Then it looked as if MOCA had been looking to LACMA for a bailout.

On Friday Eli Broad, who was a founding chairman for MOCA, had announced that he would be willing to help them out with a $30 million donation if other people would also help.

There have been a lot of good discussions going on Culture Monster’s (not to be confused with C-Monster) posts this past week. Many readers have been blaming the museum’s lack of publicity and what some have claimed to be too high of salaries for it’s directors. In the past 5 years or so MOCA has had some really big shows. They had the Warhol Retrospective in 2002, the Basquiat retro in 2005, Masters of American Comics in 2005, WACK in 2007, and Murakami’s huge show this past summer, all of which were packed when I saw them (I am from LA). Maybe they do not have as many visitors as the Art Institute but I’m sure their attendance rate is not hurting so bad, maybe I’m wrong. It just seems that all of this comes down to horrible financial planning and poor fundraising. If Broad does help them out, what is MOCA going to do to make sure this doesn’t happen again?