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The Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2008, with its front steps being refurbished

A BILLET-DOUX FOR THE MET
by Thomas Hoving

Aug. 18, 2008

Back in 1967, the Metropolitan Museum selection committee invited me to tell the members what I thought the museum should do next. I prepared for a week and I shocked them. Subsequently, they made me the seventh director and charged me with carrying out my wild recommendations.

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August

Aug. 12, 2008	THE EMPERORS OF ART by Charlie Finch Hypermaterialism from Fifth Avenue to Dubai to Beijing.

Aug. 8, 2008	THE MURDER OF DAMIEN HIRST (as told to Charlie Finch) by Charlie Finch The perfect work of art.

Aug. 5, 2008	CLOSE ENCOUNTERS by Ilka Scobie Chuck Close talks about the young artists he admires and his new tapestry work.

July

July 30, 2008	A KISS FOR KIRCHNER by Charlie Finch "Kirchner and the Berlin Street" at the Museum of Modern Art.

July 25, 2008	BERKSHIRE IDLER by Charlie Finch The state of the arts at Belvoir Terrace Camp in Lenox, Mass.

July 24, 2008	EVERYTHING PLUS THE KITCHEN SINK by Alexandra Anderson-Spivy "Jess 1923-2004" and two group shows put the spotlight on collage.

July 23, 2008	A SIGG JOKE by Charlie Finch More thoughts on the case against the Olympics in China.

July 22, 2008	NOT JUST HOT AIR by Jerry Saltz Jeff Koons, better than you think.

July 21, 2008	BITING AND BRUISED by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp The painting of Marlene Dumas.

July 17, 2008	J.M.W. TURNER, ONE OF A KIND, ONCE AND FOREVER by Thomas Hoving Turner transformed grim and jejune reality into compelling fantasies of color, light and atmosphere.

July 14, 2008	Dia’s Last Chance by Jerry Saltz Does Philippe Vergne have what it takes to keep Dia from being DOA?

July 11, 2008	PAIN IS THE NAME OF THE GAME by Charlie Finch Painter Chuck Connelly in HBO’s new The Art of Failure.

July 9, 2008	TREASURES OF HAJJI BABA by N.F. Karlins "Woven Splendor from Timbuktu to Tibet: Exotic Rugs and Textiles from New York Collectors" at the New-York Historical Society.

July 9, 2008	WATER FALLACIES by Charlie Finch Public art and the public good.

July 8, 2008	UBIQUITOUS ART by Charlie Finch The idea of art is everywhere these days.

July 7, 2008	Take Me to the River by Jerry Saltz Olafur Eliasson’s New York City Waterfalls come on with a wink, not a whoosh.

July 2, 2008	THE DELLA ROBBIA DEBACLE by Paul Jeromack A glazed terracotta by Andrea della Robbia falls off the wall at the Metropolitan Museum.

July 2, 2008	AN IDLER’S DIARY by Charlie Finch Julian Laverdiere, Doug Blau, Sherry Wong, Catherine Murphy, more.

June

June 30, 2008	BURIED TREASURES by Thomas Hoving Two spectacular treasures on loan to the Met.

June 27, 2008	OIL PAINTING by Charlie Finch Abstract Expressionism in the sheikdom.

June 25, 2008	CHAOS THEORY by Charlie Finch Buckminster Fuller, Paul McCarthy, and Salvador Dali’s "Painting and Film"

June 25, 2008	COWBOYS IN ROME by Lavinia Filippi Richard Prince opens at Gagosian Gallery in Rome.

June 23, 2008	MUGGY UGLY by Charlie Finch A new Dennis Oppenheim art project in Union Square Park definitely does not improve the summer weather.

June 23, 2008	Two Coats of Painting by Jerry Saltz Tony Shafrazi, the man who tagged Guernica, tries another way of superimposing new art and old.

June 17, 2008	ANGELS AND ALLIGATORS by Mary Barone An interview with the New York artist Rachel Feinstein.

June 19, 2008	GUNS AND COLLAGES by Carlo McCormick New works from country conceptualist Mike Osterhout.

June 17, 2008	TALKING PICTURES by N.F. Karlins "Glossolalia" at the Museum of Modern Art.

June 13, 2008	MASTERPIECES BY THE MINORS by Paul Jeromack With its recent purchase of a seascape by Abraham de Verwer, the National Gallery of Art makes a smart collecting move.

June 13, 2008	AN IDLER’S DIARY by Charlie Finch Wandering around SoHo and Chelsea at the beginning of summer.

June 12, 2008	BLUE-COLLAR HEAVEN by Kevin Nance A mythic vision of Chicago in Tony Fitzpatrick’s "Portraits of a Remembered City"

June 10, 2008	LAY YOUR BURDEN DOWN by Charlie Finch Chris Burden’s What My Dad Gave Me (2008) at Rockefeller Center.

June 9, 2008	AMERICAN OPTIMIST by Kevin Nance Jeff Koons is the Energizer Bunny of contemporary art.

June 9, 2008	STATUARY STORY by Jerry Saltz David Altmejd’s otherworldly figures create narrative just by standing still.

June 6, 2008	SINISTER SKIES by Alexandra Anderson-Spivy Roger Brown’s dialogue with disaster.

June 3, 2008	THE BASEL OF THE FUTURE by Stefan Kobel An interview with Art Basel co-director Marc Spiegler.

June 2, 2008	The Art World’s Space Invader by Jerry Saltz Does a Warhol look different when it’s hanging above someone’s TV set? Ask Louise Lawler.

May

May 29, 2008	AN ART MUTUAL FUND by Richard Polsky The Los Angeles dealer and author of I Bought Andy Warhol sets up his own "art mutual fund."

May 28, 2008	AMERICAN INVENTOR by Jerry Saltz Remembering Rauschenberg.

May 28, 2008	GOODBYE JOHN by Charlie Finch John Weber, 1932-2008.

May 23, 2008	LIGHT INDUSTRY by Charlie Finch Whimsy and dignity in photographs by Bernd and Hilla Becher.

May 21, 2008	COP ROCK by Steve Mumford At combat outpost Rock in Mosul.

May 21, 2008	THE HOLISTIC DIRECTOR by Phyllis Tuchman An interview with LACMA head Michael Govan.

May 20, 2008	THE EYES HAVE IT by Charlie Finch Operatic lust in new paintings by Rosa Loy.

May 20, 2008	DEATH AND THE ARTIST by Michèle C. Cone Issues of freedom and fame in the work of the Fluxus artist Yoko Ono.

May 19, 2008	ELIZABETH II by Jerry Saltz Elizabeth Peyton returns to life.

May 14, 2008	RAUSCHENBERG/WARHOL by Charlie Finch RIP Robert Rauschenberg, 1925-2008.

May 13, 2008	THE ADVANCE OF BEAUTY by Donald Kuspit Thomas Chimes and Lynda Benglis at Locks Gallery in Philadelphia.

May 12, 2008	MISSION ABORTED by Charlie Finch The nuances of Yale’s Aliza Shvarts controversy.

May 8, 2008	DIAMOND IN THE DESERT by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp Richard Neutra’s modernist Kaufmann House in Palm Springs goes up for auction.

May 7, 2008	BACK AND FORTH by Charlie Finch John Baldessari and Matt Mullican collaborate on "Pong" at Tracy Williams, Ltd.

May 5, 2008	AMONG THE KURDS by Steve Mumford The war in Mosul is one of bombs.

May 5, 2008	THE DAY THE LIGHTS WENT ON by Jerry Saltz Dan Flavin’s 1964 breakout show, in meticulous reproduction.

May 5, 2008	PITCH PERFECT by Charlie Finch Kentucky’s art-and-culture magazine makes provinciality a glam asset.

May 2, 2008	BREATH OF LIFE by Alexandra Anderson-Spivy New works from the George Rickey estate at Marlborough Chelsea and Maxwell Davidson.

April

Apr. 29, 2008	SCHNABEL AND HIS DOUBLES by Charlie Finch The magic formula behind the success of Julian Schnabel’s films.

Apr. 28, 2008	WASTED YOUTH by Jerry Saltz A collaboration between superhot artists Dan Colen and Nate Lowman instantly looks dated.

Apr. 24, 2008	CRASH TEST by Charlie Finch Living dangerously with Anthony James.

Apr. 24, 2008	JOE & NANCY by N.F. Karlins Joe Brainard’s "The Nancys" get a welcome showing at Tibor de Nagy.

Apr. 23, 2008	THE NEW YORK CANON by Jerry Saltz Thirty years of highs and lows in the New York art world.

Apr. 22, 2008	ART DEALER’S DIARY by Kenny Schachter Obituary: Art Cologne -- an art dealer tolls the bell.

Apr. 21, 2008	DID I TELL YOU THE ONE ABOUT THE CONTRACTOR IN IRAQ? by Steve Mumford On the way to Mosul in Iraq in the spring of 2008.

Apr. 21, 2008	RUNNING, JUMPING, STANDING STILL by Charlie Finch Nobility and vigor in Elizabeth Peyton’s new works.

Apr. 18, 2008	FEAR STRIKES OUT by Charlie Finch Boycott the Olympics, and boycott contemporary Chinese art.

Apr. 17, 2008	FAKE IT 'TIL YOU MAKE IT by Charlie Finch Olafur Eliasson and the illusion of taste.

Apr. 14, 2008	VIDEO RAVE by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp Surveying "California Video" at the Getty Museum.

Apr. 10, 2008	BEAUX VISAGE by N.F. Karlins American portraitist Cecilia Beaux gets a long-overdue reassessment.

Apr. 9, 2008	PLEASURES OF EDO by Fred Stern "Designed for Pleasure: The World of Edo" at Asia Society.

Apr. 8, 2008	THE THREAT OF LOVE by Charlie Finch Walter Robinson puts the error back in eros.

Apr. 7, 2008	The Venus of Long Island City by Jerry Saltz P.S.1’s survey of feminist art shows us the birth of just about every art trend that’s in vogue today.

Apr. 4, 2008	WHITE MEN CAN’T PAINT! by Charlie Finch Morgan Neville’s new film, The Cool School, on the early Los Angeles art scene.

Apr. 4, 2008	THE WATER OF LIFE by Donald Kuspit Fabrizio Plessi’s islands of digital art.

March

Mar. 31, 2008	DIARY OF AN ART STAR by Reverend Jen Touring the new Lower East Side gallery scene.

Mar. 31, 2008	HANGING AT THE HORTS’ by Charlie Finch Talk of Marlene Dumas, Richard Tuttle and Jimmy Page at Susan and Michael Hort’s private view during Armory weekend.

Mar. 26, 2008	A BROWN WORLD by Charlie Finch Painter Deborah Brown captures natural New York.

Mar. 25, 2008	ADVENTURES IN PHOTOGRAPHY by N.F. Karlins A retrospective of the work of 20th-century photographer (and Surrealist muse) Lee Miller.

Mar. 24, 2008	When Cool turns Cold by Jerry Saltz Towards a No Painting Biennial.

Mar. 21, 2008	CHEERS! by Charlie Finch A few words occasioned by Eduardo Sarabia’s Salon Aleman at the Park Avenue Armory.

Mar. 20, 2008	THE RETURN OF MAX ESTENGER by Charlie Finch New works by the artist from Queens.

Mar. 19, 2008	BETWITCHED by Charlie Finch New psychedelic allegories from Lane Twitchell.

Mar. 18, 2008	NOT SO WEI OUT by Charlie Finch Ai Weiwei’s Descending Light at Mary Boone Gallery.

Mar. 17, 2008	STARWALKERS by Charlie Finch Naked wonder from Richard Dupont at Lever House.

Mar. 14, 2008	MY DINNER WITH SIMON by Charlie Finch Veteran curator Simon Watson and the contemporary art banquet.

Mar. 11, 2008	DOOBY DOOBY DUBAI by Charlie Finch A modest proposal for art in the Middle East.

Mar. 7, 2008	ESTHETICS AND ANASTHESIA by Simon Todd An interview with the English artist Keith Coventry.

Mar. 4, 2008	BIENNIAL FOR ONE by Charlie Finch Go to Facebook for your own Whitbash 2008.

Mar. 3, 2008	Fever Dreams by Jerry Saltz A show about archives gets brilliantly lost in the vaults.

February

Feb. 29, 2008	OUR LONG CULTURAL NIGHTMARE WILL SOON BE OVER by Jerry Saltz Thomas Krens steps down as director of the Guggenheim Museum.

Feb. 28, 2008	INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY by Charlie Finch Thomas Krens, father of the global art plutocracy.

Feb. 27, 2008	SUGAR SHOCK by Adrian Dannatt Ellen Berkenblit and the face of female esthetics.

Feb. 27, 2008	GRIDLOCK by Charlie Finch "Color Chart" at the Museum of Modern Art.

Feb. 26, 2008	CHILDHOOD’S END by Charlie Finch Anna Craycroft, orphans and hope, and Obama as Manchild.

Feb. 25, 2008	ÉMINENCE GRISE by Jerry Saltz "Jasper Johns: Gray" shows off an imagination that works in non-imaginative ways.

Feb. 22, 2008	THE LAST PICTURE SHOW by Charlie Finch Painter Chris Martin provides Chelsea with its final triumph.

Feb. 22, 2008	DR. STRANGE by Charlie Finch Baird Jones, 1954-2008.

Feb. 20, 2008	GET SMART by Charlie Finch "Design and the Elastic Mind" at MoMA.

Feb. 19, 2008	LOVE FOR SALE by Charlie Finch Peeking at the market for Miroslav Tichy.

Feb. 14, 2008	BROAD MINDED by Charlie Finch Swaping curatorial souls for the favors of the wealthy.

Feb. 12, 2008	THE GRAYING OF MODERNISM by Donald Kuspit The whimper of "Jasper Johns: Gray" at the Metropolitan Museum.

Feb. 11, 2008	THE WAY IT WAS by Charlie Finch The modest beginnings of legendary dealer Richard Bellamy.

Feb. 11, 2008	Artist in Residence by Jerry Saltz When Guy Ben-Ner goes to Ikea, he’s not there for the meatballs.

Feb. 8, 2008	DIARY OF AN ART STAR by Reverend Jen Your favorite American idol goes on a two-city German tour.

Feb. 7, 2008	FATHERS AND SONS by Charlie Finch At the Museum of Biblical Art, "The Art of Forgiveness: Images of the Prodigal Son."

Feb. 6, 2008	LET THEM EAT WATER by Charlie Finch Olafur Eliasson’s "Waterfalls" is just for the good of New Yorkers.

Feb. 4, 2008	A COSMIC JOKE by Charlie Finch Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty was designed to be passive.

Feb. 4, 2008	Emerging, After All These Years by Jerry Saltz The gallery gold rush has allowed artists who’ve spent decades on the fringes to grab at the prize.

January

Jan. 28, 2008	CRITICAL MASS by Charlie Finch The keys to the art-critical kingdom.

Jan. 23, 2008	TORRID ALLEGORY by Paul Jeromack Fragonard lets it all hang out in the "Allegories of Love."

Jan. 22, 2008	LATE BLOOMER by Charlie Finch Nobuhiro Ishihara’s symbolic creatures.

Jan. 18, 2008	CUT AND PASTE by Charlie Finch "Fit to Print" at Gagosian Gallery in New York.

Jan. 18, 2008	DANGEROUS BEAUTY by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp Graciela Iturbide and the astonishment of Mexico.

Jan. 17, 2008	REPETITIVE STRESS by Charlie Finch Zhang Peili provides a chilling look at the world’s oldest civiliation.

Jan. 14, 2008	PENNMANSHIP by Charlie Finch Steely esthetic asceticism from Irving Penn.

Jan. 9, 2008	NAVAL GAZING by Charlie Finch Julian Schnabel’s new "Navigation Drawings."

Jan. 9, 2008	THE TRIUMPH OF THE BIG D by Alexandra Anderson-Spivy "Pattern and Decoration" painting returns, in two museum exhibitions.

Jan. 7, 2008	WHAT MAKES A MASTERPIECE by Charlie Finch A tale of the art market, 2008.

Jan. 4, 2008	DUTCH MASTERS by Paul Jeromack "The Age of Rembrandt" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Jan. 4, 2008	OUT ON A LIMB FOR 2008 by Charlie Finch Scoping out the new year.

Jan. 3, 2008	ECSTASY MACHINE by Jerry Saltz The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a visit to the entire world.

December

Dec. 29, 2007	THE ASHES OF CHARISMA by Charlie Finch Contemporary artists and their pretensions.

Dec. 28, 2007	WAR AND SEX by Michèle C. Cone Patriotism, propaganda and passion at Exit Art.

Dec. 21, 2007	A CHRISTMAS EVE MEMORY by Charlie Finch New York City in the 1950s.

Dec. 19, 2007	TROLLING AT THE TROLL by Charlie Finch A new museum opens on the Lower East Side.

Dec. 18, 2007	DRAWING NOTEBOOK by N.F. Karlins Contemporary artists explore the Morgan Library collection in "Drawing Connections"

Dec. 17, 2007	THE YEAR IN ART by Jerry Saltz Matthew Barney, Kara Walker, Richard Prince, the Whitney, the New Museum, the Met, more.

Dec. 14, 2007	ART AND THE PRESIDENCY by Charlie Finch Art takes a leave from the 2008 campaign.

Dec. 13, 2007	WAITING FOR GAGOSIAN by Lavinia Filippi Gagosian Gallery opens a space in Rome.

Dec. 12, 2007	CRAP ON CRAP by Charlie Finch Lucian Freud’s inferior art.

Dec. 10, 2007	Little House on the Bowery by Jerry Saltz Has the New Museum sold itself short?

Dec. 7, 2007	CLASSICS AND COMMERCIALS by Charlie Finch Selling art and selling out.

Dec. 3, 2007	WEEKDAY UPDATE by Charlie Finch A single masterpiece on view in New York’s Chelsea art district.

Dec. 3, 2007	CAN YOU DIG IT? by Jerry Saltz At Gavin Brown, Urs Fischer takes a jackhammer to Chelsea itself.

November

Nov. 30, 2007	EVE OF DESTRUCTION by Charlie Finch Employing entropy in the world of art.

Nov. 28, 2007	THE UNCURATORIAL CURATOR by Ilka Scobie An interview with New Museum curator Massimiliano Gioni.

Nov. 28, 2007	WATTS UP by Charlie Finch Sober symbolism in new paintings by Ouattara Watts.

Nov. 28, 2007	ALL-STARS AND ART STARS by Daniel Grant The fine art of being a sports artist.

Nov. 26, 2007	SPECTACULAR SHOW by Charlie Finch Symbols of transformation from Indian artist Bharti Kher.

Nov. 26, 2007	Where Are All the Women? by Jerry Saltz On MoMA’s identity politics.

Nov. 21, 2007	NOT A FAIRY TALE by Donald Kuspit Judy Fox’s Snow White and the Seven Sins.

Nov. 21, 2007	ESTRANGED IN A STRANGE LAND by Charlie Finch Hu Xiangdong packages China for consumption.

Nov. 20, 2007	SWEETNESS IS LIGHT by Julia Morton Cosimo Cavallaro’s chocolate saints.

Nov. 20, 2007	THE VIRTUES OF TRANSPARENCY by Charlie Finch Time to smash open the doors of auctionland.

Nov. 14, 2007	EYE CANDY V. HARD CANDY by Julia Morton Whitney Museum curator Shamim Momin talks the talk.

Nov. 13, 2007	AN EXPLOSION OF COLOR, IN BLACK AND WHITE by Jerry Saltz Kara Walker’s silhouettes don’t just broach America’s touchiest subject -- they detonate it.

Nov. 12, 2007	DUPED! by Charlie Finch New homonculi from cybersculptor Richard Dupont.

Nov. 9, 2007	© ART by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp Takashi Murakami’s retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles.

Nov. 8, 2007	PECULIAR INSTITUTIONS by Charlie Finch Remembering galleries of times past.

Nov. 5, 2007

THE WILD ONE
by Jerry Saltz