Helen Frankenthaler painting in 1969

Now that she has died, Helen Frankenthaler is being widely acclaimed by art critics and others, but remembered as a force for conservatives and responsible for the weakening of federal arts funding by others. In her New York Times “Critic’s Notebook“, Roberta Smith talks about Frankenthaler and John Chamberlain (who also died this week) saying each brought a, “new, unfettered approach to materials that pushed their respective mediums toward greater expressive freedom, unabashed physicality and a rough-edged, aggressively color-based beauty.”

Her husband, Jerry Saltz, tells us in his tribute in New York Magazine that, “not enough people have thought about the far-reaching accomplishments of Helen Frankenthaler, foremost inventor in the fifties of what is variously called American Color Field painting and post-painterly abstraction.”

Others, however, remember a darker side of Frankenthaler. The Los Angeles Times obituary reminds us that: “Frankenthaler did take a highly public stance during the late 1980s “culture wars” that eventually led to deep budget cuts for the National Endowment for the Arts and a ban on grants to individual artists that still persists. At the time, she was a presidential appointee to the National Council on the Arts, which advises the NEA’s chairman.”

“In a 1989 commentary for the New York Times, she wrote that, while ‘censorship and government interference in the directions and standards of art are dangerous and not part of the democratic process,’ controversial grants to Andres Serrano, Robert Mapplethorpe and others reflected a trend in which the NEA was supporting work “of increasingly dubious quality. Is the council, once a helping hand, now beginning to spawn an art monster? Do we lose art … in the guise of endorsing experimentation?”

In today’s New York Times, Roberta Smith makes an impassioned plea for the Folk Art Museum. She says New York needs to have access to its vast and unusual collection of objects and that it creates a counterpoint to the kinds of exhibitions shown at other institutions around town.  She criticizes the board of trustees for mismanagement and worse, but praises the exhibition program and curatorial bravery of the museum.  The current plan seems to be to sell off the collection to the Smithsonian or another institution, or even give the collection to one of them so that the trustees can just close the whole operation and get out of the business of folk art all together.

When a museum fails to pay its bills, fails to attract an audience, fails in every way but the art, what is the answer? One might ask the same questions about the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, another time-honored institution with a timid and unsophisiticated board of trustees who would rather sell off the collection than pony up the funds to keep the institution alive and whole.

Cy Twombly, the enigmatic, controversial, operatic artist is dead at age 83. I must say I have extremely mixed feelings about Twombly. I have been moved by some of his paintings, am bored by most of his sculpture, and despite some misgivings believe he was a very important and influential figure in 20th century art. However, having worked with him on an exhibition at the Whitney, I got to know him slightly and as my mother often told me, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, say nothing at all.” So, in this case, I will follow her advice. Here are some of the obits, reflections and appreciations that have been written over the past few days.

The Wall Street Journal

New York Times

LA Times

New York Times Appreciation

Jerry Saltz on Facebook

The Whitney's Historic Breuer Building at Madison Avenue and 75th Street

The rumor has finally been confirmed that the Metropolitan Museum will take over the Whitney Museum’s landmark Breuer building when the Whitney moves downtown to its new site at The High Line. Groundbreaking is in two weeks on the Whitney’s new building, designed by Renzo Piano, and this announcement in the New York Times reassures us that the Breuer building will continue to be a museum for at least the next ten years while the Metropolitan refurbishes its modern and contemporary wing and the Whitney establishes itself in its new home. No one is talking about long term plans for the Breuer building since Leonard Lauder’s $131 million gift stipulated that the Whitney could not sell the building for an unspecified amount of time. But the Metropolitan’s use of the building to show their holdings in contemporary art is a wonderful opportunity for art lovers in New York. Let’s hope they will do exciting projects and take some risks. Bravo to Tom Campbell and Adam Weinberg for getting the deal done.

Ai Weiwei in his studio March 7, 2011

Perhaps we were just dreaming that China, the economic tiger, the cultural dragon, would allow freedom of speech and political dissent now that they have relaxed economic laws and allowed private citizens to amass vast fortunes. But no, it seems that the year of the rabbit is also the year of the backlash against artists, writers and others who dare to criticize government corruption and strictures. According to the New York Times, over the last two weeks many prominent filmmakers, lawers, writers and artists have been detained, some simply disappearing into custody. Mr Ai is perhaps the most prominent of those arrested–and shortly after his capture his studio was raided and many of his assistants, both foreign and Chinese, were also detained.  

And what could be a more blatant illustration of the government’s unwillingness to face it’s compromised present and uncomfortable truths from its past than the exhibitions in the new $400 million National Museum, just opening in Beijing? According to reports, the museum, the largest in the world,  has barely a mention of the Cultural Revolution, no exhibitions about the halting and sometimes violent aspects of communist rule or the difficult changes in leadership over the years. 

Any hope in the West of China emerging as a new democractic partner must certainly be tempered by these signs. The government is prepared to grant extensive economic freedom and reap the substantial financial benefits, but cultural freedom is not to be tolerated. It will be interesting to see how the United States and other Western powers respond to this new crack down. So far, it has been met with silence.