Happenings

Crichton the Collector

The LA Times reminds readers that Michael Crichton was as a canny art collector. He wrote the catalogue essay for a Jasper Johns retrospective in 1977 but people forget that Crichton was a very wealthy man. The books, the movies and his ownership stake in the television series, ER, made him the kind of collector Museum directors chase. Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Michael Govan certainly did: “Govan said that Crichton was one of the first people he hoped to target as a possible board member when Govan took over the directorship of the county museum in 2006 [ . . . ] “It’s a great loss; I have to say it’s very, very sad,” Govan said. “He was a very private person and a very creative person. He really was just getting started to be involved in the museum; he had a tremendous interest and curiosity.”

Richter the Brave

The Scotsman looks at the Gerhard Richter retrospective in Edinburgh: “Richter’s star status, confirmed once more in this wide-ranging retrospective covering 44 years, is based not only on his persistence but on his ability to face off painting’s biggest competitors – the camera, the mass media and the computer – not by ignoring or competing with them, but by quietly assimilating them into all that he does.” and “Similarly one senses a certain marketing anxiety to the framing of this show in Edinburgh. The gallery and curatorial team intimately understand Richter’s pivotal importance, particularly for generations of younger artists, but the associated materials feel the need to keep proclaiming Richter’s status and importance as though the work can’t quite speak for itself”