Art World Politics: Chaédria LaBouvier Accuses Atlantic Reporter

I’ve written off and on about race hysteria at museums. I think there are many problems in museums surrounding fairness in pay and promotions. Staff revolts starting in 2020 pushed not-for-profit culture institutions of all stripes to address them. A race obsession has developed, too, along with legitimate grievances. It’s a spectacle of naïveté, conceit, and grift, and earlier this week the Guggenheim in New York once more found itself in the spotlight, or crosshairs.

I’ve written a couple of times about a 2020 race kerfuffle on the Upper East Side. A black guest curator, Chaédria LaBouvier, hired to develop a Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibition, had a disastrously unhappy experience and very publicly said the problem was racist senior staff, specifically Nancy Spector, the chief curator and a Guggenheim old-timer. NR’s Isaac Schorr wrote about this flap on Thursday.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

I’ve written off and on about race hysteria at museums. I think there are many problems in museums surrounding fairness in pay and promotions. Staff revolts starting in 2020 pushed not-for-profit culture institutions of all stripes to address them. A race obsession has developed, too, along with legitimate grievances. It’s a spectacle of naïveté, conceit, and grift, and earlier this week the Guggenheim in New York once more found itself in the spotlight, or crosshairs.

I’ve written a couple of times about a 2020 race kerfuffle on the Upper East Side. A black guest curator, Chaédria LaBouvier, hired to develop a Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibition, had a disastrously unhappy experience and very publicly said the problem was racist senior staff, specifically Nancy Spector, the chief curator and a Guggenheim old-timer. NR’s Isaac Schorr wrote about this flap on Thursday.