Are our museums going to start closing and are the wealthy going to stop buying art? My fingers are crossed that they won’t but yes, some people are going to cut back on collecting. In keeping hope alive, Los Angeles billionaire Eli Broad recently wrote an inspiring op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times asking his fellow Angelenos to step up alongside him and save the important and influential MOCA.

In a brand-new era where being frugal is considered chic, will the now-legendary Chelsea and still-fledgling LES contemporary gallery scenes merely shrivel or be obliterated altogether? I can’t imagine Chelsea disappearing and hopefully this crisis will hopefully be the forest fire that the overcrowded gallery scene desperately needs so that new, genuine work can spring up from its ashes. (Speaking of gallery closings, RIP Rivington Arms.)

As for museums, I can say without fear that the Met and MoMA are safe, for now at least. However, does the newly built New Museum have enough in the bank to keep it afloat? (Hell, Yes?) Will the Whitney be able to see their new downtown expansion to completion?

The worried future museum employee in me wants to gather some monographs, wrap up in a Works on Whatever towel and chant “I Am Making Art” or even teach a plant the alphabet until the (art) world is back in order. But who knows how bad it will get—maybe I’ll change my mind once we all start lining up for soup.

Elizabeth Peyton has been widely credited with “bringing back” portraiture. Perhaps she brought it back from wherever Warhol dropped it when he died. She paints portraits from clippings, photographs, and sitters. To study her subjects is to get to know who she is or what she wants to be: classical, yet relevant; intellectual, yet sincere; attractive, but shy; independent, but still fragile.

Elizabeth Peyton is very serious about her work. But not in the same sense as Koons, Hirst, or Murakami with their 100+ studio assistants. Peyton is the only person touching her canvases. She treats her studio like her own private chapel.

In her new show, which opened last night at New Museum, you can find portraits of those who fascinate her (or at least did at one point in time). Live Forever features historical figures, rock stars, fellow artists, ex-lovers, fashion designers, and even herself. Elizabeth Peyton only paints those she feels some connection with, allowing sincerity and earnestness to be present in her work.

“My work is my life,” she said to me over a cup of tea.

Elizabeth Peyton’s paintings are comparable to Wes Anderson’s movies with their delicate richness that is awkwardly appealing. They are what you secretly want your life to be and look like (but not really). They are interesting, melancholy, and set to the perfect soundtrack. What I enjoy most about Peyton’s work is the contrast between tight and loose handling of the brush; for every broad stroke, you’ll find intricate, neat ones. This contrast translates into a vulnerability that can be seen in most of her subjects.

Live Forever is Peyton’s first big solo show in a museum—a retrospective, highlighting her earliest to most recent work. Over 100 paintings span the third and fourth floors of New Museum.

There is a fascinating mini-site for the exhibition including a timeline of Peyton’s life and an interview between Peyton and Laura Hoptman, the shows curator (wife of Verne Dawson, Peyton’s contemporary).

Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton runs until January 11th, 2009 at New Museum, 235 Bowery.

(Full Disclosure: I interned for Elizabeth Peyton’s assistant from March to June 2008. I only met with her once in person and she was very polite. I also interned at New Museum this summer and worked on the show, Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton. She most likely has no idea who I am.)

On September 13th, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, a seminal gallery that launched the careers of many of today’s big contemporary art-stars (commence eye-rolling?), opened their new Rob Pruitt show, “iPhotos.”  No, you heard me right: iPhotos.

Those same “Mobile Uploads” albums that pop up on your feed have become works of art. That includes the pics of your friends getting drunk, screen shots from movies like Funny Games, and even photos of panda bears from that one time you went to the zoo.

The show looked, and was, pretty fantastic overall, but in a very specific “This is ridiculous, but it’s amazing!” sort of way. Giant blown up iPhotos line every wall (inside and out), keeping you scanning for something recognizable or remarkable.

The show also recreates a cemetery on the gallery floor with appropriately decorated tombstones made in honor of (somewhat) recently deceased celebrities. For instance, a showgirl-esque mirrored tombstone has the name “Anna Nicole” scrawled across it in hot pink lipstick. Another is painted yellow with a black stripe, to mimic Charlie Brown’s shirt, is dedicated to Peanuts creator Charles Schulz.

Piles and piles of “leaves,” cut from magazines, are swirled around the gallery by wind-blowers. Perhaps with the juxtaposition of a cemetery and iPhotos, Pruitt is invoking the recent David Brooks op-ed “Lord of the Memes” in which the columnist bemoans contemporary hipsterdom and mourns the release of the new iPhone as the day when “media displaced culture.”

Whatever the “point” may be, Rob Pruitt is an “artist,” and although this show may be seen as obvious, it can still be enjoyed for its effort, sincerity, and visually stimulating qualities. For the show, Pruitt wrote a surprisingly sentimental artist’s statement about discovering the iPhone and how it changed his life.  “iPhotos,” much like Twitter or Facebook statuses, allow us to live vicariously through the experiences of people far-removed from ourselves.

All in all, it made for an intriguing opening: a good show, free tacos, and oh, John Waters was there.

As the art school kids already know, The Metropolitan Museum of Art have named their next director. Back in January, current director Philippe de Montebello announced that 2008 would be his last year in the position and the museum has been searching for a new director ever since. The job, one of the art world’s most prestigious, is obviously an honor, but is also doubtlessly pretty damn hard.

Apparently up for the challenge, Thomas Campbell was named on Tuesday as the Met’s ninth director in 138 years. Unlike vice presidential slots, they apparently don’t just hand this job out. But not unlike Mrs. Palin, some may consider Campbell short on experience—currently, he works as a curator at the Met in European tapestries, a rather small niche. His first day on the job, though, is not until January 1st, 2009, giving him some time to learn.

But what will this mean for the next time you go to the Met to see the collection, the Damian Hirst shark, or to sit on the Gossip Girl-approved steps in between class?

1) Let’s be honest… Who really knows this early on.

2) Perhaps more shows in the same vein as European tapestries. (Think monumental archaic Greek sculpture.)

3) Most likely no serious construction.

It seems that this guy is pretty young (at least for Met standards) and that at first he will only try to keep the museum running at the same nearly-perfect pace that Montebello set after 32 years of rule. Still, here’s to hoping that he’ll also give more attention to Contemporary art, a section that the Met typically looks over.  Fingers are also crossed that he won’t pull a Guggenheim (which also has a new director).

Either way, only time will tell.  Field trip in ’09 anyone?