On a Wednesday afternoon in the dog days of summer,
a trickle of tourists strays hopefully through the
Museum of Modern Art’s staff entrance, only to be gently
shown a reopening october 21 sign, followed by the door.
For a closed museum, however, the place is exceptionally
busy. Carts, dollies, buckets, trestle tables, and concertina
platforms are rolled around the open floors in a complex yet
orderly choreography. It’s as if the legacy of Philip Johnson’s
modernist strictures—Johnson served in the museum’s
architecture department in the ’30s and expanded its original
1939 structure in 1964—is conferring its own set of
minimalist manners on the building’s current occupants.
I am handed a rather chic white hard hat bearing MoMA’s
distinctive black logo and escorted on a work-in-progress tour
by a posse of female staffers. First impression: The interior,
which has swallowed up the former home of its neighbor, the
American Folk Art Museum, in a westward march along 53rd
Street, feels newly rangy. The MoMA reboot includes 30%
more gallery space and a greater number of exhibits accessible
to the public before they even pay admission.
“Acupuncture” is how the museum’s director, Glenn D.
Lowry, describes the expansion, bringing new life, air, and
energy into a building that could seem weighed down by its
own importance. As Elizabeth Diller, of the architecture
firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, describes the institution
whose renovation she took on, “Despite the fact that the
public flocks to its doors, MoMA feels a bit aloof, and
not spontaneous enough.”
“Audiences want experiences now,” Lowry agrees. “They
don’t just want to look at art; they want to feel engaged with
it and surrounded by it.”
New York museums, like those of other major cities, are
involved not just in the race to stay ahead architecturally but
also to adapt to the changing priorities of artists and
accommodate dramatic shifts in culture. If MoMA’s last
expansion, by the Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi in
2004, drew criticism for its hefty $858
million price tag and corporate-
looking design, its current incarnation,
a snip at $400 million, sets out to break
down authoritarian assumptions
about what art we should be presented
with, and how. The rehang/reopening
will include shows dedicated to Latin American art and to
the work of 93-year-old African American artist Betye Saar,
evidence of a stated commitment to greater diversity and
mixing of genres. Two new galleries, accessible from the street
and free to the public, have been added—one will present an
exhibition by the terrific young painter Michael Armitage—
along with a dedicated performance studio on the fourth floor.
Bringing this rethink to life, a series of artist commissions—
sited mainly outside the galleries and many by women—is
being installed. Yasmil Raymond is the vivacious
Under Construction
Five stunning commissions at the
expanded MoM A reimagine
museumgoing for a new generation.
Eve MacSweeney gets a preview.
ART
IN GOOD TASTE
A SKETCH FOR CAFÉ
L’AUBETTE (ABOVE),
WHICH INSPIRED
THE COLOR SCHEME
FOR MoMA’S
NEW CAFETERIA.
A R T> 6 0
VLIFE
58 NOVEMBER 2019 VOGUE.COM
LEFT: THEO VAN DOESBURG, 1927. INK AND GOUACHE ON PAPER, 21 X 14 3/4 IN. DIGITAL IMAGE © THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART/LICENSED BY SCALA/ART RESOURCE, NY. RIGHT: PAINT COLOR TESTS FOR
FULL SCALE FALSE SCALE
. EXPERIMENTAL JETSET, 2019.
