New York Magazine - USA (2019-11-11)

november11–24, 2019 | newyork 113

I guess they should be ecstatic. How does
the building strike you from the outside?
And from the inside—other than there
being more space?
J.D.: The outside is hardly noticeable,
which is kind of amazing for something
so big. It’s a river of glass that flows away
from the older parts and right into the
base of the new tower by Jean Nouvel,
with its bulky, brawny black trusses. It’s
much more interesting inside. The chang-
ing curatorial mission, if in fact it is chang-
ing, put the architects in an odd position.
They had to come up with a buildingthat
expresses the museum’s currentvision
but can also withstand a future reversalof
fashion. This building works just aswell
for a Museum of “What’s ModernArt?”
as for a Museum of “This Is ModernArt!”
J.S.: It would be so great if MoMA
could finally break the orthodoxaca-
demic definitions of modernism andtreat
us to whatever art was going on in,say,
India, Iowa, or Iraq in the 1930s. Artthat
was new and modern but not modern-
ist! It’s like MoMA is saying, “Wherever
there’s a grid, we’ll be there.” Oy.
J.D.: So you want MoMA to stakeout
the anti-MoMA position, too?
J.S.: Yes! A lot of that art is thrilling
and radical in its own right—haveyou
ever looked at WPA post-office murals
in the Southwest and West? Amazing
stuff! But it doesn’t fit MoMA’shard-
core formalist program, so you’llnever
see it here. Remember that, whenthe
Taniguchi building opened in 2004,less
than 5 percent of the artists with workon
view were women. Now the namesofthe
canon may be shifting, and that’sgreat,
but what the canon supposedly isstill
has an iron grip on curators. Thatrigid-
ity is only habit and an illusion. Modern
art contained multitudes in that period.
But here’s the real building thing tome:
Not to be a buzzkill—after almostevery
MoMA review has been over-the-top
ebullient—I’ve been there on everyopen
day so far, and the hot spots especially,as
well as a lot of other galleries, are already
pretty crowded to almost bursting. Idon’t
blame the architects. Or MoMA. Butthis
hull is already under pressure.
J.D.: The crowding is extremebut
predictable. I couldn’t get near Starry
Night unless I was willing to perform
the offensive-lineman move I usetoget
on the 1 train at rush hour. By thetimeI
was done, emerging onto 53rd Streetfelt
like a trip to the country—all thatopen
space! MoMA seems to think the crowds
will abate once the opening buzzwears
off, but I wonder. Experience has taught
us that if you add more lanes to a con-
gested highway, it attracts more carsand

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