An inside look at MuseumModernArt's new commissions:
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.
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.” Art by Kerstin Brätsch. Fossil Psychic for Christa , 2019. Plaster, pigments, glue, wax and oil on honeycomb, felt, 43, 3 x 51, 6 in.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.
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