Tyler on Nelson-Atkins' Bloch Building: Power to the People

Chips Off the New Bloch

I like what Tyler Green accomplishes on Modern Art Notes this morning, giving a new perspective to the already much celebrated Steven Holl addition (above) to Kansas City's Nelson-Atkins Museum.

He does something that few critics ever stoop do do: shares with us the effect of the Bloch Building on real people, not just the "experts." Seen-it-all critics, who usually review new buildings and exhibitions under the hothouse conditions of press previews, almost always miss that dimension, which is crucial: The power of the press notwithstanding, art museums do exist to engage the public, not the critics.

By accident, I performed something of the same service in my Wall Street Journal review of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, which opened in 2004 in Washington. I was unable to get there for the press preview, and showed up when it was populated by civilians. I was amazed at what I saw going on in the spotlit inlaid disk of red Seneca sandstone (meant to suggest fire), at the center of NMAI's expansive wood-floored rotunda:

A succession of celebrants were drawn to the center of the circle: One pre-adolescent boy stood there motionless, gazing upward to the skylight, arms outstretched. A grinning young girl twirled around giddily. Two teenagers sat cross-legged on the red sandstone. Two couples -- one young, one gray-haired -- paused for a kiss in the spotlight. This magical gathering place fosters an immediate sense of intimacy and community among visitors.

The critics generally sniffed at this museum (unlike the Nelson-Atkins, which they loved), bringing their preconceived notions of what an art museum should be and do. That was not what the Native American planners and consultants for their new museum were going for, and it worked very well on their own terms.

Speaking of late reviews...I hear my WSJ assessment of the expanded Seattle Art Museum may be set to run on Wednesday. But it's a little like the new Acropolis Museum: It's been postponed before, so don't hold your breath. You'll get the heads-up on CultureGrrl, once it arrives on the WSJ online.