There's been a persistent Twitter backlash over the last week against the Metropolitan Museum's latest capital project, featuring (among many others) two prominent NY Times critics expressing displeasure over the lively, engaging new urban space created by OLIN's just concluded redesign of the museum's entrance plaza and fountains. (As far as I can see, the Times has published … [Read more...] about Poking Koch: Meet the Metropolitan Museum’s Vibrant New Plaza & Its Detractors (with videos)
Archives for September 2014
Guggenheim Helsinki Gets 1,715 Architectural Submissions (with no assurance it can proceed)
The Guggenheim's open architectural competition for its proposed Helsinki facility has attracted "the largest number of entries recorded for a competition of this kind," according to today's press release by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Some 1,715 anonymous submissions from 77 countries were received, "according to voluntary data provided by 70 percent of competitors," … [Read more...] about Guggenheim Helsinki Gets 1,715 Architectural Submissions (with no assurance it can proceed)
Meet the Smithsonian’s Incoming Secretary: Jazz Flutist David Skorton (with video)
Near the end of Cornell University's Sesquicentennial Celebration this Saturday at New York's Jazz at Lincoln Center, my jaw dropped at the unexpected entrance of the host venue's celebrated artistic director, Wynton Marsalis (who had attended Juilliard, not Cornell). Taking the stage with his combo, he launched into a lively set. "David Skorton (Cornell's president and the … [Read more...] about Meet the Smithsonian’s Incoming Secretary: Jazz Flutist David Skorton (with video)
Art of 9/11: Remnants, Models, Memorial Tributes UPDATED
Every visitor to the 9/11 Memorial Museum brings his personal remembrances and unique sensibility to its viscerally powerful displays. While art is a peripheral player in that solemn space, the remnants of sculptures found at the site and the new works created in commemoration of the horrific event beckoned to me from the agonizing agglomeration of mangled metal and memento … [Read more...] about Art of 9/11: Remnants, Models, Memorial Tributes UPDATED
Capital Choice: Jessica Morgan Named to Direct Dia Art Foundation
In naming as its next director Jessica Morgan, now curator of international art (which includes U.S. art) at London's Tate Modern, the Dia Art Foundation picked a deeply experienced contemporary art curator to succeed Philippe Vergne (named last January to direct LA MOCA). Assuming her new post this January, Morgan is also artistic director of the current Gwangju Biennale in … [Read more...] about Capital Choice: Jessica Morgan Named to Direct Dia Art Foundation
Brooklyn Museum in Transition: The Arnold Lehman Years
The museum world and the Borough of Brooklyn have caught up with Arnold Lehman. The 17-year, 70-year-old director of the Brooklyn Museum, who has just announced he would retire in mid-2015, was a populist before it became fashionable, an early proponent of community engagement and crowdsourcing, an advocate of youth-attracting museum parties and, above all, a native Brooklyn … [Read more...] about Brooklyn Museum in Transition: The Arnold Lehman Years
“Bridgegate” Anniversary (with video): Fort Lee Mayor’s Candid Account of What Happened (plus latest on LG flap) UPDATED
With today's press conference in my hometown, marking the first anniversary of the infamous (still inadequately explained) George Washington Bridge lane closures, I thought I'd share my own video of a candid address delivered last May to borough residents by our mayor, a Fort Lee native, who was improbably thrust onto the national stage last September. Although he had … [Read more...] about “Bridgegate” Anniversary (with video): Fort Lee Mayor’s Candid Account of What Happened (plus latest on LG flap) UPDATED
Hear Me Now: My WNYC Riff on Monika Sosnowska’s Mies Riff (with video)
Yesterday I recorded a segment for New York Public Radio (WNYC) on the just opened exhibition of Monika Sosnowska's "Tower" at Hauser & Wirth (to Oct. 25). Fabricated for the gallery's sprawling space (a former roller rink) from steel I-beams and related hardware (including window handles), it's a riff on the frame of Mies van der Rohe's Lake Short Drive Apartments in … [Read more...] about Hear Me Now: My WNYC Riff on Monika Sosnowska’s Mies Riff (with video)
Frank Gehry Works His Magic on the Philadelphia Museum (with videos)
While we're on the subject of Frank Gehry, all questions about why the Philadelphia Museum would hire such an out-there architect for a mostly underground expansion were, to my mind, decisively dispelled by the museum's brilliantly executed exhibition---Making a Classic Modern: Frank Gehry’s Master Plan for the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I'm late in discussing this show. … [Read more...] about Frank Gehry Works His Magic on the Philadelphia Museum (with videos)