Supported by
Collectors Leon and Debra Black Give $40 Million to MoMA
Martin Scorsese was the honoree at the Museum of Modern Art’s annual film benefit on Monday evening, but Leon Black was arguably the man of the hour, since the museum announced at the gala that he and his wife Debra had given $40 million to the museum.
In recognition of the gift, MoMA will create the Debra and Leon Black Family Film Center, spanning two floors of the museum’s Ronald S. and Jo Carole Lauder Building, which includes multimedia exhibition galleries and two theaters. The center will present film exhibitions and premieres with directors, actors, and other cinema experts.
Mr. Black, a leading collector, was named chairman of MoMA last spring — having shared the title since 2015 with the real estate mogul Jerry Speyer. His gift will support the museum’s renovation and expansion project, currently underway, which will add 40,000 square feet of gallery space and enable MoMA to reconceive the presentation of its collection and exhibitions.
“As a lifelong lover of film,” Mr. Black said in a statement, “my family and I are honored to have our name associated with the Film Center of this great institution.”
Art and Museums in New York City
A guide to the shows, exhibitions and artists shaping the city’s cultural landscape.
A bounteous and playful survey of Joan Jonas’s, career on the vanguard highway fills the museum and the Drawing Center with the 87-year-old artist’s work..
Francesca Woodman’s crowning achievement, “Blueprint for a Temple (II),” is accorded pride of place in a show that includes more than 50 lifetime prints.
Kiyan Williams, for their Whitney Biennial commission, recreated the column-lined facade of the White House from soil. Viewers can watch as it crumbles, sprouts plants and births insects.
A new installation at the New-York Historical Society acknowledges a notorious purchase 400 years ago — and lets the Lenape tell their side.
The Whitney Biennial, New York’s most prominent showcase of new American (or American-ish) art, is currently underway. Will this year’s edition go down as a notable one?
Looking for more art in the city? Here are the gallery shows not to miss in March.
Advertisement