tell me how you really feel...

jerry saltz did NOT care for the bjork show at MoMA and seems to be kind of mad in general:

That sadness has mushroomed into dejection of late. Since 2004, when it reopened in its bland new Taniguchi building, many art-world conversations about New York museums circle back to and then plunge into people's pain, anger, sadness, and frustration about the Museum of Modern Art. On the one hand, the museum has the greatest collection of modern art on Earth. It always will. Yet not only is most of this collection permanently held captive in storage, what little of it is on view is seen in perhaps the most unpleasant viewing conditions in any major museum in the world — in far too few galleries that are far too small and poorly designed. Then there's the museum's twisted bid to transform itself into something like a multiplex mall, specializing in whiz-bang pop-cultural events. Now comes a Diller Scofidio + Renfro expansion plan meant to fix the problems it created in 2004, which looks much more likely to exacerbate them. (via)

nErD aLeRt!

he did it! rob bundy single-handedly saved the folk art museum!

just kidding, he barely did anything. but hopefully diller scofidio + renfro can fiyux it.

The Museum of Modern Art has commissioned Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) to design its controversial expansion that will overtake the former American Folk Art Museum in New York. This news comes after an intense backlash from prominent architects, preservationists and critics worldwide pressured MoMA to reconsider its decision to raze the iconic, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien-design museum in order to make way for its new expansion.

In response, DS+R has requested that MoMA gives them the “time and latitude to carefully consider the entirety of the site, including the former American Folk Art Museum building, in devising an architectural solution to the inherent challenges of the project,” as stated by Glenn D. Lowry, MoMA’s director, in a memo sent on Thursday to his trustees and staff. He added, “We readily agreed to consider a range of options, and look forward to seeing their results.” (via)

nErD aLeRt!

MoMA has announced plans to demolish williams & tsien's iconic american folk art museum:

“It’s very rare that a building that recent comes down, especially a building that was such a major design and that got so much publicity when it opened for its design — mostly very positive,” said Andrew S. Dolkart, the director of Columbia University’s historic preservation program. “The building is so solid looking on the street, and then it becomes a disposable artifact. It’s unusual and it’s tragic because it’s a notable work of 21st century architecture by noteworthy architects who haven’t done that much work in the city, and it’s a beautiful work with the look of a handcrafted facade.” (via)

architecture nerds everywhere are starting up one-sentence-long petitions and calling for boycotts. where is ada louise when you need her?

tilda swinton is a cuckoo pants

"Museum staff doesn't know she's coming until the day of, but she's here today," a museum source told Gothamist (who also took some fun photos.) The performance, titled The Maybe, will remain "unannounced" and "random" and will last for a full day when it happens. Swinton (who's done this before in London and Rome) hasn't said anything about the piece, and MoMA's official comments only confirmed that there would be "no published schedule for its appearance, no artist's statement released, no museum statement beyond this brief context, no public profile or image issued. Those who find it chance upon it for themselves, live and in real — shared — time: now we see it, now we don't." via

srsly.

(via) 

see them all here! thx lilly!

summertime at MoMA

from peter august heffner

nErD aLeRt!

2Pz friend, tanya, has been slavin' away at PS1 for a few weeks to help create the upcoming installation, called pole dance. our insider reports that she has a blood blister, and can tie many really cool knots. construction wraps up next thursday, and the installation will probably open next weekend. she doesn't really know for sure. and why should she?

Conceived as a participatory environment that reframes the conceptual relationship between humankind and structure, Pole Dance is an interconnected system of poles and bungees whose equilibrium is open to human action and environmental factors. Throughout the courtyard, groups of 25-foot-tall poles on 12 x 12-foot grids connected by bungee cords whose elasticity will cause the poles to gently sway, creating a steady ripple throughout the courtyard space. Each grid contains a number of playful activators, such as hammocks, pulls, misters, and rain collecting plants. An open net covering the entire scope of the grid system will provide shelter and stabilize the movement of the poles, preventing them from exceeding a predetermined maximum pivot. A generous series of multi-colored balls will move above the net offering mutable shade and the appearance of a communal game. (via)



oh, and also, the build accepts volunteers. so if you have a free day, just head on out to PS1 and show them your idle hands.

whoa, she is pretty

this is marina abramovic from the afterparty of her MoMA exhibit. her givenchy designed outfit was specially made with 101 snakeskins. this is a far cry from the way she has appeared for the last three months. what a glamourpuss.

bjork :: marina abramovic

bjork and matthew barney and their daughter stopped by the MoMA the other day to check out the Marina Abramovic installation.

in related news, folks be gettin pissed that the exhibit is about to end, and celebs and museum insiders are getting all the facetime with the artist.

MoMA : 10042010

see every painting in the museum on 10 Apr 2010, in 2 min. via.

Faceoff at the MoMA

have you heard about that lady at the MoMA who sits in a chair all day facing a table and an empty chair?

her name is marina abramovic and she is a performance artist whose current show is called "The Artist is Present." you might remember that sex and the city episode with the artist who starved herself... where carrie first met alexandr petrovsky? that was based on abramovic.

anyway. a funny thing happened the other day when another performance artist from brooklyn dressed up just like marina and got first in line and sat in the chair opposite her all day. read her interview. she says describes the experience, and says when the exhibit finally closed for the night, she finally got a smile from the artist.

i...didn't know you could do that.

MoMA just acquired the @ symbol for their permanent collection.

Some linguists believe that @ dates back to the sixth or seventh century, a ligature meant to fuse the Latin preposition ad—meaning “at”, “to,” or “toward”—into a unique pen stroke. The symbol persisted in sixteenth-century Venetian trade, where it was used to mean amphora, a standard-size terracotta vessel employed by merchants, which had become a unit of measure. Interestingly, the current Spanish word for @, arroba, also indicates a unit of measure.

The @ symbol was known as the ‘”commercial ‘a’” when it appeared on the keyboard of the American Underwood typewriter in 1885, and it was defined as such, for the first time, in the American Dictionary of Printing & Bookmaking in 1894. From this point on the symbol itself was standardized both stylistically and in its application, and it appeared in the original 1963 ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) list of computer codes. At the time @ was explained as an abbreviation for the word “at” or for the phrase “at the rate of,” mainly used in accounting and commercial invoices. (via)

kewl! brb attempting to sell the winking frown to MoMA. ;(

nErD aLeRt!

jicydak, there's a tim burton retrospective at MoMA right now, featuring his noncinematic work. the times thinks its boring, and i can see why, but i think i'd still like to have a look. (review + slideshow)

i want that.

nymag makes a super-obvi observation that contemporary design culture still looks to the Bauhaus for inspiration. MoMA just opened a Bauhaus exhibition. i thought MoMA already was a Bauhaus exhibition. i wonder if it's any good?

more like walter grope-me-us! more like mies van der ho! more like FARTcel breuer! ahahaH AHA ha AH AH aAHH!

ok i have to go back to work now. i miss you guys.

nErD aLeRt!

yesterday there was a public hearing for the City Planning Commission regarding the fate of the Hines developed tower next door to the MoMA at 53 West 53rd street. Architect Jean Nouvel was on hand (a special note informed the reader that he was dressed in all black) to defend his project, one that he described as "career defining for any architect." In my opinion, this seems like a well concieved and beautiful tower, that would become one of the tallest in the city. The Planning Commission is likely to agree, according to the report, they are most concerned that this project will go the way of Atlantic Yards, and the beautiful project as approved will transform into an ugly economical mess.

interestingly, there was another architect invited who presented an alternative, more "community friendly" project that he devised at his own cost. It seems he hopes to provide an alternative to the beautiful architecture that he trashed with the forseen prize of some developer somewhere else deciding that his speculative project deserves to be built. but its U.G.L.Y.