The New New Museum Shows New Art And Not-Art

Under most circumstances, 30 would seem much too young for a face-lift—but not in the case of the New Museum, which opted for more than plastic surgery to celebrate its birthday.
Five years and $35 million after closing its doors at its former location at 583 Broadway, the New Museum welcomes the public to its brand new facility at 235 Bowery, which opened on Dec. 1.
The process of reinventing the museum began in December 2002, when the board of trustees announced its plans and asked five out of an initial 30 forward-thinking and creative teams of architects to submit plans for a new space.
In May 2003, the museum selected Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA Ltd. as the designers of the new facility, and construction began in fall 2005.
As the first museum to be built from the ground up in lower Manhattan, the logistics and vision of the new New Museum are necessarily unique. “The New Museum is asking how we can be a different institution,” Massimiliano Gioni, director of special exhibitions for the museum, said. “You are not coming into a stale institution, but one that is not afraid to rethink its role.”
By showcasing the work of primarily living and working artists, the museum immediately differentiates itself from other major modern art venues, which are increasingly becoming museums of the 20th rather than the 21st century. The facility is located at the heart of the Bowery, a neighborhood alive with artistic vibrancy, both in the past and present. By becoming part of that cultural and physical landscape, the New Museum offers a kind of intimacy that would be impossible on Museum Mile.
“We want to maintain a direct relationship with artists, to be artist-centric,” Gioni said. “Our building looks like an antenna, not an ivory tower. We capture signals and throw them back.”
It was with this goal in mind that the board of trustees selected Sejima and Nishizawa’s design. The structure consists of six stacked boxes of varying dimensions, each paneled with an industrial aluminum mesh that enables the building to interact with the light of surrounding environment. While the structure stands taller than its immediate neighbors, it is not out of proportion with the varied yet modest heights of most buildings in the area. It successfully avoids falling into the trap of modern pretension that has such potential to alienate rather than invite.
The structure of the building itself is intended to promote dialogue between the institution and the surrounding community. At street level, the interior of the museum is entirely transparent. As such, the whole of the first floor, including exhibition space in the rear, is on view both inside and outside the museum.
Part of the dynamism of the New Museum lies in the aesthetics of the building itself as they relate to the museum’s purpose as a showcase for contemporary art.
“The new building is amazing because it’s full of character but doesn’t get in the way of the art. Its not signature architecture in the worst sense, because it doesn’t want to show off or impress or take the spotlight,” Gioni said.
Like the building itself, which is at once excitingly modern and structurally minimal, the first installment of the museum’s inaugural show, “Unmonumental: An Exhibition in Four Parts,” features work that is mostly constructed from traditional materials in a very elemental way. This first part, “Unmonumental: The Object in the 21st Century,” features handcrafted sculptures. The vast majority of these pieces stand autonomously on the bare, concrete floor, creating the effect of a sculpture garden. There is no predetermined pathway or flow, but rather, visitors are invited to wander through the exhibition space at their own impulse. None of the artworks are barricaded, or placed upon pedestals. They exist on a literally accessible level and as such invite a more intimate dialogue with the viewer.
This phase of “Unmonumental” attempts to explore the re-emergence of sculptural assemblage. Materials range from bamboo to bicycles to wax and coffee table books.
Rachel Harrison’s 2006 piece, This Is Not an Artwork, incorporates a plastic bust covered in a dark wig (complete with price tag hanging off the back) with artificial potatoes. Shinique Smith creates bundles with clothing, fabrics, and other found objects. Sarah Lucas’s Fuck Destiny (2007) consists of a neon tube light penetrating the back of a haggard sofa bed.
But despite the initial appearance of randomness, each piece derives a unique character and cohesiveness out of seemingly disparate elements, while simultaneously engaging in a dialogue of deconstruction.
In his description of the nature of the art of the moment, Gioni reiterated the emphasis on deconstruction and fragmentation, but maintained that these concepts do not necessarily connote negativity. These ideas allow artists to dismantle and interrogate icons and idols in ways that deal with the fragility of contemporary culture, and construct a logical basis for the increasing popularity of collage in two and three dimensions as an artistic medium.
“‘Unmonumental’ is a way to open a museum and interrogate the art of today, and how contemporary art is a lot about the unmonumental or crumbling monument,” Gioni said. “It reminds us that we should be rather modest and not just another monumental institution.”
In the spirit of assemblage, the exhibition will introduce three additional stages or elements over few months. Two-dimensional collage will be incorporated in January, while sound and Internet work will be added in February.
“I think people will see from the opening show that the New Museum wants to be a museum that works in different speeds and different rhythms, in different formats,” Gioni said.
This cumulative process reflects the values of the institution and the direction in which it is moving. While preserving the basic tenets of materiality in art, the new New Museum functions as a conduit not only for new ideas but also for entirely modern mediums, as demonstrated by the Internet component of the opening exhibition. Accordingly, every exhibition space is equipped with state-of-the-art technology that allows the facility to exist as a showcase for new media.
Through its embrace of provocative, progressive, and diverse art forms, the New Museum defines its project as a cultural institution. During the early weeks of the new building’s opening, artist Sharon Hayes will be performing outside the museum’s doors at an event in which she will read love letters out loud on the streets, while her voice is projected on speakers throughout the museum.
“That gives you a sense of what the museum wants,” Gioni said. “It’s a museum that questions its own boundaries and sneaks out into the community. It’s the voice of an artist shouting in the streets.”
Another unusual yet spirited proclamation adorns the New Museum’s facade. Artist Ugo Rondinone’s large-scale, rainbow-striped sculpture reading “HELL, YES!” serves as the central feature of the museum’s current exterior.
“Hell, yes,” indeed.