MoMA Reopens With More Space, Fresh Juxtapositions

This undated image released by the The Museum of Modern Art shows the installation "Artist’s Choice: Amy Sillman—The Shape of Shape," part of the renovation and expansion effort at MoMA in New York. As the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan prepares to reopen following a $450 million, 47,000 square foot expansion, visitors can prepare for much more than much-needed elbow room there - and new juxtapositions of works meant to encourage broader perspectives and new narratives. (Heidi Bohnenkamp/MoMA via AP)

Contributed by KATHERINE ROTH

NEW YORK (AP) — The Museum of Modern Art’s new $450 million, 47,000-square-foot expansion offers visitors more than much-needed elbow room. It emphasizes new juxtapositions of works to encourage broader perspectives and new narratives.

The revamped MoMA, a third bigger than the old one, opens to the public on Oct. 21.

While iconic works by the likes of Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso and Pollock remain dependably on view, visitors are invited to see them in a new light, now displayed side by side with less familiar works by women and minorities, and artists from places like Africa, South America and Asia.

The goal is to rethink the familiar and make Modernism feel fresh and challenging again.

“Sometimes even small juxtapositions can have a big impact,” says Jodi Hauptmann, senior curator of drawings and prints at MoMA. “On the fifth floor, for example, Van Gogh’s ‘The Starry Night’ is now shown in the same gallery as a collection of ceramics made at the same time by George Ohr, of Biloxi, Mississippi. It’s interesting to see those things together.”

Picasso’s 1907 “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” now shares gallery space with a 1967 painting by African-American artist Faith Ringgold featuring an interracial gunfight. Seeing the two works together provides fresh perspective on both, and seems to emphasize the violence of Picasso’s fractured bodies.

“Inspired by Alfred Barr’s original vision to be an experimental museum in New York, the real value of this expansion is not just more space, but space that allows us to rethink the experience of art in the museum,” says Glenn D. Lowry, director of MoMA.

To keep creating fresh juxtapositions, offer up more of the museum’s permanent collection, and place greater focus on multiculturalism, the revamped MoMA promises to rotate many of the works in its galleries every six months.

“It’s an opportunity to show visitors what the museum has been doing in terms of collecting these past years,” says Michelle Elligott, chief of archives, library and research collections.

In some of the galleries, sculpture, painting, design, architecture, photography and film are all featured together.

“We have now brought various departments into conversation, which allows visitors to explore what different artists were doing during the same time period,” says Martino Stierli, chief curator of architecture and design at the museum.

Other galleries continue to focus on a single medium. Explains Juliet Kinchin, curator in the department of architecture and design: “Each floor has a broad chronological frame, but within each frame there’s more flexibility, with occasional breakouts to create a dialogue.”

“We’re trying to have some areas that are fully integrated in terms of departments, and other areas where you can really focus solely on a particular medium,” she says.

To help alleviate crowds, MoMA now has more ways to reach the galleries, including through a new wing on the west side.

The expansion, developed by MoMA with architects Diller Scofidio and Benfro in collaboration with Gensler, also includes a larger ground floor — including two new galleries — that is free and open to the public.

There is aIso a new studio space for live and experimental programming, including music, sound, spoken word and expanded approaches to the moving image.

“The idea is that the museum will now be a more engaging destination for both repeat visitors, as well those visiting the museum for the first time,” says Elligott.

In Whitney Exhibit, Poitras Explores The Art Of Surveillance

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This image released by the Whitney Museum of American Art shows a pigmented inkjet print on... Read more

NEW YORK (AP) — Here's a question you've likely never asked yourself: Can covert surveillance be beautiful?

But you might be asking it as you stroll through "Astro Noise," journalist and filmmaker Laura Poitras' exhibit at the Whitney Museum of American Art, in which images stemming from mass government surveillance are, in a number of cases, physically striking.

Take, for example, the patterns of bright greens, blues and oranges adorning the wall as one enters the exhibit. Seen from afar, they appear to be colorful modern paintings one might see in any contemporary museum. But actually, Poitras is presenting data —hacked Israeli drone feeds from a listening base in Cyprus. The original images were contained in documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

"Definitely the piece is trying to work on multiple levels," says Poitras, best known for "Citizenfour," her Oscar-winning documentary about Snowden, and her news reports on the same subject, which won a Pulitzer Prize.

"We found these fascinating colorful images that I was immediately compelled by. And they also have this fascinating story, so they work as news. We're looking at intercepts from hacked Israeli drone feeds. But it's not cynical. I like them as images, too."

Though Poitras is best known as a filmmaker and journalist, she says her first solo museum show has given her a chance to explore the issues important to her in a medium even more suited to her way of thinking.

"I felt almost MORE at home," she said in a recent interview. "The creative process was really liberating. It's more abstract, which is what I like. It opened up new possibilities, and liberated me from things I'm happy to be liberated from."

Though covert surveillance might not, at first glance, seem like a subject for exploration at an art museum, the Whitney's director, Adam Weinberg, begs to differ.

"Artists reflect their times, and we are living in very complicated times," Weinberg says. "It would be very strange if people were only dealing with questions of beauty and emotion at a time when the world is in such a state."

For Weinberg, one of the most valuable aspects of the exhibit, which opened last month and runs through May 1, is that "it's an experiential installation. It's not just about information. One of the things that's happened in this day and age is just the absolute avalanche of information, which we could never ever hope to sift through, and in most cases we can't even understand half of. (But) we still have to make ethical and moral judgments about notions of surveillance and privacy, and this ... puts the viewer at the center of those questions."

That dynamic is perhaps most powerfully explored in a room titled "Bed Down Location," in which visitors lie down on a square slab and gaze upward at footage of a night sky. The skies we're looking at are in places like Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. We see stars, buildings, and, what else? What is out there, Poitras asks us to wonder, that we can't see?

We're left to ponder that. But later, visitors will encounter evidence that they were being watched, as they lay on that slab.

Weinberg finds an irony in that piece. Yes, it makes us feel the impact of surveillance, if only for a moment, but he adds: "One of the great ironies is that any time almost anybody walks into any museum, they're on camera. So in fact, what (Poitras) is creating as an installation is in fact being surveilled at all times by museum security." In museums but also, he adds, in banks and so many other places where our images are captured.

"What's very powerful is that she calls attention to things that almost go unnoticed in everyday life," Weinberg says. "And these are things that have very far-reaching moral and ethical questions attached (to them)."

It's hardly a surprise that the exhibit touches on the events of Sept. 11, 2001; One of the first images to greet visitors is a film of people staring at ground zero in the days after the attacks. The footage is slowed down, and the expressions are of shock, concern, confusion, horror and curiosity.

But then on the other side of the screen, we watch something completely different: U.S. interrogations of prisoners captured in Afghanistan, at Guantanamo. A man is questioned repeatedly about his wife's name. He asks permission to stretch his leg. Poitras seems to be telling us that one side of the screen is inextricably linked to the other. (There is little written explanation provided throughout, something that might frustrate those not using an audio guide.)

Poitras, now working on a series with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, seems to relish in shifting formats.

"With long-form filmmaking you control time," she says, "and it was nice to be able to hand that back to the viewer. You can decide where to enter and exit. And it's something that I'm liberated from as creator." On the other hand, she says: "I loved controlling the space."

One section displays a very personal experience. After filming some footage on a rooftop in Baghdad in 2004, in a neighborhood where a U.S. soldier had been killed, Poitras discovered she was on a government watch list. She was detained and questioned every time she tried to cross a U.S. border. She moved to Berlin to escape the ordeal. She finally filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit and received many pages of documents — some of which, heavily redacted, appear in the exhibit. She says the government never asked to see her footage.

That personal section aside, Poitras is more interested in portraying the collective experience of our daily lives. Both she and Weinberg say they're well aware that some Americans care more about mass surveillance than others.

"People do not come out with the same responses," Weinberg says. "I think for a lot of people it's very haunting and creepy, and others are much more nonchalant about it."

By JOCELYN NOVECK

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Online:

http://www.whitney.org

New York’s Metropolitan Museum Announces Lord Vishnu Exhibition

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York will organize “Encountering Vishnu: The Lion Avatar in Indian Temple Drama” exhibition from December 19, 2015 to June five, 2016.

“Dramas presented during religious festivals in southern India are an important aspect of popular Hindu celebration. This exhibition highlights five rare wooden sculptural masks that represent a largely unrecorded category of late medieval Indian devotional art. The masks depict the protagonists in a deadly battle between Vishnu in his man-lion avatar, Narasimha, and an evil king whose destruction was essential for the restoration of order in the universe,” a Met announcement says.

Applauding Met for showcasing Hinduism focused exhibition, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, said that art had a long and rich tradition in Hinduism and ancient Sanskrit literature talked about religious paintings of deities on wood or cloth.

Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged major art museums of the world, including Musee du Louvre and Musee d'Orsay of Paris, Los Angeles Getty Center, Uffizi Gallery of Florence (Italy), Art Institute of Chicago, Tate Modern of London, Prado Museum of Madrid, National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, etc., besides Met, to frequently organize Hindu art focused exhibitions, thus sharing the rich Hindu art heritage with the rest of the world.

Founded in 1870, Met, one of the top art museums of the world, has large collections of ancient art; including Greek, Roman and Near Eastern. The Met’s mission includes art that “collectively represent the broadest spectrum of human achievement”. Thomas P. Campbell is Met’s Director and CEO, while Daniel Brodsky is Trustees Chairman.

Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about one billion adherents and moksh (liberation) is its ultimate goal. There are about three million Hindus in USA.

Admission To NY Matisse Show At The Museum of Modern Art Will Be By Timed Tickets, Available Online

 (AP) - A Matisse exhibition that drew big crowds in London is opening soon at New York City's Museum of Modern Art.

In anticipation of a large turnout, MoMa is issuing timed tickets for admission to "Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs."

They're available online, www.moma.org/, and at the museum and are free with the price of a regular admission.

The exhibition runs Oct. 12 through Feb. 8. It was shown at the Tate Modern in London before coming to MoMA.

The cut-outs were created largely in the last decade of the French artist's life when he was recovering from cancer and unable to paint.

Henri Matisse used scissors and paper to create a series of big, bold and ambitious cutouts. Some are mural or room-size, including "The Swimming Pool," which MoMA acquired in 1975.

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NYC's Met Museum Accused Of Duping On Fees

Contributed by Ula Ilnytzky, AP.

In this Tuesday, March 19, 2013 photo the exterior of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is photographed. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Before visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art can stroll past the Picassos, Renoirs, Rembrandts and other priceless works, they must first deal with the ticket line, the posted $25 adult admission and the meaning of the word in smaller type just beneath it: "recommended."

Many people, especially foreign tourists, don't see it, don't understand it or don't question it. If they ask, they are told the fee is merely a suggested donation: You can pay what you wish, but you must pay something.

Confusion over what's required to enter one of the world's great museums, which draws more than 6 million visitors a year, is at the heart of a class-action lawsuit this month accusing the Met of scheming to defraud the public into believing the fees are required.

The suit seeks compensation for museum members and visitors who paid by credit card over the past few years, though some who choose to pay less than the full price pull out a $10 or $5 bill. Some fork over a buck or loose change. Those who balk at paying anything at all are told they won't be allowed in unless they pay something, even a penny.

"I just asked for one adult general admissions and he just said, '$25,'" says Richard Johns, a high school math teacher from Little Rock, Ark., who paid the full price at the museum this past week. "It should be made clear that it is a donation you are required to make. Especially for foreign tourists who don't understand. Most people don't know it."

Met spokesman Harold Holzer denied any deception and said a policy of requiring visitors to pay at least something has been in place for more than four decades. "We are confident that the courts will see through this insupportable nuisance lawsuit," he said.

"The museum was designed to be open to everyone, without regard to their financial circumstances," said Arnold Weiss, one of two attorneys who filed the lawsuit on behalf of three museum-goers, a New Yorker and two tourists from the Czech Republic. "But instead, the museum has been converted into an elite tourist attraction."

Among the allegations are that third-party websites do not mention the recommended fee, and that the museum sells memberships that carry the benefit of free admission, even though the public is already entitled to free admission.

Lined up to testify is a former museum supervisor who oversaw and trained the Met's admissions cashiers from 2007 to 2011, said Michael Hiller, the other attorney representing the plaintiffs.

The supervisor is expected to testify that the term on the sign was changed in recent years from "suggested" to "recommended" because administrators believed it was a stronger word that would encourage people to pay more, Hiller said.

The Met's Holzer denied the former employee's allegations. He also said the basis for the lawsuit - that admission is intended to be free - is wrong because the state law the plaintiffs cited has been superseded many times and the city approved pay-what-you-wish admissions in 1970.

"The idea that the museum is free to everyone who doesn't wish to pay has not been in force for nearly 40 years," Holzer said, adding, "Yes, you do have to pay something."

As to the wording change on the sign, he said the museum "actually thought at the time, and still thinks, that 'recommended' is softer than 'suggested,' so the former employee is quite wrong here."

New York City's Department of Cultural Affairs agreed to the museum's request in 1970 for a general admission as long as the amount was left up to individuals and that the signage reflected that. Similar arrangements are in place for other cultural institutions that operate on city-owned land and property and receive support from the city, such as the American Museum of Natural History and the Brooklyn Museum. It's also a model that's been replicated in other cities.

The Metropolitan Museum is one of the world's richest cultural institutions, with a $2.58 billion investment portfolio, and isn't reliant on admissions fees to pay the majority of its bills. Sixteen percent of its $239 million budget in fiscal 2012 came from admissions. That same year, the city paid 11 percent of its operating budget. As a nonprofit organization, the museum pays no income taxes.

Holzer also noted that in the past fiscal year, 41 percent of visitors to the Met paid the full recommended admission price - $25 for adults, $17 for seniors and $12 for students.

A random sampling of visitors leaving the museum found that there was a general awareness that "recommended" implied you could pay less than the posted price.

But Dan Larson and his son Jake, visiting the museum last week from Duluth, Minn., were unaware there was any room to negotiate the admission price. They paid the full $25 each for adult tickets, with a credit card.

"My understanding was you pay the recommended price," said Larson, 50. "That's clearly not displayed."

Alexander Kulessa, a 23-year-old university student from Germany, said friends who had previously visited New York tipped him off about the admission fee.

"They said, 'Don't pay $25,'" said Kulessa. "They said it will be written everywhere to pay $25 but you don't have to pay that. You don't even have to pay the student price."

For Colette Leger, a tourist from Toronto who visited the museum with her teenage daughter, paying the full $25 was worth every penny.

"It's a beautiful museum, and I was happy to pay," she said.

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Associated Press writer Jake Pearson contributed to this report.