The Easel

29th October 2019

Dissident Modernism Meets Peak Philanthropy at the New MoMA

Course correction. MoMA has conceded that it cannot present the tumult of modern art as a tidy process. Some think this long overdue change deserves no more than “a really slow clap and a really long eye roll.” A more generous take is that MoMA’s rehang of its collection achieves “an elegant but limited cosmopolitanism”. Perhaps more fresh thinking awaits. New MoMA ads state: “Make space for the new mistakes.”

22nd October 2019

MoMA’s Art Treasure, No Longer Buried

Reviews of the “new” MoMA are numerous and positive. Its much enlarged building is slick, a bit like an Apple store. Art by old white males is less dominant. Critically, MoMA has discarded its view of art history as an inevitable, cumulating sequence of art movements in London, Paris and New York. Great art, it now thinks, happens everywhere. “The museum could be on its way to its second round of greatness.”