Museums from a German POV: New York City
I've been to the country of 🦅freedom🦅 for the first time ever! This is what I have to say about the museums in New York. No filter & uncensored.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
First of all: What’s the deal with American museums smashing their producer tags on every single wall? I will admit that I came across the James Simon Gallery in Berlin…but the proportions in the US?! People can literally choose the font size of their name depending on the cash they give.
That was a weird experience for me, especially since museums in Germany most often aren’t that breaded. But let’s be real, if museums are being financed mostly through dirty money anyway, what point is there in hiding it if the cash is still coming in?
Ngl, the collection and the building EAT. No wonder they host the Met Gala every year. The museum wants to be like a big dictionary of art housing all periods, materials, regions, and themes you can imagine. Nairy Baghramian (Gen X, Iranian-Armenian) created the latest commission for the facade, though I think it’s weird that the Met has contemporary and Modern art too because…leave it for MoMA?
And let’s be real once again: There is virtually no Western museum with an ethical collection of non-Western objects. At this point, it’s a fact and the Met is no different. And still, the art there is impressive and absolutely jaw-dropping. As an art history student, I almost fainted every time I saw a work that we learned about as a classic in our first 101 lecture. My favorite piece was a 19th-century mug with the US flag and the face of George Washington on it. It’s giving tourist souvenir. They currently have a cool show on French frenemies Éduard Manet (1832-1883) and Edgar Degas (1834-1917). I loved the review on The New Yorker.
Brooklyn Museum
Historically, the Brooklyn Museum wanted to be the Met really bad – and you can tell by the collection. And the monumental building. There’s Mesoamerican art, there’s 19th-20th century American design, and there are some great pieces of Assyrian art that are in suspiciously great condition that make me wonder whether they have not been touched for almost 3000 years or whether they have been aggressively restored (debates on how far restoration can go are not only a thing in the US).
The Brooklyn Museum is very intentional about reaching young visitors. I’m mad af that I didn’t get to see the current Spike Lee (Baby Boomer, American) show. I was a bit confused by the music playing in the entry hall. While it’s unusual for German museums, it’s something more and more American museums go for to attract younger audiences. I understand the intention, though I don’t know how I feel about it yet. But I can sure tell you how I felt about the giant atrocity of a KAWS (Gen X, American) sculpture being the centerpiece of the hall. Making a work by an extremely commercial and hype-oriented artist the very first thing visitors see trades all credibility for Instagramability. Also: WHY WOULD YOU HANG A KEHINDE WILEY (Gen X, American) PIECE NEXT TO THE BATHROOM?!?!?
The Modern and contemporary art collection is crowned by Judy Chicago’s (*1939, American) Dinner Party (1974-79). The triangle-shaped dinner table even has its own mirrored triangle room to make sure everybody gets how important this piece is. Judy’s monumental presentation of great women of history has received more critical attention in the last years because of its subjective and Eurocentric selection of women. It’s still an extremely important piece of feminist art. What a great service of Elisabeth Sackler (Baby Boomer, American) for the art historical community to donate it! Our girlboss Lizzy even established the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. It must be easy to be a philanthropist when Daddy and your two uncles made the family’s fortune by getting people addicted to opioids and creating a national drug crisis. And I oop!
MoMA
MoMA is capitalism disguised as a museum. Initially, the Museum of Modern Art occupied one single building on Manhattan’s West 53rd Street. Over time, Kirby inhaled almost every other building in the street. The most controversial victim of that expansion was the American Folk Art Museum which had to make space for MoMA in 2014 and got exiled to Lincoln Square. Recently, MoMA doubled it and gave it to the next person by adding a huge apartment-building tower that not only further makes renting in New York City impossible but also creates a major source of cash for the museum. Although it’s probably not as much cash as that of Leon Black and Glenn Dubin, who got their bag with their bestie Jeffrey Epstein and still make sure to share it with MoMA. Shout out to our sponsors!
But the collection lowkey slays. It’s a huge hall of fame for 20th-century art. One thing that breaks my heart and that I’ll be always mad about is that there is not a single Janet Sobel (1894-1968, American) painting on display. Everyone who knows me is now going oh lord, here we go again…
If there is one artist who represents American art – especially modern art –, it’s Jackson Pollock (1912-1956, American). Jackson really made sure to make himself a name as the lonely cowboy of painting, conquering giant canvases with colorful jizz. For way too long and even today, art historians have been attributing drip painting, the technique of dripping paint onto a surface instead of using a brush, to Jackson. I’m not mad, I just think it’s funny how it was Janet who had been using that technique years before Jackson and that he saw her works in person and later even admitted that they might have “inspired” him. Janet has been virtually forgotten in art history and MoMA owns only two of her paintings. Keeping them in the storage rooms is not only ignorant to art, it’s ignorant to correct art history.
Neue Galerie
Get ready for a BBQ cause I’m about to roast the life out of this museum. To quote Lazlo from What We Do in the Shadows, you really are the most devious bastard in 🎵Njewew Yohohork Citeyyy🎵.
The Neue Galerie wants to be boujee so bad that it’s hilarious. It’s based on the collection of Ronald Lauder (Baby Boomer, American), nepo baby of the Estée Lauder cosmetics empire who has a thing for German and Austrian art. Ronnie founded the Neue Galerie together with collector and art dealer Serge Sabarsky (1912-1996, Austrian-American). The building sits right at Park Avenue conveniently sandwiched between the Met and the Guggenheim, hoping that the location and the neighbors’ reputation will make her one of the cool girls.
It’s the attitude of the museum. It’s a place that for some reason hates everybody coming in because why would museums even engage with the peasants called visitors… The safety measures make you think that you are entering a high-security prison while even the Met kept it cool. The no-picture policy sent me. All this fuss over like 10 pieces. BFFR. Currently, there’s a temporary show on Max Beckmann’s (1884-1950, German) earlier works. But the main collection on view is just a couple of (nevertheless great) works by Max, Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980, Austrian), and Gustav Klimt (1862-1918, Austrian).
I was devastated to see Gustav’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) there. Devastated because it deserves so much better. After the Nazis invaded Austria, they stole the portrait from the family’s home. It eventually ended up in Vienna’s Museum Belvedere, although Adele’s husband changed his will for it to go to his niece Maria Altmann (1916-2011, American). After a long and gut-wrenching trial at the Supreme Court, Maria finally reunited with the portrait of her beloved aunt and wanted it to be open to the public in New York. I hoped it would be in a place where people could actually see Adele and not in a high-end prison. The Neue Galerie will forever be number one in my Burn Book.
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Let’s start with the obvious: The building serves. The spiral staircase serves. It just keeps you moving without you noticing. Arriving at the top is actually underwhelming though. Sorry, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959, American). I think the biggest mistake was adding the extra rooms to display the collection. They now show the Thannhauser collection of late 19th-century and early 20th-century art, but the rooms lack the confidence of the main hall. It’s more like a shy reminder that there’s some more stuff in the back, in case you even care, but never mind. The Guggenheim was initially founded by the entrepreneur Solomon R. Guggenheim (1861-1949, American). Today, the Guggenheim is basically a franchise of museums with more buildings in Venice, Bilbao, and Abu Dhabi.
The Whitney Museum of American Art
Honestly, Whitney is my girl. She’s an icon, she’s a legend, and she is the moment. Now come on now! The Whitney was founded by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875-1942, American), a nepo baby of the Vanderbilt railroad fortune. An artist herself, she focused exclusively on young American art that the Met didn’t want, so in 1931, Gertrude founded her own museum.
The Whitney building is right at the shore of the Hudson River and looking out into the Meat Packing District, a cute part of Greenwich Village that went from ghetto to Loro Piana in a matter of twenty years. I have to say that the building is trying very hard to fit in with its industrial aesthetic adapting to the neighborhood’s working class history. And honestly, it works. The Whitney (unlike other institutions in New York, criminal offensive side eye…) is giving off a very warm and inviting vibe. I very much enjoyed the educational material and the exhibitions design. The Whitney currently has a Ruth Asawa (1926-2013, American) show and a great exhibit on Henry Taylor (Baby Boomer, American) that you will read about soon here.
Next week we’ll talk about art galleries in Chelsea, so stay tuned!
Hope you enjoyed it! Alexa, play that Alica Keys song. How about recommending this different from the usual review to a friend? As always, I appreciate your support. Thank you for sticking around!
See you soon!!!
Jennifer
The Gen Z Art Critic