The new New Museum

I finally made it out to the new New Museum on Bowery. I have fond memories of the old building in Soho, although I would always leave that space remembering the awkwardness and particularities of a museum shoe-horning itself into a very old building not designed for museum display.

The first thing I noticed approaching the new building on Bowery is that it looks like a prison, except designed for Dr. Caligari. I understand the steel fence is supposed to operate like a scrim, filtering out light to a shimmering effect. Instead, it just looks like constrictive chain link. WIthout many windows, the steel looks like it's designed to keep people in.

The charming, weird character of the old space -- the space I was sometimes frustrated with, but always remembered -- is gone. No more mini-mezzanine or exposed brick or little spaces for curators to figure out. That's been replaced with a lot of new space for exhibits. There are three floors for New Museum shows.

The space is generic. Large white box warehouse space that could be in Chelsea or Cleveland or anywhere. It's monumental space with high ceilings that can actually house monumental sculpture and painting (ironic, given the first show is called Unmonumental).

This big generic space is theoretically flexible -- they could build temporary walls for each exhibit. That didn't happen for "Unmonumental," but I hope it happens in the future. Otherwise, it's just a big space with a bunch of things thrown in, formless.

There are some good things about the new building. I love the roofdeck (see above). It actually looks like an advertisement for a new condo building, and in real life it looks that way too. Like living in the future, when the future is pretty much the same as the present except for lots and lots of white minimalist design. That effect is mixed in my mind, but any time you can be outside and mix public space with the open is OK with me.

And I feel like I should say the best thing about the new New Museum is the bathroom. There's a fantastic mosaic mural in there of grayscale flowers on bright orange. The flowers are comforting and the gray and orange accents the pixilation effect. So I guess that's new. In any case, it's a hell of a way to take a piss.

Could the new space be better? Yes. Is it better than the old space? Probably. For me, the most important thing is that they've made room to show more work. At a certain point the architecture isn't the point. Creating good shows is.

(Click here for my review of the first New Museum show, "Unmonumental.")