Morning folks. It’s official: MoMA will demolish the Folk Art Museum in order to make way for the redesign.
The new building will focus heavily on creating an illusion of accessibility. Whether that’s gonna happen through bulldozing our neighborhood Folk Art Museum to make way for a glass museum is just one of many questions critics are asking.
- MoMA says that preserving the museum would be “simply impossible” for its latest redesign. (Here’s hoping this one’s the winner! Ha, ha, ha.) MoMA plans to start construction this summer. [New York Times]
- Architecture critic Paul Goldberger thinks the museum is making a “fatal mistake”, and he’s appalled by MoMA’s indifference. “A city that allows such a work to disappear after barely a dozen years is a city with a flawed architectural heart,” he writes. “A large cultural institution that cannot find a suitable use for such a building is an institution with a flawed architectural imagination.” [Vanity Fair]
- Justin Davidson suspects that even architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro were hesitant about the move, since they’re basically replaced the Folk Art Museum’s space with a big open hole. “The client is bent on art-world domination; the architects seem halfhearted.” [Vulture]
- Jerry Saltz still doesn’t see enough space to house MoMA’s permanent collection, and in its place, a lot of vapid blue chip space and nonsense about accessibility. Time to give up on MoMA. [Vulture]
- Oh my God. CBC reports that six bodies have been found in Russian bomb-rigged cars; all of the bodies had been shot ahead of time. Reporters are linking it to the Sochi Olympics but no motive’s been found yet. [CBC]
- Brooklyn sales are higher than ever. [Curbed]
- Russian journalist Masha Gessen has been making the rounds promoting her new book about Pussy Riot. Gessen, one of Putin’s most outspoken critics, has just fled Russia with her wife and children to avoid the anti-gay laws there. [NPR]
- Creative Time Reports has published some of the most important artist essays last year, like Laurie Jo Reynolds’ piece on the Tamms Supermax Prison and David Byrne’s essay on inequality (which made its way from the mainstream media to City Council hearings). So we were surprised to read another ad for Marina Abramovic’s institute, which is trying to raise 20 million dollars. Abramovic’s written similar essays which sell the project as a public good, while linking to her kickstarter campaign. Creative Time buys this? [Creative Time Reports]