New home for new art and new ideas // Place // Added 2008/07/02 at 12:20
From its start in the Fine Arts building in Tribeca, to its current location on Bowery, The New Museum has held true to its mission. In the 1980's, it gave exposure to now well known artists such as Keith Haring, Richard Prince, Jeff Koons and Olafur Eliasson.
The architecture of the new Bowery building is testament of The New Museum's dedication to the concept of "New Art". Tokyo based architecture firm SANAA (meaning 'art' in Swahili) emerged as the winner of the New Museum competition.
Not only is the New Museum's new building "new art" it can simply be described as breath-taking. The Building consists of six blocks seemingly haphazardly stacked one atop another are all shifted on a central axis and are honest representations of the space they contain. Clad in an expanded sheet steel mesh, the edifice of the building has an industrial humbleness and a dim vibrancy of texture. At the street level are massive panes of glass separating the viewer from the New Museum store and a cafe area. Moving up, levels 2,3 and 4 of the building are occupied by cavernous gallery spaces with calculated slices of natural light illuminating the interior.
Possibly the best experience the New Museum has to offer is the Skyroom situated on the 7th floor of the building. The elevator opens up on a Van Der Rohe-esqu room flanked on two sides by floor to ceiling glass panels. Two doors open onto a terrace overlooking most of lower Manhattan and the East River with a view that is surprisingly serene.
If you plan to be in NY this summer, check it out!
Curent exhibitions:
2008 Altoids Award: An innovative exploration of American emerging art, the Altoids Award is granted biennially to four artists nominated and selected by a panel comprised entirely of other artists. Winners in 2008 are each given a $25,000 prize as well as the opportunity to collaborate on this exhibition at the New Museum, providing their earliest exposure to a broad, international audience.
Jeffrey Inaba - Donor Hall: Jeffrey Inaba uses a radical approach to research and design to make opaque information come alive. Inaba has created Donor Hall for the New Museum’s lower-level hallway, a bold, immersive graphic environment that identifies and quantifies public and private philanthropy around the world. The presentation is based on research on dozens of organizations—from sports, media, politics, education, religion, finance, paramilitary, and non-governmental organizations—and tracks the amounts of money various organizations donate to culture.
www.shift.jp.org / www.newmuseum.org / www.anewcityguide.com
Altoid Awards:
Jeffrey Inaba:
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