New or Same Old Museum?

New York-based art blogger James Wagner recently declared “New Museum Commits Suicide with Banality” after the institution on the Bowery announced that they will be exhibiting the collection of one of their mega-rich trustees, Dakis Joannou. To add insult to injury, the whole museum show will be curated by one of Joannou’s BFFs, Jeff Koons. While James is right, I would argue that there have been signs of the institution’s death wish for some time.

From day one, the new New Museum has been presenting odd shows with allusions to trendy topics that feel disconnected from its roots as a barometer of the city’s artistic culture. Remember “After Nature?” Well, I’m trying to forget. And how about the Michelle Obama portrait that was carted in for the Elizabeth Peyton show after Obama’s election victory? How delightfully chic!

Its most recent show, Younger Than Jesus, proved to me that there was no turning back. Sure there were some talented artists on display–including crowd favorite Ryan Trecartin–but the whole concept of the show was bizarre to say the least. Why limit yourself to artists under the age of 33? What value does that bring? They aren’t exactly an oppressed or underrepresented minority, in fact, quite the opposite. You can’t wander into a gallery, museum or art fair without some recent MFA graduate (particularly a Yalie) popping up somewhere. If any group deserved more exposure, it would be middle-aged and older artists and no one is holding a high-profile biennial or triennial for them.

Excuse me for being cynical, but I can’t seem to not see the “Generational” thing for what I believe it was, a clever ploy–and in some ways quite brilliant. Older critics seemed to try and like part of it (and this is my cynicism talking) for fear that they would seem old-fogey (Jerry Saltz called it a “flawed but tantalizing new triennial,” Holland Cotter called it “large, buzzy, international in scope and age-specific“) while younger critics I spoke to wanted to celebrate it because it institutionalized their contemporaries, some of whom are promising but most of whom aren’t yet brilliant. I will mention that Stephen C. Squibb of ArtCat Zine did pen a good review that took the show to task, but I digress.

I didn’t fit into either group (I was 35 at the time) and at first I didn’t see the point….then I did.

Before the art market crash, collectors were running around eager to find the next hot young thing with the promise that in a few years time (or when Gagosian or Deitch added him or her to their stable) you could make a killing and triple your money. The problem is that that was then and this is now. Already in the midst of the economic recession, Younger Than Jesus felt like a relic of another era…a shopping mall of novelties that lacked any cohesive logic–malls never do.

So, what was the next unnatural step? Well, why caterer to collectors when you can service, I mean serve their interests directly? It was only a matter of time. When Cotter wrote, “it’s business as usual for a museum ever conscious of its clientele,” I guess I didn’t realize he may have meant the trustee/collectors.

Perhaps next the New Museum will add condo units above their building and create a residency program for collectors. We can all subsidize their rent with our admission tickets, government grants and underpaid staff while they continue to shop for shiny trinkets to fill the halls. It would be a perfect marriage of money, commercial interests, and trendy intellectuality and all in an up-and-coming location. I know that not everyone at the New Museum likes the direction things are going, but judging by what’s happening there, the voices of dissent don’t seem to have much power to change things.

In other words, how can you kill an institution that is already dead?