Manet and the Execution of Maximilian at MoMA

After watching the lead female marathon runners zip past off the Queensboro Bridge yesterday, I headed to the Museum of Modern Art to see the just-opened Manet and the Execution of Maximilian. As with the reopened café on the third floor, in both instances I asked myself: Why is this here? Both seem distinctly out of place. So marathon-like, I zipped through, made my notes, and left.

Of course, Manet's series of paintings depicting the execution of Emperor Maximilian are superbly executed and would belong in any display of the oeuvre of Manet. But this particular exhibit seems to be orphaned, with seemingly no ties to anything else on view at the museum. Can a painting from 1869 be considered modern? In a word: Hardly. It takes a vast stretch of the imagination—aside from financial considerations (Manet always draws a crowd, especially at holiday time)—to explicate exactly why this exhibit is here.

Which recalls Roberta Smith's lovely smackdown of MoMA in the New York Times five days ago. Her comments both echoed and augmented some of the criticism leveled by Calvin Tomkins in his September 25 New Yorker article "I Remember MoMA." For 858 million dollars, the trustees and patrons of MoMA—simply put—got shafted. And this is everywhere apparent when you look at those smudged white walls, this reopened café or other dining areas. The reopened café, for example, has been shifted to accommodate a walkway to the new Education Center opening at month's end. While the café now has more seats, the dining experience has become gloomy. Both the espresso bar and café are deprived of that brilliant light and decent view of the sculpture garden. And the museum visitor has yet another empty white corridor with dustballs gathering at the base of the windows to admire. To quote Smith: "Yoshio Taniguchi’s MoMA is a beautiful building that plainly doesn’t work."

Do these things really matter? In a massive showpiece museum displaying many hallowed items of design, it indeed does. Just as the flawed design—about which I've written previously—still displays the most egregious flaws: Too many visitors cramped into narrow and confining galleries; too little space for the most prized items in the collection; too much dust in the corridors, walkways and window areas; and too many poorly-conceived nooks. As I wrote last week, while the Brice Marden retrospective looks wonderful, it would be even nicer if the two billion dollars' worth of top artwork from the permanent collection could be displayed in the airy and bright sixth floor, rather than the cramped quarters on the fourth and fifth floors.

Perhaps that's asking too much.

Tags:   brice marden, calvin tomkins, Edouard manet, execution of maximilian, moma, new york marathon, roberta smith

© All rights reserved.

Posted on 11/6/2006 ( Permanent Link )
 Send to Friend