Art Review: Nan Kempner and Mother-of-Pearl at Met, Plus Education Building at MoMA

Perhaps the nicest aspect of the new Education Building at the Museum of Modern Art is that it provides an additional and semi-secret entrance to the museum for members on its second floor bridge corridor. While indeed beautiful and light-filled, the same Yoshio Taniguchi design flaws that plague the main building resonate even more soundly here. The entrance has little to offer, and stairs upwards or downwards essentially define the main floor. While there would seem to be ample opportunity to display art from MoMA's vast collection throughout this building, very little is on display, though a nice wall of Andy Warhol's cows seems a somewhat feeble attempt at papering over (forgive the metaphor) this building's sterility and visually uncompelling sense of mission.

Heading downstairs to the classrooms, one gets a more hopeful sense that Taniguchi at least somewhat understood what an Education Center is all about, although the semi-hidden Celeste Bartos Theater and flawed restrooms are kinks that underscore how shortcomings gleaned from the public's use of the main building were simply ignored. Clearly this museum's mission was subordinate to Yoshio Taniguchi's rigid goal of having "the two buildings reflect one another." Indeed they do: the public spaces of this building are as awkward as those of the other building. Quite a sad departure from Taniguchi's great works in Tokyo.

American chic and excess are the hallmarks of the Met's new show on the "iconic style" of Nan Kempner, and her vast collection of extraordinary confections from Dior, Laurent, Gaultier et al fill the Met's costume institute. Perhaps the most fascinating feature of this exhibit stems from Kempner's massive color-coded wardrobe, the most conspicuous display in the Costume Institute. One learns she kept clothes for all seasons in her Park Avenue apartment, given her proclivity to jet off for Christmas to Santo Domingo and other points far afield. While contemporary couture can be fascinating—as the recent exhibit Anglomania exhibit proved—something seems a tad forced and reinforced in the repetitive ostentatiousness here. As Kempner was "perhaps one of the first women to undergo modern cosmetic surgery," it seems the museum has given her wardrobe a rather interesting facelift that ought not to undergo any further scrutiny under light.

For a sharp contrast to our current proclivity for transitory fashion costumes, proceed to the third-floor galleries, where many extraordinary examples of the tradition of using mother-of-pearl in lacquer objects can be seen. These virtuoso artesans typically from China, Japan and Korea—but also India and Thailand—created stunning examples of lacquer with the finicky yet durable glistening substance found inside mollusk shells. The objects range from the eighth to the 19th century, including a number of superb items from the collection of Florence and Herbert Irving, such as a Japanese stacked food box with boats and plovers (Shibata Zeshin, 1807–1891). Two other Irving items include a breathtaking stationery box with floral scrolls (Korea, Choson dynasty, 15th century), and an octagonal dish with flowering plums and birds (China, Yuan–early Ming period, 14th century). A rectangular tray with scene from the Tale of Genji (Japan, Edo period, early 17th century, pictured above) has amazingly delicate and intricate details, as does a coffer from Gujarat (India, Mughal dynasty, early 17th century) lent by the Sackler Gallery. A full afternoon program on January 14th perhaps will unveil some of the enduring mysteries as well as (ab)uses of lacquer in the West.

Tags:   education building, florence herbert irving, lacquer, met, moma, mother of pearl, nan kempner, sackler gallery, tale of genji

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Posted on 12/16/2006 ( Permanent Link )
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