13 May 2016
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York has split in three: as well as its historic home on Fifth Avenue and the smaller branch at The Cloisters, a former monastery in Upper Manhattan that houses the collection of medieval art, since March 18 last and for eight years the Met will occupy the Brutalist building of the architect Marcel Breuer, formerly the seat of the Whitney Museum of American Art, which has recently moved to the Meatpacking District. What might seem just an increase in spaces and exhibition facilities is in fact part of a highly ambitious project. The Met has a new program devoted to contemporary art, with obvious repercussions on its relations with the other institutions in New York specializing in this field, from the MoMA to the New Museum. The two inaugural shows reflect a traditional approach to the challenge, but confirm the high quality of the museum’s proposals. The first is a retrospective of the work of the Indian artist Nasreen Mohamedi, whose meticulous spatial geometries extend over sheets of paper, pieces of canvas and photographed landscapes, building a conceptual bridge between modernism and Zen spirituality. The second show is a joint exhibition covering six centuries, from the Renaissance to the present day: its title is Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible and it focuses on the incomplete in art, following the adventures of artists and their clients and the effects on them of journeys, deaths and changes of mind. With the works arranged in strictly chronological order, the concept is enriched and takes on new values: of a processual type, as in the ephemeral creations of Robert Smithson, Félix González-Torres and Urs Fischer; or a perceptual kind, as in the work of Auguste Rodin or Louise Bourgeois. Don’t miss the picture entitled Henry IV at the Battle of Ivry (1627), in which an irresolute Pieter Paul Rubens painted a soldier with three arms, or Untitled—Still Life (2002), a titanic work by Luc Tuymans inspired by the still lifes of Cézanne whose colors melting into a coat of white paint are a sorrowful comment on the events of 9/11.
Nasreen Mohamedi
Curated by Roobina Karode, Sheena Wagstaff and Manuel J. Borja-Villel
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Breuer, New York
March 18-June 5
Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible
Curated by Andrea Bayer, Jayne Wrightsman, Kelly Baum and Nicholas Cullinan
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Breuer, New York
March 18-September 4
Nasreen Mohamedi, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Breuer, New York.
Nasreen Mohamedi, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Breuer, New York.
Nasreen Mohamedi, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Breuer, New York.
Nasreen Mohamedi, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Breuer, New York.
Nasreen Mohamedi, Untitled, 1975. Jayshree e Sanjay Lalbhai.
Nasreen Mohamedi, Untitled, 1969. Collection of Gayatri and Priyam Jhaveri.
Nasreen Mohamedi, Untitled, ca. 1975. Sikander e Hydari Collection.
Nasreen Mohamedi, Untitled, ca. 1980. Collection of Dossal Family (Mariam Panjwani, Zeenat Sadikot, Laila Khalid).
Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Breuer, New York.
Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Breuer, New York.
Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Breuer, New York.
Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Breuer, New York.
Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Breuer, New York.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Breuer, New York.