New York in May: Musings on our curatorial red carpet, Frieze, and the New Whitney
The Academy Awards, the Tony’s, the Grammy’s, and….
the Association of Art Museum Curators Awards for Excellence.
Yes, it’s a thing. And better yet, c2 proudly accepted an award for StereoType, the exhibition
developed for the Boston Society of Architects last Fall, and now touring to museums in Florida,
New York and Indiana.
The award ceremony is a small piece of a 3 day conference of AAMC, scheduled in a different
city each year. Judy arrived in time for the smaller group festivities—drinks with the
Contemporary Curators at Half King in Chelsea and breakfast with the Independent Curator
group at Eatery—which is always a great way to connect and share with colleagues. Jennifer
Scanlan, independent curator, walked a group of us through her Pathmakers: Women in Art,
Craft and Design, Midcentury and Today exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design, a real
treat to hear the inside stories.
In an effort to highlight museums outside of Manhattan, sessions and events were held at the
Newark Museum, the Brooklyn Art Museum and the The Bronx Museum of The Arts. This
meant lots of travel time, but was a good excuse to see what’s going on outside the bubble.
After a long day of sessions, the award ceremony, and reception, we snuck away for a delightful
casual evening at Franny’s, a Brooklyn institution, with Emily Stamey, Curator at Scottsdale
Museum of Contemporary Art, and Rachel Arauz, independent curator.
The remainder of our time in the city was devoted to Coded_Couture, which will open at Pratt
Manhattan in February 2016. We had a productive morning meeting with Claudia and Chris of
Blumlein Associates to see their proposal for the exhibition design and left with plenty to digest
and discuss over an al fresco lunch at the Standard Grill.
We indulged in a post-lunch stroll on the HighLine, catching glimpses of the new Whitney from
many different perspectives, all impressive.
After gallery hopping and a hot-day retreat at Morgenstern’s for ice cream, we made our way to
Dirty French, where we met with Katharine Zarella, editor of V magazine to discuss her
contribution to the Coded_Couture catalog. A few adventurous drinks and appetizers later, the
three of us jumped into an Uber uptown to see the Parsons MFA Fashion Design exhibition.
A friend and colleague, and a designer included in our Mechanical Couture exhibition in Tel Aviv,
Shelley Fox, was the driving force behind the Parsons program. It was lovely to see and
congratulate her, and to pop inside each separate room given over to a design student to
express their complete vision.
Judy was able to extend her NYC stay to visit the new Whitney and enthusiastically joined in the
chorus of admiration. What a triumph. All the press has written rings true — a humble exterior
that fits into its industrial setting; galleries that feel wonderful, sensitively installed with so many
surprises — great works by artists undeservedly not in the canon. There was Adam Weinberg in
the elevator so Judy could give him a high five, and sharing the experience of the earliest work
in the museum was John Walsh. It was a thrill to be looking at art next to one of the great art
historians, curators and director emeritus of the Getty. And to top off the delicious lunch from the
top floor cafe were the infamous EVE&ADELE. The glitterati are still coming: Ginger returns for
her look in just a week.
Thursday was a perfect day for Frieze, the international art fair held in London in the fall, and on
Randall’s Island in the spring. The light coming through that huge white tent makes everything
look its best. The work of Carlos Garaicoa in Elba Benitez’s booth was stunning. And of course,
Richard Artschwager’s work continues to amaze.
Sweeping generalizations: lots of gilt and gold; constructivism revisited, again and again; and
obsessive repetition, as we showed in Over+Over, reigns.
