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New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) traditionally maintained a distinction between spaces devoted to loan exhibitions, which changed frequently, and those devoted to its collection of paintings and sculpture, where installations were relatively fixed. Recently, the collection galleries have become a site for fluid displays—an approach that has brought on view a great many works not seen for decades. Ann Temkin, Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at MOMA, explained the thinking behind this new policy and discusses initiatives planned for the coming months.  The lecture took place at Harvard’s Sackler Museum.

Philip Gerstein, painter and member of Galatea Fine Art, reports with the following observations of the lecture:

“Ann Temkin is very well spoken and at ease in front of a
microphone, and she obviously liked explaining her pet project to what
one may term a somewhat tradition-bound audience, i.e.: lotsa high-
powered Harvard people and some mid-Cambridge society, who interest
themselves in the arts and especially associated with the Fogg Museum.
As the Fogg is being renovated for the next 4 years or so, they hope
to refashion it to keep up with the times, and to perhaps better serve
its teaching mission simultaneously. (It’s apparently been redesigned
by Renzo Piano, or at least his office. A side note: just saw an
article complaining of Piano’s design for the extension of the Gardner
Museum, as kinda, well… boring.
So Temkin presented herself as expressing the thoughts of a whole new
generation of museum-minders. They are hoping to break down furher the
separation of various arts — to reintegrate the display of painting,
drawing, sculpture, print, photo — of the same period or those which
present interesting comparison. They are tired of being run by the
schedule of special exhibitions, all segregated from the static
permanent collection display. They want to show more of the museums’
holdings. They want you to know that women will never again be 2nd-
class art citizens. They want you to keep coming back and finding
things you did not see the last time.
Here’s an interesting piece of news, at least to those of us who like
Abstract Expressionism –> starting in August, they will empty their
4th floor and parts of 3rd, of the usual didactic progression of
modern art. In its place, they will install at least 200 pieces of
AbEx art from their storage vaults – and as you can imagine, they have
an incredible collection of prime period stuff, donated, bequethed and
acquired. She ticked off some – well, you know the usual suspects, and
if you studiied AbEx at all, the half-forgotten ones as well.
Furthermore — and this is an unusual and valid point — when someone
asked her about a catalog for this installation, which should last
until Spr. 2011 or thereabouts, she pointed out that catalogs are
produced in the manner described best by the expression “the cart
before the horse”. I.e.: they should really write about any exhibition
after they had a chance to see it up for a while — rather than making
up their mind beforehand. Usually this is not done, as they want you
to sell catalogs as soon as the show is up. But not this time… they
might even go with something on the web only, or similar idea, as this
show unfolds.
So this was an interesting hour of my time. Anyway, inspired by
hearing about her AbEx interest, I went by afterwards to introduce
myself and give her the (Galatea!) card with my image from last
month’s show — and which obviously could be related to this
tradition. With the number of cards she is presented, I expect, it
would be curious if she actually does anything with it.  On the
other hand, MoMA is not the ICA, so they won’t necesarily feel like
they have to snub local artists and Boston art scene in general. “