Hili Perlson, news.artnet.com:
"The Garage Museum for Contemporary Art is opening the doors of its new permanent home at Gorky Park to the public tomorrow [June 12]. The building—formerly a restaurant built in 1968 in the generous Soviet style saved for public buildings and complete with mosaics—was in disarray when Rem Koolhaas's OMA started devising plans for its re-functioning."
Image from above article, with caption: Press conference at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art on June 10 Photo: Courtesy Garage Museum
I've always found genius Mr. Cool-Ass (pardon the impertinent American spelling) rather prepotente and publicity seeking. I must admit that my ideal, non-imaginary museum is the old wing of the National Gallery in Washington, where the emphasis is on the paintings on display rather than on the architect hired to house them there.
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I go to museums to admire works of art, not to genuflect before trend-conscious architects showing off. As for the "new,"
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poorly constructed wing of the National Gallery (above), by master "I am Paid" (I. M. Pei, the designer of the God-awful, eye-busting communist Chinese Embassy in Washington [below]);
poorly constructed wing of the National Gallery (above), by master "I am Paid" (I. M. Pei, the designer of the God-awful, eye-busting communist Chinese Embassy in Washington [below]);
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it (Pei's National Gallery addition) lacks adequate toilet facilities (first things first); you have to line up to pee in Pei's gallery (I won't fully quote the immortal lines, "Here I sit, broken-hearted, paid a dime and only ...").
Poor Art, my best high school friend -- how would he fare in the latest fairygrounds museums designed by pretentious, ambitious architects who think they are more important than the art they are intended to preserve, for posterity and, most important, for the enlightenment of the public. Art's being turned into an instant "Wow, "OMG" architectural "experience" rather than a long-lasting artistic revelation.
I'd go so far as to say the ideal museum is, for me, a medieval cathedral, rather than a post-post-post-post (how many post modernisms can one stand) zoo. At least cathedrals were meant to honor God (whoever she is) and her saints -- often beautifully and inspirationally painted/sculpted -- and not glorify their not all-too-human architects. But perhaps I am being notalgically naive about human intentions in the past.
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When I roam, without an agenda, in the (thank God air-conditioned) original National Gallery in Washington,
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enjoying "free time," and where admission is still thankfully free, I cannot help but think of the verses of Baudelaire:
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"Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,