http://gothamist.com/2007/11/29/a_preview_of_th.php
A Preview of the Nearly Opened New Museum
November 29, 2007
Beginning at noon this Saturday the New Museum will open its new doors, but this morning
we snuck a peak inside. The gray aluminum mesh exterior of the building is a whimsical stack
of rectilinear boxes shifted off-axis, not unlike a pile of blocks arranged haphazardly by a
toddler. It's a bold, dynamic presence on the Bowery and, along with the Bowery Hotel,
signifies yet another firm step away from the area's gritty past.
After the jump, tons of pictures from inside every nook and cranny of the museum.
Perhaps the most striking feature inside the seven story museum is the complete absence of
internal columns; the building is held together by a series of cross-bracings and the skylights
allow natural light to filter through spaces where the stories are offset. The three main floors
of galleries are airy but not particularly capacious, creating a cozy, modest context for the
work. The fifth floor is given over to an educational center; the ground floor lobby features a
bookstore, cafe and glass-walled gallery space; the basement level houses a 182-seat
theater. On the seventh floor, an outdoor patio and glass enclosed event space will be used
for installations and private soirees; the view of downtown from up there isn't bad.
The inaugural exhibit is titled "Unmonumental" and is an "international survey on all three main
gallery floors that opens with sculpture by 30 artists from around the globe, then expands
over the course of five months into a dense, teeming environmental experience through the
addition of layers and collage, sound, and internet-based art." This will be on view through
March 23rd, and there are a few major commissioned installations on the horizon as well.
You'll see one of these greeting you before you even enter the building: The "Hell Yes!" sign
(Ugo Rondinone) brightens up the Bowery and will be the first of many public art installations
on the facade.
_
Naturally the museum can't afford to be shy about jumping in bed with corporate sponsors, so
the first 30 straight hours of its opening - which goes on continuously through the night - will
be sponsored by Target and admission will be free. Naturally, all the free tickets have already
been distributed. But don't despair; they expect some tickets to go unused, "thus it may be
possible for visitors to show up during the course of the marathon event and get a ticket on
the spur of the moment; but there is absolutely no guarantee!" In other words, you'll have a
good shot of getting in for free around 3am. After they burn through all the Target
sponsorship money, it'll cost $12.
Above photo of the lobby cafe, with mischievously mis-matched chairs.
Foreground: "Canon enigmatico a 108 voces" by Abraham Cruzvillegas. Background (sofa
bed) "Fuck Destiny" by Sarah Lucas. Further back is "Cube" by Rebecca Warren.
Ground floor "BLACK ON WHITE, GRAY ASCENDING" by Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries.
"Our Love is Like the Flowers, the Rain, the Sea and the Hours (Tree)" by Martin Boyce.
Photo by Jake Dobkin.
Lower level theater.
"Split Endz (wig mix)" by Jim Lambie.
"Myth Monolith (Liberation Movement)" by Marc Andre Robinson.
"Untitled (Kerze)" by Urs Fischer. Photo by Jake Dobkin
Lots of architectural critics commented on the slim staircase from the 5th to the 6th floor--
there's a small gallery off the landing with an audio piece.
The bathroom tiling is totally insane.
No, seriously-- it's really totally insane. (Picture from our frenemies at Curbed.)
Skyline shot from the seventh floor balconies-- the view of downtown is the true highlight of the visit.
View from inside the skybox on the 7th floor.
Last but not least, a view of the lattice-skin mesh. It doesn't look as good up close as it
does from far away, but it's still kind of funky.
More pictures can be found at the Gothamist Flickr stream.
http://flickr.com/photos/gothamistll...7603327643014/
________________________________________
http://curbed.com/archives/2007/11/2...ealed.php#more
Curbed Inside: Hell Yes, New Museum Revealed!
Thursday, November 29, 2007, by Lockhart
The New Museum opens to the public on Saturday with a free kick-off extravaganza (did you
get your Target-sponsored reservation?), but the gang at 235 Bowery invited the press over
this morning for a little preview. Finally, we were able to crawl into the womb of SANAA's
crazy minimalist creation, and what we found was—dramatic pause—an art museum. What,
you were expecting a Japanese palace where animé fantasies spring to life in a burst of
rainbows? Us too, but we digress. In truth, the New Museum felt small, like you could knock
the whole thing out in a half-hour before Sunday brunch. But the views (to the LES, Tribeca,
Soho, FiDi and beyond) are killer, and the place sells Cheese Puffs, so it's pretty much a must-see.
We booked this room for our Super Bowl party.
Seventh Floor event space (The Sky Terrace), looking towards BLUE, THOR et al.
Seventh Floor, looking downtown.
Out on the patio, looking west to Soho.
A preservationist's dream: Trump behind bars.
The satellite Genius Bar location. Total j/k. It's the fifth-floor resource center! No, you
cannot check your Gmail on them. We tried.
Learn, my little contemporary artists, learn!
The cage (aka Sam Durant's ...For People Who Refuse to Knuckle Down, 2004).
The most over-hyped stairwell in town? Cue the Goldberger: "The most exciting space in the
building is only four feet wide and some fifty feet high, and is tucked behind the elevators: it
contains a stairway connecting the third- and fourth-floor galleries. I have never been
anywhere at once so eerily narrow and so gloriously monumental." Sure, buddy.
Oh, one more thing: Hell Yes!
http://www.newmuseum.org/
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