Inside the MoMA Legacy Sweepstakes
It’s generally considered the worst traffic of two weeks in Manhattan: the weeks-long proceedings of the United Nations General Assembly, blocking all travel on the east side of the island. Road closures, idling black cars and battalions of police and Secret Service agents turn the lands of Midtown into an impassable hell for a few days every September. By Tuesday night, construction around a JPMorgan supermarket taking up an entire block of Park Avenue only added to the chaos, as did a wave of e-bike meal deliveries delivering dinners. sadness at the desk for the bank employees who are still working. And that’s when the President Joe BidenIts convoy rolled past.
Amid the madness outside of Midtown, a wonderful quiet pervades the sixth floor of the Museum of Modern Art on 53rd Street. A flashback by the wonderfully unclassifiable German artist Thomas Schütte took over the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Special Exhibition Center, installed just in time for the cocktail opening. Meet the director Max Hollein, who had told me he was quite fond of Schütte and took him to several shows, walked into the room and marveled at the 12-foot-tall sculpture Vater Staat (Father’s country), on loan from the collection of Ken Griffinex-wife of, Anne Dias. A few floors below is photographer Robert Frank’s retrospective – photos ranging from Beats antics to Stones recording sessions. Exiled on Main St.—and in the sculpture garden below, two busy bars serve Gotham art patrons.
Something else was also in the air. It has been several weeks since MoMA director Glenn Lowry announced that he will step down stepped down in September 2025, which wasn’t exactly a shock — the usual retirement age at MoMA is 65, and Lowry was 70. But his widely recognized successes made him must stay for another five-year term that will expire next year. year. And now that it’s official, all anyone can talk about when it comes to MoMA is…who will be appointed to run MoMA.
It can be understood like that. This job is said to be the most difficult job in the entire museum. Lowry’s had it for 30 years, reshaping the institution as the role of the museum director has changed greatly across the sector. Aside from a few clean-ups—much demonstrationa disgruntled former member alleged stabbing, female Björk show—Lowry is a respected figure in the field. His departure announcement led to a flurry of praise for his tenure, followed by the inevitable question: Who can follow a multi-talented director who has both the budget team and the supervisory team in charge? beloved recruit, a man who oversaw two renovation campaigns and is leaving the museum’s coffers fuller than they were. ever?
Vater Staat (Father’s country), 2010 (details). Brightly plated copper. 149 5/8 × 61 × 55″ (380 × 155 × 139.7 cm).Collection of Anne Dias Griffin, Photos by Steven E. Gross. 2024 Thomas Schütte / Artists Rights Association (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
“The remarkable thing about Glenn—I often felt uneasy about the way he was perceived as corporate, because he had such an enormous ability to use both hemispheres of his brain. As I often tell people, do you want a director who can’t count? speak Kathy Halbreich, who served as deputy director under Lowry for a decade during his tenure. “You have to have a director who is equally capable on the financial planning side, the investment side and the financial side of the organization—And you want a director who is passionate about modern and contemporary art.
And now someone needs to follow in his footsteps. Halbreich, like many others contacted for this story, did not want to put his name on the list — out of respect for process, of course, but also because of the possibility that all the prognosticators are wrong. In 1995, art connoisseurs could hardly have predicted that the board of the world’s most famous postwar arts organization would choose Lowry, who specialized in Islamic studies and was then director of the Chamber of Ontario Art Gallery.
