Man vs. Museum
Art often overpowered guests at the Museum of Modern Art's 40th annual Party in the Garden Tuesday, demonstrating not only how pale and short people can look compared to a lot of modern art, but also how complex the relationships can be between museums and their supporters.
Even though 850 people paid thousands of dollars to dress up and eat beef tenderloin, even though some of them had their names on the walls, the Museum of Modern Art imposed its presence.
The expansions of the past few years have clearly increased the scale and ambitions of the place, and it seems the people are still adjusting.
It started at the party entrance, where an Ed Ruscha work made for the party was being used as a backdrop for posing for photographs. Neither cleavage, celebrity, nor big bank account could stand up to the bright green AstroTurf square.
In the garden, across a color-striped floor of the museum, art continued to win the battle for attention.
Of course, it really isn't a case of Man vs. MoMA. In the end, we get involved with museums because we want them to win; we want them to outlast us.
But to thrive, museums must have heart, and that comes from people ready to be the life of the Party in the Garden.
Such people were present at this party, and not just those who made bold sartorial choices.
The honorees, Donald Marron and Mike Nichols, spoke passionately about their MoMA, what they've learned and felt there, beyond encounters with paint on canvas. Mr. Marron met his wife there, in an elevator on a way to a meeting. Mr. Nichols said he discovered his passion for film there.
As they spoke, their images were projected and magnified onto a double-height wall on the museum's second story, driving home the point that the museum is in fact about people. Mayor Bloomberg got the same big-screen treatment, and many cheers for making art a New York City priority.
Mr. Bloomberg said he remembered once hearing David Rockefeller speak about his mother's founding of the museum and his experiences there as a boy. With his image projected on the atrium, at that moment, he made the most important point of the evening: Personal relationships with the museum deserve the same prominence as the art hanging on its walls.
agordon@nysun.com
