Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Lindemann: The Whitney Could Have Used a Krens

September 6, 2011 by Marion Maneker

Adam Lindemann offers a masterly analysis of how Thomas Krens changed the world of museums. He also suggests why it might have been better if the Whitney had followed Krens’s playbook for the Guggenheim by selling some works to shore up the endowment and playing up their architectural masterpiece as a tourist attraction appealing to European visitors:

Compare this to the poor job done by the Whitney Museum of American Art. It is the owner of a fantastic brutalist Marcel Breuer masterpiece, a building that sadly has less than half the attendance of the Guggenheim, and 80 percent of its visitors are mere New Yorkers. To add insult to injury, the museum is abandoning its flagship on Park Avenue and renting it out to the Metropolitan Museum, because the Whitney is pouring all its resources into a newer, bigger, downtown Whitney designed by Renzo Piano, the volume of which will allow the Whitney to show more of its vast collection.

If bigger doesn’t result in better, the Whitney will have done New York a terrible disservice, one that could have been easily avoided if only it had raised funds by selling a few artworks out of its vast holdings. Isn’t the Breuer building a work of art, one that is more meaningful to the museum’s identity than any painting could ever be? Imagine if it had the vision to leave the “uptown Whitney” as a true museum of American Art, the only one in New York, where the museum’s amazing collection of Ash Can artists like Edward Hopper, Charles Sheeler and George Bellows would be on permanent display. Would I care if the downtown museum were cut in half? Absolutely not. There is plenty of museum quality free art to see downtown in all the Chelsea galleries; who needs to pay good money to see any more of it?

Whatever Happened to Thomas Krens? (NY Observer)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Whitney Declares Itself Anchor of the Meat Packing District?Whitney Declares Itself Anchor of the Meat Packing District?
  • Whitney Museum’s Founding CollectionWhitney Museum’s Founding Collection
  • Can Kassay Thrive Without Collectors?Can Kassay Thrive Without Collectors?
  • How to Solve Greek Problems? Return the Elgin MarblesHow to Solve Greek Problems? Return the Elgin Marbles
  • Legitimizing Late de KooningLegitimizing Late de Kooning
  • Artelligence: What If You Could Shop the Scull Sale Today?Artelligence: What If You Could Shop the Scull Sale Today?

Filed Under: Museums Tagged With: Guggenheim, Lindemann, Whitney

About Marion Maneker

LiveArt

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor