After enforced ‘exile’ in Queens that lasted almost two years, made necessary to allow for extension work, the MoMA is finally ready to come home to Manhattan. The opening of the new wing, designed by Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi which doubles the exhibition area, is set for November 20.

Composed mainly of glass, granite and aluminium, the building is six storeys high and takes in parts of the old building on 53rd street, designed in 1939 by Philip Goodwin and Edward Durrell Stone. Decidedly more audacious is the interior, starting with the double entrance that leads into an immense atrium 33 metres high and flooded with natural light.

Opening the season and new exhibition route, the museum has planned three shows that describe the metamorphosis to the public. The first “Nine Museums by Yoshio Taniguchi” examines projects by the Japanese architect not just for MoMA but also for other contemporary institutions; “Projects 82: Mark Dion, Rescue Archaeology” offers instead a selection of objects found amongst the rubble of the house of John D Rockefeller Jr., destroyed in 1939 to make way for the museum and finally a collection of photographs “Michael Wesely: Open Shutter” presents the various building phases with shots taken with extended exposures. E.S.

20.11.2004
Manhattan is Modern again
Museum of Modern Art
44 West 53rd St.
https://www.moma.org