December 1992: A significantly expanded installation of the permanent collection of contemporary art of The Brooklyn Museum will inaugurate a large portion of the fifth floor galleries in the newly renovated West Wing of the Museum. Scheduled to go on view February 19, 1993, it marks the second phase in the floor-by-floor opening of the three floors of exhibition space that have been redesigned by the architectural team of Arata Isozaki & Associates and James Stewart Polshek and Partners, which will culminate in the full opening in November of 1993.
The reinstallation will consist of more than 50 works in a wide range of media, including paintings, photographs, works on paper, and sculptures. The galleries will be installed chronologically with works from 1946 to 1992.
At the fifth floor elevator lobby visitors will be greeted by Titi in Window, Evie and Hazel, Luis’s Mother (1986-87), life-size sculptures by John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres. The chronological presentation will begin in the second and largest gallery with important works by abstract expressionist artists including Personage (1956), a wood sculpture by Louise Nevelson, and Premonition of Evil (1946), a painting by Adolph Gottlieb. This will be followed by works by the New York School, including the paintings July (1956), by Larry Rivers, and East Side Sunday (1956), by Grace Hartigan. Another section of the main gallery will contain different representations of the figure, among them Very Large Head (1958), a bronze sculpture by Eduardo Paolozzi; Girl on a Chair (1970), a plaster and wood scupture by George Segal; and Female Model on Platform Rocker (1977-78), a large-scale oil painting by Philip Pearlstein.
Another grouping in the main gallery will comprise works that explore various aspects of nature and topography, among them Ocean Park No. 27 (1970), an oil painting by Richard Diebenkorn; Everlasting Waterfall (1989), an oil painting by Pat Steir; Brooklyn in Flames (1986), a small oil and acrylic on board by Mark Innerst; and Terre (1988), Deborah Butterfield’s painted steel sculpture of a horse.
Toward the end of the installation there will be a grouping of works addressing political concerns, among them Riot IV (1983), a monumental painting by Leon Golub; Pretend #2 (1990), a triptych of photographs with silkscreened text by Adrian Piper; and Small Graphic Reactor (1986), a large-scale work in acrylic and graphite on canvas by William T. Wiley.
The final fifth floor gallery will contain the exhibition of a promised gift by Leon Polk Smith of 27 of his works, spanning his more than five-decade-long career. It will open simultaneously with the reinstallation of contemporary art and will remain on view through January 2, 1994.
The fifth floor galleries are on the top floor of the renovated space and are the only portion of the Museum where the galleries along the front of the facade can be viewed from end to end. Thus, the visitor standing in the final gallery containing the Leon Polk Smith exhibition will be able to look through the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery containing the Rodin collection to Monet’s Houses of Parliament, Effect of Sunlight in the European painting and sculpture galleries. The new fifth floor galleries feature skylights that can go from a fully opened to a completely closed position in 45 seconds.
A new Family Guide to Looking at Contemporary Art, geared toward children 4-7 with an accompanying adult, will be available at the Museum’s Information Desks.
The contemporary reinstallation has been co-organized by Charlotta Kotik, curator of contemporary art and chair of the Department of Painting and Sculpture and Brooke Kamin Rapaport, assistant curator of contemporary art.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1989 - 1994. 07-12/1992, 221-223.
December 1993: WHAT:
THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM’S WEST WING OPENING
Press Preview Thursday, December 2, 1993, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Egyptian Reinstallation - Third Floor
Featuring over 500 objects from the world renowned Egyptian collection, which have seldom or never been on view. Highlights include sarcophagi, coffins, the cartonnage of Nespanetjerenperre, and a wrapped 2,600 year old mummy never before on view at The Brooklyn Museum
Arata Isozaki: Works in Architecture - Fourth Floor
30-year retrospective designed and conceptualized by the architect, on view through February 27, 1994
Contemporary Permanent Installation - Fifth Floor
Features more than 50 works from 1946 to 1992 in a wide range of media, opened initially on February 19, 1993
WHEN:
December 3, 1993
WHERE:
The Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York
HOURS:
Wednesday - Sunday, 10 a.m.- 5 p.m.
Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day
ADMISSION:
Suggested donation: $4.00; students with valid I.D. $2.00; and older adults $1.50. Free to members and to children under 12 accompanied by an adult. Group tours or visits can be arranged through the Education Division, ext. 221
The completely redesigned and renovated interior of the West Wing of The Brooklyn Museum by Arata Isozaki & Associates and James Stewart Polshek and Partners will provide 30,000 square feet of additional modern gallery space on three floors of the original 1897 McKim, Mead & White Beaux-Arts building, not open to the public since the 1930s.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1989 - 1994. 07-12/1993, 165.
