MoMA opens after renovation, expansion

Daily life in New York City was ostensibly the same on Nov. 15. The Cup of Noodles advertisement in Times Square still smoked, and leering old men took drags from cigarettes on 7th Avenue.

But there was one significant difference — the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) was returning to midtown after three-and-a-half-years in Queens.

Barely more than a hour away from the University, the museum has offered a major culture destination to many University students.

The day marked the Opening Press Review at the MoMA — the unveiling of its revamped 53rd Street location.

The museum opened to the public on Saturday.

The new MoMA building was designed to be more conducive to viewing art, with more spacious interiors and cascading natural light.

The museum's glass, granite and aluminum architecture gives the building a futuristic feel. The place is more "porous with a sense of permeability," Director Glenn Lowry said.

The new MoMA also includes more space to display larger pieces of art, including Monet's "Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond," a painting that would have been difficult to display in the old facility.

The MoMA collection includes major works by Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, Kandinsky and Lichtenstein.

Finances

The reopening commemorated the museum's 75th anniversary and marked the completion of the most extensive — and expensive, with a price tag of $425 million — renovation in the museum's history.

"We are the foremost museum of modern art in the world . . . and we have a responsibility to take that seriously," Lowry said.

The museum's opening culminated the 10-year process, which included the planning and building of the new facility.

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But the launch of the new building has had some difficulties. The new $20 price for general admission has received much attention and incited protests at the museum's opening. Students, in contrast, only pay $12. Admission on Fridays, however, is free from 4 to 8 p.m.

Lowry defended the new entrance price. "The relative value is more than the cost . . . People don't hesitate to pay $45 or $100 to the opera, symphony or ballet," he said.

The MoMA's campaign raised $725 million with a goal of $858 million.

In addition to $500 million received in gifts from trustees, the MoMA got $65 million and $10 million from New York City and New York State, respectively.

Approximately 1,000 duplicate photographs were sold in order for the MoMA to buy hundreds of new pieces.

Architect

The winner of the competition to design the museum, Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi, visited the MoMA about 40 years ago as a Harvard University graduate student.

Taniguchi said in designing the new MoMa that he wanted "to create an ideal environment for art and people through the imaginative and disciplined use of light, materials and space."

But in the project leaders added they chose Taniguchi for his utilitarianism.

"[Taniguchi's] primary concern was not to make a big statement of ego or personality . . . He wanted to make a backdrop for a gallery," Chief Curator of Drawings Gary Garrels said.

Taniguchi seemed astounded by the acclaim his design has received. "It's simple, so why do no people say this?" he said. "Are they trying to be diplomatic with me?"