The Brooklyn Museum is out to prove that
its beauty goes much farther than skin deep. Beyond its facelift
– a new front entrance and glass-enclosed pavilion to be unveiled
April 17 with a weekend-long celebration called "Open!"
– the museum will simultaneously reveal three new exhibitions.
In addition to a completely revamped Hall of the Americas with
its re-installation of native arts of North, Central and South
America, there will be a first-time-ever retrospective of influential
fashion designer Patrick Kelly’s gowns and personal artifacts,
as well as the mind-boggling exhibit, "Open House,"
featuring the works of nearly 200 Brooklyn artists.
This week, GO Brooklyn took a behind-the-scenes tour of the new
Brooklyn Museum (which lopped off "of Art" from its
name on March 12). Our insider’s glimpse revealed a buzzing hive
of activity in and around the institution.
Inside the grand, colonnaded Hall of the Americas on the first
floor, chief exhibition designer Matthew Yokobosky has daringly
chosen not only to paint vibrant murals – of an erupting volcano
and mountain range, a forest and a condor silhouetted against
the moon – on the walls of the exhibition space, but to paint
the enormous hall’s columns, which are scattered throughout the
center of the space.
The effect of the wide stripes of paint, which run lengthwise,
up and down the columns, is nothing short of Oscar-worthy. Visitors
standing in the center of the room who slowly spin around will
notice a change in the quality of light as their eyes pan over
golden-yellow columns, then deep twilight purple and dark blue.
It truly feels as though the sun is rising and setting.
"I wanted to evoke the natural environment to give a sense
of mood and time of day," Yokobosky explained of his 3-D
mural effect.
Under the direction of Nancy Rosoff, the Andrew W. Mellon curator
and chair of Arts of the Americas, this hall will house "Living
Legacies: The Arts of the Americas" a reorganization and
thematic (as opposed to chronological) reinstallation of the
museum’s collection of art from the northwest coast (including
newly conserved totem poles from Canada’s Queen Charlotte Islands)
and Andean textiles, including the famed "Paracas textile."
"The Paracas textile is a big draw," explained museum
spokesman Adam Husted. "A lot of scholars come to the museum
to study that."
Some of the works will also be easier to examine than in the
past, as many of them will be in stand-alone glass cases, which
visitors can circle for a 360-degree view.
Last but not least, one of the murals in this hall is full of
traditional glyphs, handprints of the museum’s employees.
"It’s symbolic of the individual and how he fits into the
community," explained Husted, who placed his own green handprint
on the wall, too. "It makes you feel part of something.
It’s historic."
The museum employees are clearly leaving a lasting impression,
because, as Yokobosky pointed out, the last time the Hall of
the Americas was redecorated was 50 years ago.
Also on the first floor, Patrick Kelly, a designer who achieved
widespread notoriety in the late 1980s for his form-fitting gowns
embellished with vibrantly colored buttons, will be honored with
a retrospective. Yokobosky has displayed Kelly’s dresses on dress
forms and also on hangers from clotheslines – many of them near
the items that inspired their creation from the artist’s own
enormous collection of black dolls, golliwogs, Josephine Baker
memorabilia and other collectibles, giving insight into his creative
process.
The Kelly exhibit is being organized by guest curator Thelma
Golden, deputy director for exhibitions and programs at the Studio
Museum in Harlem.
Just a glimpse of the exhibit, which was still being installed,
exuded the colorful, high-energy, utterly whimsical visual feast
to come, which itself feeds off the designer’s own electric,
optimistic palette of colors. Video monitors will offer interviews
with the artist. Already-hung portraits show the handsome, smiling
Kelly surrounded by a bevy of his models, before his tragic death
from AIDS in 1990 at age 35.
Finally, Charlotta Kotik, chairwoman of the museum’s Department
of Contemporary Art, was busily directing an installation on
two floors of the museum of more than 300 works of art by nearly
200 Brooklyn artists. For this exhibition, "Open House:
Working in Brooklyn," Kotik estimates that she and assistant
curator Tumelo Mosaka have considered for inclusion the works
of nearly 1,000 artists, sometimes visiting three studios a day.
While Kotik doesn’t believe that the works of Brooklyn artists
have any similarities based on their geographical location, she
has observed a common personality trait.
"Their generosity!" said Kotik. "We found out
about the names and addresses of artists through artists. It
is very refreshing how open and sharing they are. In spite of
the fact that us seeing this next artist’s work could mean excluding
theirs, because everyone could not be included, they are extremely
forthcoming. There is a camaraderie there."
Kotik said "Open House" artworks will also be placed
throughout the museum and there will be a map to guide visitors
to those works. A soft sculpture artwork even runs down the center
of a spiral staircase.
Amidst the scatter of squares of foam, cardboard and ladders,
museum employees and the artists themselves worked to install
the paintings, sculptures and installations.
Williamsburg artist Lorenzo Pace took time out from lettering
his multimedia work, "Jalani and the Lock Family History
Tree" (2004), an installation inspired by his inheritance
– a padlock that once chained his enslaved great-great-grandfather,
to talk about "Open House."
"It’s something special to be acknowledged in your hometown
and home borough," said Pace, who, as he worked in the gallery
enjoyed the companionship the all-Brooklyn show provided.
"Artists don’t get to see and talk to each other,"
he said, motioning to the proximity of fellow artist David Brody,
at work on his mural "Fragment of a Much Larger Thing: LATTERDAYS."
Kotik said Brooklyn is home to New York City’s greatest concentration
of visual artists, and that she suspects our borough has the
greatest concentration of artists in the world. She has already
curated a series of exhibitions showcasing art from Brooklyn
(also titled "Working in Brooklyn") and she hopes to
continue mining our local talent for future exhibitions.
Said Kotik, "The most important project to me will always
be the next one."
"Open House: Working in Brooklyn,"
"Living Legacies: The Arts of the Americas" and "Patrick
Kelly: A Retrospective" will open at the newly refurbished
Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway at Washington Avenue in
Prospect Heights, on April 17. Admission is free April 17, from
11 am to 11 pm, and April 18, from 11 am to 6 pm. For more information
about the "Open!" weekend of festivities, visit the
museum’s Web site at www.brooklynmuseum.org
or call (718) 638-5000.
