By: Kevin Stayton

Kevin Stayton — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 18:05:31 +0000

I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy your visit to the Brooklyn Museum, or approve of the many changes that have taken place over the past years. It must have been a long time, indeed, since you have been here, since the costumed mannequins were removed from the period rooms during a renovation in 1980! What you saw when you visited the period rooms was an installation called Playing House, for which we invited four contemporary artists—Betty Woodman, Anne Chu, Ann Agee, and Mary Lucier—to “activate” the rooms by doing site specific installations of their work. As Betty Woodman observed, “although being an artist means confronting the art of the past, no one can enter the past—except through “make believe,” or “playing house,” by which the past can be appropriated.” The Brooklyn Museum period rooms are a perfect stage for this dialogue between past and present. The installations, however, are not permanent, nor were all of the rooms used. The rooms will return to their “original” installations at the end of August. The installation has been so successful, though, that we plan to continue the program of period room “activations.” But there will always be some period rooms left untouched, and there will be some times of year when there are no contemporary installations in the rooms.

The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art and The Dinner Party which it houses, are among the changes that the Brooklyn Museum is most proud of. This seminal work of art was first exhibited here in 1980 at a time when it was newly created and provocative, challenging the definitions of art and engaging with feminist theory and practice. In the years since, it has become an icon of twentieth-century art. Through the generosity of Elizabeth A. Sackler, the Brooklyn Museum acquired the work and it forms the cornerstone of a center devoted, though its programming, to the study of feminist art.

We understand that not every exhibition or installation is for everyone, and that every change that is exciting to some may be cause for regret to others. But we believe the Museum must constantly interact with its visitors and devise new ways of making art accessible and meaningful for audiences new and old alike. I hope you will visit again, and I hope that the next time, perhaps, some of our changes may be more to your liking.

Kevin Stayton, Chief Curator

By: sal delpizzo

sal delpizzo — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 15:51:50 +0000

Yesterday, I visited the museum with a friend after many years absence. We grew up here, and visited the library, museum, park, Botanical Gardens and Zoo many times. We were appalled, actually, when upon reaching the period rooms to peer at them once again, and gaze upon our childhood memories, it was changed dramatically. The figures are gone, many of the original furnishings are gone, and in their place are modern, garishly clashing objects. A multicolored rug, ceramics – just really out of place. The rooms appear empty and meaningless. The Feminist collection is a joke to us – we are two women who had very fond memories of this museaum, where we could take a journey and almost feel as if we had traveled back in time. The “dining table” and film is an attempt to make an intellectually stimulating comment, and it fails miserably. I think a poet and a very talented writer are turning in their graves – the plates are obvious representations of female genitalia, and the comments regarding the women represented as such are not flattering to us. We see the “Emperor walking down the street naked, and most are afraid to mention that fact.” The sculptures don’t say a lot, either – it seems very pretentious. Really glad I didn’t bring my child to see it – would have been inappropriate. We were sadly disappointed to see the huge museum shop downstairs – frivolous merchandise has replaced the nice things they used to sell in the main lobby area. We were also sad to see the changed facade – the glass and chrome additions at the front entrance are garish and do not match the original, beautiful architecture of The Brooklyn Museum of Art that we grew up admiring. The statues that are still on the sides, but placed on ridiculously high pedestals, are overshadowed by the out-of-place architecture built in front. A real shame.

Comments on: Schenck House De-Installation 2004

By: Kevin Stayton

By: sal delpizzo