Sunday, July 01, 2007

"What the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art has done in response to the Christoph Büchel mess is sad, dumb, and shameful" (UPDATED)

That's the lede from Boston Globe art critic Ken Johnson's piece in today's paper.

It closes:

"Obviously, Mass MoCA's faith in the artist and his process was sorely tested. But does that warrant exacting revenge by turning his project into a show that misrepresents, dishonors, vilifies, and even ridicules him? A show that admits no responsibility for the project's failure on the museum's part and that affirms popular perceptions of our most innovative contemporary artists as frauds and charlatans?

"I don't think so."

UPDATE: Time magazine's Richard Lacayo agrees: "The museum's decision to (sort of) exhibit Buchel's installation in half finished form has always struck me as not so much a reasonable curatorial judgment call as an institutional temper tantrum ...."