Open Letter to the New Museum

"We stand in solidarity with the New Museum Union.

We are troubled by New Museum leadership’s decision to hire an anti-union firm to sow fear and hostility and to misinform both management and staff about the role of unions in the workplace. Intimidation and misinformation do not constitute open engagement with the Museum employees. Moreover, such behavior goes against everything that the Museum has historically stood for—that is, equity, diversity, and a commitment to institutional responsibility.

We implore New Museum leadership to do the right thing and allow their employees to form a union without interference. We also urge leadership to bargain with the New Museum Union in good faith for a fair contract. Your coworkers are not simply union supporters but devoted colleagues who deeply love and believe in the institution and are fully committed to its future.

Signed:

Julie Ault, Artist

Andy Bichlbaum, the Yes Men

Claire Bishop, Professor, PhD Program in Art History, CUNY Graduate Center

Hannah Black, Artist

Nayland Blake, Artist, Chair ICP-Bard MFA

Jennifer Bolande, Professor, New Genres, UCLA Dept. of Art

Justin Vivian Bond, Transgenre Artist

Gregg Bordowitz, Artist

A.K. Burns, Artist

Paul Chan, Artist

Howie Chen, Curator

Liz Collins, Artist

Leah DeVun, Associate Professor, Rutgers University (Member, AAUP-AFT Local 06323)

Kimberly Drew, Writer and Independent Curator

Andrea Fraser, Professor and Chair, UCLA Department of Art

Malik Gaines, Artist

Liam Gillick, Artist

The Guerrilla Girls, Artists

Miguel Gutierrez, Artist

House of Ladosha

Sharon Hayes, Artist

Katherine Hubbard, Artist

Juliana Huxtable, Artist

David Joselit, Distinguished Professor, PhD Program in Art History, CUNY Graduate Center

Alhena Katsof, Curator

Jibade-Khalil Huffman, Artist and Writer

Nicole Killian, Artist and Assistant Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University

Devin Kenny, Artist

Kate Kraczon, Curator

Molly Larkey, Artist

Simon Leung, Artist and Professor of Art, UC Irvine

Monica Majoli, Artist and Professor, UC Irvine

Yong Soon Min, Professor Emerita, UC Irvine

Fred Moten, Professor, New York University

Carlos Motta, Artist

Gala Porras-Kim, Artist

R.H. Quaytman, Artist

Halsey Rodman, Artist; Co-Chair of Sculpture, Bard MFA; Critic, Yale School of Art, Painting and Printmaking

Martha Rosler, Artist

Alexandro Segade, Artist

Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Artist; Visiting Artist Faculty, California Institute for the Arts and

Bard Summer MFA

Gregory Sholette, PhD, Professor, Queens College Art Dept, CUNY

Patrick Staff, Artist

Eric A. Stanley, Assistant Professor, Gender and Women’s Studies, UC Berkeley

A.L. Steiner, Artist

Eric Golo Stone, Writer, Artist, and Curator

Lincoln Tobier, Artist, Otis College of Art and Design / SEIU Local 721

Mariana Valencia, Artist

Chris E. Vargas, Artist

Anton Vidokle, Artist and Founder of e-flux

Matt Wolf, Filmmaker

Yellow Jackets Collective"

Please Come To The Show

A few weeks back I posted some images of scanned artists' ephemera that I lifted from a new favorite tumblr site called Please Come To The Show, then-unaware that it was an offshoot site from the MOMA tumblr, and related to a current exhibition. Last week in NYC we caught the second part of the show, which was divided into two sections, subtitled: 1960 - 1980 (which ran from early May to late July) and 1980 - Now (July 24th to September 23rd).

Museum galleries tend to, inexplicably, keep their libraries a secret from the general public, so the show was not advertised anywhere within the MOMA promotional literature, and when I stopped at the information booth on each of the 6 floors (admittedly staffed by volunteers) none of them were aware of the department, let alone the exhibition. One tried to convince me it was offsite. We eventually found it at the end of a long hallway and down several flights of stairs. The upside of this ghettoization within the gallery is that one can also enter the library without paying admission to the larger museum, so the small show can be seen for free, briefly, on a lunch hour.

Curated by staff bibliographer David Senior, the exhibition features artist-designed exhibition and performance invitations. All sourced from within the MOMA library's extensive artists' files, the work includes posters, flyers, handbills, and announcement cards. Non-traditional materials include a paper plate, ribbon, record label and rock. They are laid out in a series of vitrines, and scanned, size-as, into a nice library-bound book. Other than Steven Leiber's Extra Art, there's not much in the way of published art ephemera, so it's a shame there doesn't appear to be plans to produce this volume beyond the single exhibition copy.

The second half of the show features works by Michael Asher, Glenn Branca, Dan Graham, Group Material, Keith Haring, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Barbara Kruger, Sean Landers, Cary Leibowitz (Candyass), Sarah Lucas, Christian Marclay, Raymond Pettibon, Adrian Piper, Richard Prince, Andrea Fraser, David Shrigley, and many others. The title of the exhibition seems to come from Leibowitz' invite, Won't U Please Come Too My Art Show, which appears (slightly truncated) in one of the vitrines. We had lunch with Cary in the cafeteria moments before (see cake photo above) and he was also unaware of the exhibition.

The show continues for another seven weeks or so, and is worth the time if you share an interest in artists' design, printed materials, or their use in the staging of conceptual works and time-based events.

For more information, including many scanned reproductions, visit the gallery site here:

http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2013/please_come_show_part2/





Update from curator David Senior: The show will travel to Liverpool next year, and will be accompanied by a publication.

Andrea Fraser | May I Help You?