New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art will open up shop at the former Whitney Museum of American Art building in March of next year. The Whitney, which opens at its new Renzo Piano, Hon. FAIA-designed home in the Meatpacking district next month, is leasing its Brutalist Upper East Side building to the Met for eight years.
The Met has named this annex after the building’s architect, Marcel Breuer. “The launch of The Met Breuer marks the start of an exciting new chapter for the Museum, allowing us additional space to expand our modern and contemporary visual and performing arts program, as we concurrently redesign and rebuild our Southwest Wing,” said Thomas P. Campbell, the Met’s director and CEO, in a press release. In March, the museum announced that David Chipperfield Architects was selected for the Southwest Wing project.
The museum has also announced the first exhibitions and performances at the Met Breuer, which will open on March 10, 2016. A 140-piece exhibition, “Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible,” will explore the idea of uncompleted art and run through Sept. 4, 2016, and a retrospective on the Indian artist Nasreen Mohamedi will run through June 5, 2016. Vijay Iyer, the museum’s 2015–16 artist in residence, will perform in the building’s Lobby Gallery from the opening until the end of March, as well as create a specific piece to coincide with the Mohamedi exhibition. In addition, the John Luther Adams’ commissioned composition Soundwalk 9:09 will be available online or as a podcast.
