MoMA Should Have Gotten More For Its Money

New York’s Museum of Modern Art has always viewed 20th-century modernism as the core of its collection, and the museum’s new home pays appropriate tribute to that tradition. But while the collection is virtually beyond reproach, Michael Kimmelman sees many flaws in the new MoMA’s finished product, beginning with the somewhat boxy and cold feel of the architecture, and exemplified by the “appalling and cynical” $20 admission price. An additional disappointment is that “the Modern is clearly still not sure what to make of the art of the last 30 or 40 years – what its role and mission, as well as its taste and judgment, are in an art world that has changed and expanded.”