I was in New York last week and although this was my sixth visit in two years I hadn’t had the chance to visit the Whitney Museum of American Art in my previous jaunts. This time I made it to the Whitney and through my eagerness I was early and had a half hour to waste before the gallery exhibits opened. I walked through parts of the gallery I had access to and found myself in the basement in the cafeteria. I grabbed a green tea and wandered around an exposed wall where designs for the new Whitney, to be opened in 2015, were posted. I was flabbergasted.
The current Whitney on 54th Street has been around since 1954, having previously outgrown its original location on West Eighth Street in Greenwich Village, which opened in 1931. Unlike most cities, art is a staple in New York bringing artists and art lovers from around the world to the many galleries and museums New York offers and helps to define the city. The Whitney’s collection is huge and the vision of its founder, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, fostered an incredible outlet for artists and their works throughout the years. Whitney, herself a sculptor, was an incredible woman who used her father’s wealth to support struggling artists paying them to paint New York through their eyes. Some of the work is absolutely awe inspiring. Art, for some, can move you spiritually, especially if you have a hard time believing that Mary was a virgin and the end of the world can be predicted based on the Book of Revelations.
I have been affected by art and its influence through visits to the Mendel Art Gallery of Saskatoon, and by family neighbours Otto Rogers, the artist, and Rosita Hardenne who took Patrick kids out to a farm north of Saskatoon to learn how to make pottery, when I was four. Since then, the gallery has been a savior. Let’s be honest, Saskatoon is conservative and an institution such as the Mendel offered middle of the road liberals like me an outlet on Sunday afternoons when a striking landscape by Ernest Lindner could warm your soul when it’s 40 below outside or an abstract by said neighbour Otto Rogers helped stimulate the senses when hockey, church, booze and bingo left you asking for something more if not completely different.
Being an ardent supporter of the Mendel, a true believer, I have followed the development and closure of the current gallery for the new Remai Art Gallery of Saskatchewan. At first, I was highly critical of the drastic change, as did most of us who actually visited the Mendel gallery on a regular basis. No one likes to see something die when it was a huge part of your youth and helped shape not only an appreciation for something outside the norm but who you are as a person. I listened to both sides of the argument to build a new gallery as opposed to expand the current site and after voicing my opinions I respected the wishes of the Mendel board and others who thought a new gallery was necessary. If you can’t beat them join them. Then came the predictable construction cost increase, the parking lot, the meeting space, the wasted space, the conformity to the ugly Persephone building (yes it is ugly), followed by the branding of the name by one benefactor (over 30 years), and still I thought the City knew what is was doing even though the new gallery logo would read, “RAGS”. Then I saw architect drawings of the replacement facility and thought the design was totally out of character after all the reassurance City management, the Mayor and the design team suggested they took into consideration after listening to what people of Saskatoon were telling them through “consultations”. “If you insist on a new building, make it original.” “If you insist on a new building, design something that reflects the curve of the river.” “If you insist on a new building, design something that reflects Saskatoon.”
So this takes us back to the 2015 design of the new Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.
Below: concept design of new Whitney Museum of American Art - New York
Image courtesy of Renzo Piano Building Workshop in collaboration with Cooper, Robertson and Partners
Below: Concept design of new Remai Art Gallery of Saskatchewan - Saskatoon
Some of this box-like design is also evident in buildings designed by Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects (KPMB) of Toronto for Winnipeg. I know some architects inspire other architects and mocking is a form of flattery, but if this is what the City of Saskatoon paid an architect for, to rip off a design that someone else came up with for a city that as much as the Mayor thinks Saskatoon is like New York is not, the taxpayers of Saskatoon have been misled and terribly taken for granted, not only with their taxes but with their intellect. There is one difference in the design of the Saskatoon gallery, it will be BLACK. Something only George Orwell would approve. Decide for yourself.
If I still lived in Saskatoon I would ask the architect to go back to his sketch pad and earn his wage.
If I still lived in Saskatoon I would ask the architect to go back to his sketch pad and earn his wage.
If I was Renzo Piano I would sue.
