Skin Fruit: Selections from the Dakis Joannou Collection

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In September, 2009 the New Museum announced a series of exhibitions titled "The Imaginary Museum", [1] the first of which was curated by Jeff Koons from the collection of Dakis Joannou, who in addition to heavy collecting the work of Koons, is a trustee of the museum. The museum's decision to show works from the collection of one of its trustees raised some ethical red flags by several bloggers, and gained momentum with a front page article on The New York Times followed by considerable coverage elsewhere, including an editorial in The Art Newspaper by Modern Art Notes' Tyler Green, who had previously blogged about the situation, and responses by Jerry Saltz in New York Magazine. The cover of the November issue of the Brooklyn Rail featured a satirical cartoon by artist William Powhida with the title, "How the New Museum Committed Suicide with Banality", taken from a post by James Wagner, skewering the incestuousness and insiderness of the New Museum, and Artinfo called the controversy the "New Museum scandal". The New Museum responded in defense, and a number of other museum directors also defended the museum's decision.

New Museum museum in New York City

The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. It is among the few contemporary art museums worldwide exclusively devoted to presenting contemporary art from around the world.

Jeff Koons American sculptor and painter

Jeffrey Koons is an American artist known for working with popular culture subjects and his reproductions of banal objects, such as balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror-finish surfaces. He lives and works in both New York City and his hometown of York, Pennsylvania.

Dakis Joannou is a Greek Cypriot industrialist and art collector. Joannou entered into the construction and civil engineering business in the late 1960s and over the last five decades has diversified his holdings through numerous areas of international industrial commerce. His extensive collection of contemporary art and furniture is considered one of the most important in the world.

In Roberta Smith's review of the show for The New York Times, she likened the selection of works to an auction display, and said, “Barely any intellectual glue holds the exhibition together.” [2]

Roberta Smith American art critic

Roberta Smith is co-chief art critic of The New York Times and a lecturer on contemporary art. She is the first woman to hold that position.

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References

  1. Vogel, Carol. "Jeff Koons Tries Hand As Guest Curator". The New York Times. September 24, 2009
  2. Smith, Roberta. "Anti-Mainstream Museum's Mainstream Show". The New York Times. March 4, 2010