Marjan Pejoski’s Swan Dress in “Björk” at MoMA
Photo: Ben Davis
In his review titled Ladies and Gentlemen, the Björk Show at MoMA Is Bad, Really Bad, national art critic Ben Davis introduced the news about the blockbuster show that will open to the public on Sunday, March 8, at the Museum of Modern Art:
There has been an immense volcano building up under the Museum of Modern Art for some time, a well of rage from old-school art fans about its turn towards commerce and celebrity and tourism. The current Björk show, celebrating the Icelandic songstress as, in the words of curator Klaus Biesenbach in the catalogue, an “era-defining artist,” will very likely be occasion for an eruption. You may expect an immense Eyjafjallajökull-sized ash-plume of critical bile to appear over midtown any second now. Because, ladies and gentlemen, this show is bad.
I went in ready to defend MoMA. Björk, I thought, is something interesting, the epitome of a certain kind of odd-duck cool. Many, many reviews will be written about MoMA’s “Björk” show fiasco—scathing, hilarious reviews, reviews whose savagery will be in direct proportion to the smarmy hype leading up to it—based on the premise that celebrating a pop star is by itself bad. I don’t agree. Nothing in principle is bad about a Björk show, or even about a little pop-culture populism.
But the pop turn raises challenges that have to be thoughtfully addressed. It has to be done right. You need to nail it, and MoMA has instead stepped on a nail, or rather, hot lava.
Davis isn’t alone. Here are five other critical voices chiming in.
MoMA’s Björk Disaster, by Jerry Saltz, Vulture
Björk, a One-of-a-Kind Artist, Proves Elusive at MoMA, Roberta Smith, The New York Times
A Strangely Unambitious Hotchpotch, by Jason Farago, The Guardian
Björk’s MoMA Retrospective: When Technology Fails Innovation, by Jillian Mapes, Flavorwire
Björk will be on view to the public at the Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, New York, from March 8–June 7.
See the “Songlines” exhibition here: Tour Björk’s MoMA Retrospective on Instagram.