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Photos: Héctor Zamora’s Beautiful Rooftop Wall Is The Highlight Of The Met’s Grand Reopening
By
Scott Lynch
Published Aug 31, 2020
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By
Scott Lynch
Published Aug 31, 2020
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art celebrated its grand Covid-era reopening this past weekend, and New Yorkers showed up in fully-masked, mostly-distanced droves, delighted to have snagged a timed-entry spot to revisit one of the city's beloved cultural institutions.
There are three new exhibitions coinciding with the reopening — Making the Met: 1870-2020 offers a generous "illustrated" history of the museum to coincide with the 150 year anniversary; Jacob Lawrence: An American Struggle, featuring all 30 panels the artist completed in his ambitious portrait of the country's often-violent coming of age; and the new roof garden commission, Héctor Zamora's Lattice Detour, the eighth in the current series of annual, site-specific rooftop commissions (though the Roof Garden had hosted a seasonal exhibition for many years before these began).
The choice of Mexican artist Zamora (this is his solo debut in New York) and his execution of an enormous curving wall, feels resoundingly appropriate for our times.
The NY Times notes that the wall "appears to have a solid surface and to be perversely positioned to obscure a spectacular view of the park and the Manhattan skyline." But the trick here is that the terra cotta wall — created from bricks driven in from Mexico — harbors a great deal of transparency, and as you move closer and navigate yourself around the piece your views constantly shift and change, and the light comes streaming through.
The piece — measuring 100 feet long and 11-feet high — "interrupts and refocuses how visitors interact with this beloved space.... creating a meditation on movement, transparency, and interference," said Met director Max Hollein in a press release. "Manifesting itself as a protective wall, curved artwork, and permeable screen, Lattice Detour is a transformative, charged, and timely intervention."
Zamora's wall will be on view at the Met's Roof Garden through December 7th, about two months later in the year than usual for this outdoor gallery. When I arrived at the designated rooftop elevator bank a little after 10 a.m. there was no wait to get in but, since only two patrons are allowed at a time in each car, and only a limited number on the roof itself, there was a significant line to go up about an hour later. As of now the rooftop bar remains closed.
Tagged
metropolitan museum art
the met
met rooftop
Scott Lynch
Photojournalist, food writer, preschool receptionist. Love NYC.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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