Modern Art

The Jewish museum, NY presents ‘The Arcades: Modern Art and Walter Benjamin’ through August 6, 2017. This exhibition of contemporary artworks presents photography, video, sculpture, and painting seen through the lens of authoritative philosopher Walter Benjamin’s magnum opus 'The Arcades Project.'

The German Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin, one among the most influential cultural critics of the 20th century, began The Arcades Project in 1927 as a brief piece about Paris's nineteenth-century iron-and-glass vaulted shopping passages. The arcades' labyrinthine design and also the juxtapositions of objects and people offered a perfect metaphor for Benjamin to look at the era's capitalist metropolis.

Forced to escape Nazi abuse in 1932, his unfinished manuscript wasn't printed till it had been discovered years after his untimely death. Curated by Jens Hoffmann, ‘The Arcades: Modern Art and Walter Benjamin’ explore ‘The Arcades Project’ and its ongoing relevance through works of contemporary art representing the themes of each of the book's 36 sections. The exhibition combines material from the Walter Benjamin archive in Berlin, architectural models of Paris's most vital arcades and works by modern artists together with Cindy Sherman, Taryn Simon, Mike Kelley, Andrea Bowers, Chris Burden, Lee Friedlander, Mungo Thompson and several other artists. Modern Art