Object Lessons From 24 Collectors at the New Museum

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By William L. Hamilton

Ydessa Hendeles, a Canadian artist, gathered thousands of photographs of people with their teddy bears for “Partners (The Teddy Bear Project).” Credit Robert Keziere, via Ydessa Hendeles and the Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation, Toronto

NEW YORK---In a culture being redefined by the way it consumes, what to make of people who collect things, who keep things? “The Keeper,” the New Museum’s summer show, a four-floor exhibit that opens on Wednesday, July 20, is a museum blockbuster of a different kind. With over 4,000 objects representing more than two dozen collectors, including contemporary artists making art conceived by collecting, Massimiliano Gioni, the museum’s artistic director, and his team of curators have mounted a remarkable series of object lessons about what it means to “keep,” the relationship of possession to loss, the madness inherent in love, and the undeniable importance of the individual’s voice in recording and interpreting history and its sweep. [link]