Drill Hall floor of the Armory
Drill Hall vault of the Armory
We were at the press preview for the Whitney Biennial this afternoon. This year the venue has been expanded to include the Seventh Regiment Armory, in whose extravagant nineteenth-century precincts many of the exhibition's performance art elements (including some interactive experiences scheduled throughout the next month) have been assigned high-ceilinged rooms and closets.
But I as I wrote last week I always have a lot of trouble resisting the aesthetic and historical seductions of architecture like this even when there's exciting contemporary art to be seen. So here I am writing a post preceding my observations of this year's Biennial with a couple images of the Armory which shelters some of the installations, and to show that I'm not indifferent to the charms of Marcel Breuer's own hall, I'm including a view of his lobby ceiling, one of my favorite details in the Whitney itself.
lobby ceiling of the Whitney