\n<\/p>\n
It\u2019s generally thought of as the worst traffic fortnight in Manhattan: the weeks-long proceedings of the United Nations General Assembly, which ensnares all travel patterns on the east side of the island. Road closures, idling black cars, and battalions of cops and Secret Service agents make swaths of Midtown impossible-to-transverse hellscapes for a few days every September. By Tuesday evening, the construction around the JPMorgan supertall that\u2019s taking over a full block on Park Avenue only added to the chaos, as did the flurry of e-biking meal couriers delivering sad desk dinners to still-working bankers. And that\u2019s when President Joe Biden<\/strong>\u2019s motorcade rolled through.<\/p>\n Amid the Midtown madness outside, a wonderful calm fell upon the sixth floor of the Museum of Modern Art on 53rd Street. A retrospective<\/a> of the marvelously unclassifiable German artist Thomas Sch\u00fctte<\/strong> had taken over the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Center for Special Exhibitions, installed just in time for the opening cocktails. Met director Max Hollein,<\/strong> who told me he\u2019s quite fond of Sch\u00fctte and put him in several shows, walked into the room and marveled at the 12-foot-tall sculpture Vater Staat<\/em> (Father State<\/em>), on loan from the collection of Ken Griffin<\/strong>\u2019s ex-wife, Anne Dias.<\/strong> A few floors down was a retrospective of the photographer Robert Frank\u2014pics ranging from Beats goofing off to the Stones recording Exile on Main St.<\/em>\u2014and in the sculpture garden below, two full bars boozed up Gotham\u2019s patrons of the arts.<\/p>\n Something else was in the air too. It had been a few weeks since MoMA director Glenn Lowry<\/strong> announced that he would be stepping down<\/a> from the role in September 2025, which was not a shock, exactly\u2014the usual age of retirement at MoMA is 65, and Lowry\u2019s pushing 70. But his widely acknowledged successes led him to stay on for an extra five-year term that expires next year. And now that it\u2019s official, all people can talk about when they talk about MoMA is\u2026who will be tapped to run MoMA.<\/p>\n Understandably so. The job is arguably the plummest perch in all of museum-dom. Lowry\u2019s had it for 30 years, reshaping the institution as the role of museum director itself shifted immensely across the field. Aside from a few dustups\u2014various<\/a> protests<\/a>, a disgruntled ex-member\u2019s alleged stabbing spree<\/a>, the Bj\u00f6rk<\/strong> show<\/a>\u2014Lowry\u2019s a revered figure in the field. His departure announcement prompted a chorus of hosannas for his tenure followed by an inevitable question: Who can follow up a polymathic director beloved by both the budget teams and the curatorial teams, one who oversaw two renovation campaigns and is leaving the museum\u2019s coffers fuller than they\u2019ve ever been?<\/p>\n