By Mark Swartz
“What ambiguity there is in exalted things,” Don DeLillo writes in The Names. “We despise them a little.” While the new museum, with several times the exhibition space of the old MCA, a video theater, a performance space, and a sculpture garden, is an exalted addition to Chicago’s cultural landscape, it inevitably comes burdened with little extras that, depending on your willingness to forgive, are either merely unfortunate or a little bit despicable.
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Even “poetic rationalism,” the phrase coined by architect Josef Paul Kleihues to describe the style embodied by the new building, speaks of a balance between opposing forces. Yes, you can show poetic and challenging works of art in an exalted setting. But be rational, please, and leave room for a bookstore, a museum shop, and space to rent for anyone wishing to celebrate an especially good fiscal year.
