Last month, the Brooklyn Museum announced that Robert Wiesenberger has joined its contemporary art team as the Barbara and John Vogelstein Senior Curator of Contemporary Art. Although one of the city’s smaller institutions, the Brooklyn Museum has a prominent place in the arts, having raised the profile of artists such as Kehinde Wiley. Wiesenberger comes to Brooklyn from the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and we caught up with him to hear about his plans for a new gig.
You have been on the job for a few weeks now. What surprised you most about the Brooklyn Museum as you learned about it inside?
The breadth of the collection and the overall size of the museum amazed me, as well as the fact that it was originally planned to be four times larger. I also enjoy the daily experience of walking through the well-maintained Arts of Asia galleries to my office every day. I don’t think that will ever get old! It is even better to see school groups there, speaking or drawing. Experiences like that, when I was a child, is why I do what I do now.
Your job involves growing a collection. What gaps do you see in the Brooklyn Museum’s contemporary collection, or where are areas for improvement, and how do you suggest they be filled?
It’s a beautiful collection and it has its own strengths. I don’t think it’s provincial, in this area, to look to gather so many world-class artists who call Brooklyn home. It is also important to follow the lead of artists in considering some of the defining issues of our time, such as the collapse of the ecosystems that support us or what it means to be human in the inter-technological age. I want to look at the mixed processes that thrive in this city, between art, design, sound, experimental publishing and more.
Does the current market time provide an opportunity for institutions?
I am not a market expert, but the present time—the most difficult of all living things—gives the opportunity for museums as places of curiosity, wonder, beauty, communication, exchange, continuous attention, criticism and less pressure compared to commercialism. Museums need to change, but the explanation is also lacking. I believe in these institutions in general and the Brooklyn Museum in particular, which is a refreshing and beloved place in this community and beyond.
Another part of your job is to develop “Brooklyn Artists Exhibition,” which started in 2024. How would you like to see it develop?
The next edition of this program will certainly not be bigger than the last one, which included 200 artists who will celebrate the centenary of the museum. It will be more focused, although its shape should be determined. I visit studios, which I love, and learn from artists about the artists they care about the most.
He comes to the Brooklyn Museum from the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. What were your favorite shows you played there?
I am proud of the project on view now, by Paris-based artist Raffaella della Olga, who uses a modified typewriter to create unique artist books. The work is beautiful and intimate and combines old and new media. And I’m proud of the exhibition with the late German-Iraqi artist Lin May Saeed, which was her solo presentation at the museum (she has a show at New York’s Anton Kern gallery this spring). Lin makes extraordinary and moving work about animals and human-animal relationships.
And that work taught you. Did you find that the academic aspect of your career informed your selection?
Absolutely! Seminars and workshops were platforms for testing ideas, students who passed with honors contributed directly to projects and fostering lively discussion is a big part of what curators can do in the gallery.
Your biography says that one recurring area of your research is “ecology and the superhuman world.” What does that mean? How do you think your work in this regard will inform your stay in Brooklyn?
It means thinking in relation to the systems we live in, natural and artificial, as many artists do. Environmental and social problems are deeply intertwined, and the forces that extract and exploit the natural world do the same to humans (similarly, those who have the least impact on environmental shocks, both globally and locally, are often hit first and hardest). New York City has amazing biodiversity, and urban dynamics are often discussed in ecological terms. I’m eager to collaborate with artists who explore these questions, whether it’s inside the galleries of a museum or near the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The skills of hearing, thinking and feeling that the muses sharpen are important now, as artists talk about many kinds of intelligence and way of life and succeed in the mortal world.
Many Art Conversations
