Bill Jacobson’s (CRF 2013) exhibition of photos “945 Madison Avenue” is on view at Pazda Butler Gallery in Houston through August 26th. The series of 30 images captures the interior of the Whitney Museum’s 945 Madison Avenue location before it moved in 2014 and 2015. Jacobson worked in an interim period when the majority of the museum’s contents had been removed and renovations by the next tenant had not begun; this allowed Jacobson to make the building and its iconic features his subject, which he hoped to depict as they may have appeared to the building’s designer, Marcel Breuer, upon completion in 1965.
Over the years, 945 Madison Avenue has been inhabited by The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met Breuer) and The Frick Collection (Frick Madison), and it was recently purchased by Sotheby’s. The building’s evolving occupants and the spectra of art in its galleries have provided transformative contexts for viewing art. Jacobson’s images allow viewers to see and understand the building in a pure state—not untouched, but as having lived many lives. See a preview of the show here.