NYT: MOMA, Tate Modern, Pompidou Center shaking up permanent collections

Art Rearranged: The Shock of the New and the Comfort of the Old
By ALAN RIDING
Published: July 22, 2006

....While art museums are usually rated by the quality of their permanent collections, it is all too often their temporary shows that stir excitement and draw crowds. Not infrequently, a work of art that is barely noticed while on permanent display is suddenly lionized in a short-term exhibition.

One answer is to make the permanent collection seem, well, sexier. And to this end, some leading museums of modern and contemporary art are testing a fresh approach: if collections are frequently rearranged, either by bringing works out of storage or by changing the focus of installations, they can acquire something of the buzz of temporary shows.

“It’s something we talk about a great deal,” said John Elderfield, chief curator of paintings and sculptures at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. “How does one try to engage people with the collection as much as people seem to be willing to be engaged with temporary exhibitions?”

At MoMA, Tate Modern in London and the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris, which boast the best 20th-century collections, curators have even given conceptual names to some displays to suggest they are pursuing an innovative intellectual theme rather than simply offering a lesson in art history....

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True, this method does not suit museums with collections dating back thousands of years, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Louvre in Paris or the British Museum.....But with contemporary art, where history is still fluid and museums have yet to become pantheons of unchallenged masters, flexibility seems advisable: it is far too soon to know which post-1970 works will eventually assume iconic status. Further, since most collections of new art are far larger than the available gallery space, rotation of works is doubly appealing....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/22/arts/design/22inst.html