Max Hollein

Immense ambitions

It is a cultural beacon in the United States. It is also the torchbearer of encyclopedic museums worldwide, in competition with the Louvre for the title of world’s greatest museum. This institution housing over 2 million works has been helmed since 2018 by an Austrian curator with equally immense ambitions: Max Hollein, 55.

Constant growth

Today, the Met is without a doubt headed for a future of transformation. First, because the museum is undergoing constant growth. By 2030, it will open a 7,430-square-meter wing dedicated to Modern and Contemporary art and designed by the young Mexican architect Frida Escobedo. The cost of $550 million will be fully funded by private donations.

El Greco and Picasso

El Greco Picasso

But also because the organization of its permanent collections is undergoing a shakeup—for instance, the Western painting galleries now juxtapose old and modern works, like El Greco and Picasso. Next year will see the inauguration of the renovated Michael C. Rockefeller Wing dedicated to the arts of Africa, Ancient America and Oceania, followed in 2026 by the opening of the renovated galleries for Ancient Near Eastern art. Max Hollein’s visions are unlike anything a museum director would have considered 10 years ago.

Trick question

K J Marshall in the permanent collection. Metropolitan museum

As a lead-in to our conversation, he recalled that during his recruitment, the museum’s trustees asked him a trick question: “Teach us something we don’t know about the Met’s collections.” The Austrian curator gave an answer nearly as destabilizing as their question: “What you certainly don’t know is that half of the collection doesn’t tell the truth. Because art is a means used as propaganda, or for a specific agenda.”

Akira Kurosawa

He elaborated: “Of course, we’re not offering a lie to visitors. First and foremost, art is beautiful. Viewing artworks is an extraordinary experience. But their creation is driven by complex objectives tied to economics and politics. It’s our role to show how they can be interpreted from different perspectives. It reminds me of Akira Kurosawa’s film “Rashomon,” which tells the same story from four different angles. All four accounts are true, yet they don’t resemble each other.” This philosophy underpins a series of small revolutions being undertaken at the museum.

Unconventional and political

Pablo Picasso: El Greco

Max Hollein is an art historian whose views are often unconventional and always political. “The museum of my dreams is the opposite of what we are currently experiencing around the world, which is a rise in nationalism. I dream of a global museum that would allow humans to understand each other, that would connect the cultures of the world.”

A La Marcel Proust

Paul Cézanne/ El Greco

Referring to studies of visitor behavior in such institutions, the Met’s director remained hopeful about the museum’s impact on visitors’ perspectives: “The attention span given to reading a newspaper or watching a film has decreased significantly in recent years. On the other hand, the time spent in a museum by visitors is identical to how and how long a visit was practiced in the past.” His ideal portrait of a Met visitor would therefore be a flaneur “à la Marcel Proust,” someone who might lose themself in the galleries, taking the opportunity to make new discoveries and perhaps even changing their mind on this or that subject in the process.

Digital museum

Hollein also believes in the museum’s impact in digital form: “When I arrived here, several Austrians congratulated me, saying it was their favorite museum. Yet I know they’d only been to New York perhaps twice. What they love is what the Met symbolizes—a place of cultural convergence.”

K-pop Museum

Breaking from convention, Hollein harbors no preconceptions of what might be deemed high versus low culture. And when asked about his latest museum discoveries, he mentioned Seoul’s K-pop Museum . “I was impressed by their use of digital technology, seamlessly transitioning from a well-highlighted unique object to an immersive environment. Even the vending machines are part of the storytelling. And this museum dedicated to pop culture begins its narrative with a book: Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse.”

The past feeds the present

Egypt 380 bc/Kongo artist RDC

He continues: “We must succeed in making people understand how the past feeds the present. How contemporary art is connected to the past. We need to expand our interests and accept complexity as a priority. Art works should and must be contextualized. A beautiful Madonna painting must also be understood and presented in its social and political context.

Egypt and Black artists

Many of our exhibitions and our collection display have started to do that in a major way. For example, we currently have an exhibition dedicated to the influence of Egypt on Black artists. We have also just put together an exhibition on the Harlem Renaissance; the influence of Harlem artists on Modernism. It was a great success. Our visitors must have the feeling that they can be in contact with a multitude of stories, perspectives, cultures.”

Siena in the 1300s

However, the Met’s director has no intention of abandoning classical subjects: “We recently inaugurated an exhibition on art in Siena in the 1300s, perfectly aligned with the Met’s academic tradition.” He concluded: “I arrived in New York six and a half years ago. Since then, there has been the murder of George Floyd, the development of the Black Lives Matter movement, a new reckoning with the history of America… As an Austrian, I know the importance of reconnecting with your own history.”

Egypt ca 2575 bc/ Dogon artist, Mali

The discussion took place over a video call before Donald Trump’s last election to the White House