City of texture

     Like? When it's itself,

     it's not like anything.

     This means, good inten-

     tion might not prevail.

     It's built to be unmade

     and made again, and all

     the world plays a part.

There are two struggles being waged these days in one place, the Museum of Modern Art. The design community is split along lines not merely of judgment but of 'team spirit,' a recurring risk in any city. Complaints abound with its leadership, a recurring risk wherever there is an institution. But nothing about New York belongs only to New York; the texture of that city extrudes, you could say, the keenest prayers of all. We implore it to be good as well as great. One building's indignity dooms its neighbor to yield; while across town, a lovely park is uplifted as if by a phoenix.

Cathedral Photo Valéry Lorenzo©

Jasper Johns, 1961, Coll MoMA