Visitors to the Whitney Museum of American Art will be treated to a taste of Bridgehampton when the new Frenchette Bakery's cafe opens on the ground floor this month.
Linking the restaurant to the artistic mission of the museum is Rashid Johnson's installation "New Poetry." The Bridgehampton part-timer conceived it as "an immediate connection between the museum, the community, the new space, and visitors," according to the Whitney.
Looking like an oversized shelving unit, the sculpture in black steel holds "books, ceramics, monitors playing films, lights, plants, and more," expanding from inside through the exterior walls of the front of the museum. "The steel grid works are multifaceted," Mr. Johnson said. "They work as a brain, delivering disparate materials and information into one location where conceptual connections and new ways of thinking come from their physical proximity."
Referencing the title of the work, he said, "Poetry is a vehicle for the exploration of critical concerns, aesthetics, and the romantic. . . . I consider this sculpture to be a poem."
The cafe will first serve take-away meals and baked goods, adding seated dining service for breakfast and lunch later this year.
