Right now there is a huge pile of newspapers beside my desk. I've read them all, but I'm keeping them for a reason. Not to wrap fish and chips, but to protect glasses and plates when I move to my new apartment. A recently-opened exhibition in New York treats newspapers with far more respect – as works of art.
The Last Newspaper is being held until 9 January at The New Museum (newmuseum.org) in The Bowery. Inspired, of course, by the shift of news from print to web, it uses newspapers as the inspiration for sculptures, paintings and events. For instance, a work by Luciano Fabro from 1967 is based on the traditional method of cleaning terrazzo, or Italian tile floors, with the previous day's newspapers. (So what do they wrap their chips in?). The artist Nate Lowman will paint one picture a week based on a news story. A bunch of people will eat copies of The Wall Street Journal (I'm not joking). There will be talks about the nature of news. The museum will even print a newspaper reporting on all the events that take place during the exhibition.
Like anything else in the world, as print becomes more rare, it will seem more precious. But I must admit that I didn't expect newspapers to achieve museum status quite so quickly. Looks like I'll have to find something else to wrap things in during my déménagement.
