The Museum of Modern Art is not getting into the concert promotion business just yet, but its latest commission has, at least on paper, the components and the pedigree of a pop-music spectacle.
On Tuesday the museum said that it had commissioned Antony Hegarty, the artist and lead singer of the band Antony and the Johnsons, to create and perform a new work called “Swanlights” that will be presented at Radio City Music Hall on Jan. 26. The performance event, which MoMA described in a news release as a “meditation on light, nature, and femininity,” will include songs from all four albums by Antony and the Johnsons (including their most recent release, also called “Swanlights”) with symphonic arrangements by Nico Muhly, Rob Moose, and Maxim Moston and performed by a 60-piece orchestra.
Klaus Biesenbach, the chief curator at large of the Museum of Modern Art and director of MoMA PS1, said in a telephone interview that “Swanlights” was originally conceived for MoMA’s Marron Atrium – an idea that became less and less feasible as Mr. Hegarty’s plans fell into place.
“As he became more and more clear with the symphony orchestra and the lasers,” Mr. Biesenbach said, “if we do everything as he wants it, we have no place for the audience. And then we moved it to Radio City. Because he fills it so much with light and sculptures and the orchestra – it’s so full, it literally wouldn’t allow for any audience anymore.”
Though MoMA has lately played host to musicians like Kanye West (who performed at the museum’s annual Party in the Garden in May), Mr. Biesenbach said he saw “Swanlights” more in line with some of his other recent commissions like Doug Aitken’s projection piece “Sleepwalkers”; the walk-in performance by Patti Smith and Michael Stipe celebrating the 100th birthday of Jean Genet; or even Marina Abramovic’s retrospective “The Artist Is Present,” which Mr. Biesenbach said was “meant to be much more theatrical and it ended up as a very still, sculpture-like performance.”
Even so, Mr. Biesenbach said there was not much risk that Mr. Hegarty would be mistaken for a more traditional pop star.
“If you have a scale from serious to popular, I see Antony very much on the serious side,” he said. “In German, we say something can be U or E,” he said. “U is Unterhaltung, which is entertainment, and E is Ernst, which is serious. And I see him more at the E, and not on the U.”
“Swanlights” is being organized by Mr. Biesenbach with Eliza Ryan, a curatorial assistant at MoMA PS1. It is produced in collaboration with the light artist Chris Levine, the lighting designer Paul Normandale and the set designer Carl Robertshaw. Tickets will go on sale Nov. 12.