The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) reopens to the public on Friday after a hiatus of nearly six years. Its previous home, last updated in 1969, was demolished in 2021 to make way for a new 146,000-square-foot building designed by Adjaye Associates.
On the way to PUAM, passing through the historic campus of Princeton University, as crisp leaves fell from the branches, I felt as if I was on an East Coast college campus, the kind of place I usually associate with an Ivy League school like Princeton. However, this sentiment did not immediately shift when I arrived at the new PUAM. It’s hard to ignore – even noticeable. I was struck by how modern this building was compared to the older buildings around it. Walking down the steps into the heart of the building feels like entering the belly of a beast, a kind of tomb. Nick Cave designed a 40-foot-tall colorful abstract mosaic modeled after his signature “sound suits,” but it didn’t do much to ease those gloomy feelings.
The building itself, with nine interlocking modernist stone pavilions, has its own complex history. In 2023, the building was more than halfway completed when sexual misconduct allegations against Adjaye Associates principal David Adjaye surfaced. Although the famed Ghanaian-British architect has denied the accusations, he has withdrawn from work on PUAM as well as other projects — something the museum’s leadership briefly mentioned at a recent press conference ahead of the building’s public opening.
While my initial impression of the space seemed lukewarm, luckily that feeling didn’t last long. In fact, the longer I stayed at PUAM, the stronger my inner opposition became. Visitors can enter the museum from four sides and are just a 10-minute walk from each of Princeton’s campus residence halls, reflecting the museum’s openness and accessibility.
Despite its expanded size, the redesigned museum never feels intimidating. Its collection is one of the oldest in the country, currently numbering around 2,000 objects, and there is something intimate about how its installation was realized. Located in central New Jersey, between Manhattan and Philadelphia, PUAM now has a footprint large enough to meet its ambitions of becoming a leading museum for students and the community at large.
In fact, the new PUAM building is quite long, connected by two internal “art walks”. At its center is an open hall, usually furnished with comfortable seats and sofas, but which can be converted into a lecture theater or performance space, with retractable seats and walls for extra privacy.
From two adjacent art walks, visitors can see three floors of built-in shelves filled with artwork ranging from abstract works by Frank Stella created in 1958, the year he graduated from college, to an ancient Roman mosaic floor excavated in Turkey by Princeton University archaeologists in the 1930s.
Much of the museum’s current curation includes this ahistorical content Adjacency – Pairing seemingly disparate works together to tell a new kind of story. Other examples include Andy Warhol’s blue marilyn (1962) Next to Giovanni di Tarno Fe Virgin and Son (late 14th century) as a way of thinking about different forms of iconography and worship, or to juxtapose the work of Titus Caffar in a gallery for sale (2018), Portrait of Charles Wilson Peale george washington (c. 1787), and Nkisi (powerful person) From the early 20th century to an unidentified Congolese artist.
Princeton University Art Museum interview photo, 2025. The prospect is Jisan: Armored Knight,about. 1500, by an unidentified artist; in the background, left to right, is Teresa Margolles El manto negro (The Black Shroud)2020, and Sally Mann’s once loved (2009).
Photo Francesca Atton/ARTnews
One particularly striking section focuses on different manifestations of grief, bringing together life-size horizontal stone statues Jisan: Armored Knight (c. 1500) by an unknown artist; photograph taken by Sally Mann of her ailing husband, titled once loved (2009); El manto negro (The Black Shroud)a 2020 ceramic installation by Teresa Margolles; Christian Boltanski’s mixed media installation displays photographs of Jewish students found before the Nazis annexed Austria. The care that goes into the creation of these objects supports life’s deepest loves and losses.
These works, along with those by contemporary art stars Gerhard Richter, Diana Al-Hadid, Sean Scully and Rose B. Simpson, among others, form the basis of the 150-piece “Princeton Collection” exhibition that occupies the second-floor gallery until next March. Also on display is “Toshiko Takaezu: Clay Dialogues,” which highlights PUAM’s deep affection for the ceramicist who taught at Princeton University for more than 20 years.
As I continued to wander the galleries, PUAM seemed to keep moving forward with no end in sight—not a bad thing for a museum of this size. This sparked a crazy obsession in me to watch as much of it as possible. to the truth look Everything is on display as it is, and visitors should plan a few hours.
Toward the end of the tour, I stumbled upon a conservation laboratory, set back from the galleries yet seamlessly integrated into the entire museum. The lab, along with several classrooms on the first floor, is one of many spaces dedicated to providing object-based learning opportunities for Princeton students. Princeton University has long offered art conservation courses cross-listed across multiple majors, but until now, those courses were held in separate buildings due to space constraints. Now, all this learning can take place in one unified building.
