I love having the time to think about things like, “what is the best Art exhibition I have ever seen?” My answer would be:
High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture
At the time the New York Times wrote a scathing article about the exhibition and Robert Hughes wrote an article for Time Magazine. Kirk Varnedoe understood that the power of being a curator is going beyond interperting the works of Art and using the using the works to make a statement, which in 1990 was a new idea.
This exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, went beyond exhibiting the works of Art, it created a new vocabulary for looking at Modern Art.
Excellent exhibition catalog, out of print High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture by Kirk Varnedoe