Nelson-Atkins Museum off Art

The Musée of Art Nelson-Atkins ( Nelson-Atkins Museum off Art ) is an important museum of Art located at Kansas City in the Missouri. Some regard it as having one of the major collections of works of art of the the United States.

History

The museum was built on the grounds of the Oak Hall , the seat of the editor of the Kansas City Star William Rockhill Nelson. With its death in 1915, its wills stipulated that after the death of his wife and her daughter, the receipts of her goods would be used for acquisition of works of art for the pleasure of the public. Approximately to the same moment, the ex-mistress of school Mary Atkins (widowed of the speculator in allotment James Burris Atkins) bequeathed 300 000 dollars to establish a museum of Article the amount rose with 700 000 dollars in 1927. Original plans established for two museum of Art based on two separate legacies (with the Atkins museum located at PEN Valley Park). No matter what it was, it was decided to combine the two legacies with others smaller to form only one great institution devoted to Article.

The building was drawn by eminent architects of Kansas City, Thomas and William Wight (who are also the architects of the access road of the Liberty Memorial and Cedar Crest, the private mansion of the Gouverneur of Kansas). The first stone was posed in 1930, and the museum opened on December 11th, 1933. The building, of an academic traditional invoice in a style very " Art schools " , is largely inspired by the museum of Art of Cleveland. Thomas Wight, that of the two brothers who worked the most on the style of the building declared: “The museum that we build is founded on traditional precepts because time showed their value. One could develop, for a building like that one, of the different principles adapted to America, but in any case that would be experimental. One does not test with two million and half of dollars. ”.

When the building was delivered, it had cost 2,75 million dollars.

Dimensions of origin of the six stages of the building were of approximately 120 meters length by 54 meters broad (390 feet by 175 feet), vaster than its model of Cleveland.

The museum which was locally called Nelson Art Gallery, or Nelson Gallery, was in fact two museum until 1983 when it was officially named Nelson-Atkins Museum off Article At the beginning the wing east was called Atkins Museum off Fine Arts (Atkins museum of Visual art), while the western wing and the hall were called William Rockhill Nelson Gallery off Article. On the walls external of the building, Charles Keck created 23 high reliefs describing “civilizing” walk leaving towards the west, showing the caravans of carriages advancing the face pioneer since Westport Landing.

The southern frontage of the museum represents an iconic structure of Kansas City which emerges above a series of terraces on Brush Creek.

Practically at the same time as the construction of the museum, Howard Vandeslice made gift of eight acres (3,2 ha) in the west of the museum, along Oak Street, for the Kansas City Art Institute, which moved of Deardorf Building located at the 11 with Street Hand in the downtown area of Kansas City.

Nelson, the principal giver, brought money rather than a personal collection. The conservatives thus on the occasion to constitute a collection ex-nihilo . At the top of the Great depression, the international market of Art collapsed, with parts to be sold, but they found few takers. Thus the purchasers of the museum were in front of a vast market. Acquisitions grew quickly. In very little time, Nelson-Atkins had one of most important the collection of Art in the country.

A third of the western wing was not finished when the museum opened. A part was supplemented in 1941. The remainder of the building was finished after the Second world war.

From 1954 to 2000, the Jewel Ball which is the ball of the beginners of Kansas City, was held every June in the principal hall. This ball always benefitted with the museum and the Kansas City Symphony. The ball moved temporarily to allow the project of extension of the museum and its return envisaged in 2008 raises criticisms.

Extension: the Bloch building

In 1993, the directors of the museum started to think of a plan of extension. This plan, envisaging an increase in the space of 55%, was finalized in 1999. The architect Steven Holl gained an international contest in 1999 for his project of extension. The concept of Steven Holl was to build five turns of glass on the part is building. The architect called them “lenses”, and they increase the surface of 15 300 mètres squares (165 000 pieds squares), all bearing the name, except for that in basement, of Bloch wing, the name of H&R Block, the cofounder Henry W. Bloch. The Bloch wing accommodates the museum of Contemporary art, African Art, photography and the exposure temporary, as well as a new coffee, the library of the museum and a court where the sculptures of the artist Isamu Noguchi are exposed. This extension (of a cost from approximately 95; nbsp&millions of dollars) opened on June 9th, 2007, and represents part of the 200 million dollars which were used for the restoration of the museum including/understanding Ford Learning Center, place of course, workshops and source of references for the students and the teachers, who opened with the autumn 2005.

At the time of the contest of extension, all the participants except the prize winner proposed to create a modern wing in the north of the building which deeply would have deteriorated or darkened the northern frontage which was the main entrance of the museum. On the other hand, Steven Holl proposed to place the new wing on the east coast, perpendicular to the entry of the museum. The lenses of Holl form a projection on the east coast of the ground.

Whereas they were still on the board of work, the plans of Steven Holl nourished already the controversy. They were described like “a grotesque metal box”. However the reviews of the new structure in general were eulogistic. Nicolai Ouroussoff, a critic of the NewYork Times gave this description:

“The result of this building, less defying the past which it does not suggest an alternative world sight, as there is always during a shift. Since the northern place, the entry of the new wing keeps an idea of soft respect compared to the old building. The crystalline form is like a ghostly echo in answer to the austere stone frontage. From there, the eye slips towards the various translucent blocks already connected and partly buried. The museum goes against the traditional thought of conservation, which allows in the light of coming to illuminate works since the lenses. The majority of the galleries of the extension to under the level of the ground are capped by turns out of glass of 27 with 34 feet (8 with 10 meters) top. The conservatives say that the advanced ones as regards technology of glass make it possible to filter the majority of the ultraviolet rays which could harm works.

Random links: