美國建築師 Frank Gehry 新作 - 加拿大多倫多 Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) 開幕
美國建築師 Frank O. Gehry 有又新作，加拿大多倫多 Art Gallery of Ontario （簡稱 AGO）於2008年11月14開幕。
以下轉貼自聯合書報攤
安大略美術館展新貌‧湯姆森收藏獻明珠
‧典藏古美術 2008/11/14
【文／鄭又嘉；圖／Sue Bond公關公司】
歷史超過一世紀、擁有近七萬件收藏的加拿大多倫多安大略美術館（Art Gallery of Ontario），於2002年在加拿大政府、安大略省和安大略文化魅力基金支持下啟動改造工程。此項費時六年、耗資2億5,400萬美元的工程，由甫獲 第11屆威尼斯建築雙年展終生成就金獅獎、出生於多倫多後移居美國加州的國際知名建築大師法蘭克‧蓋瑞（Frank Gehry）操刀。美術館的新面貌訂於11月14日向大眾展現。
重新面世的美術館將與城市結合，新建築具標誌性的元素有：美術館內不規則下降的螺旋樓梯，獨特的雕塑畫廊──以戲劇性的玻璃設計和成排道格拉斯冷 杉延伸至城市街區的「義大利畫廊」，以及可眺望城市景致的鈦金屬高塔，觀眾將置身於110間光線充足的展廳中欣賞超過四千件作品。改建後的美術館觀賞空間 將新增約50％。
美術館重新開放的另一個焦點，落在加拿大首富──傳媒巨擘肯恩‧湯姆森（Ken Roy Thomson，1923～2008）累積半世紀的藝術收藏。此批收藏為數甚豐，高達兩千餘件，包括從早期基督教與中世紀藝術、文藝復興時期雕塑、巴洛克 時期工藝品、18與19世紀英國藝術、船舶模型、19與20世紀加拿大繪畫到中國鼻煙壺等。代表藏品有數件魯本斯成熟初期的傑作，如國際知名的〈屠殺無辜 者（The Massacre of the Innocents）〉、12世紀馬姆斯伯里骨灰盒、中世紀象牙雕刻等數一數二的九百餘件歐洲藝術收藏，收藏主軸則為750餘件加拿大藝術，包括湯姆‧湯 姆森（Tom Thomson）的七人社（Group of Seven）、加拿大大師科爾內留斯‧克里格霍夫（Cornelius Krieghoff）和大衛‧米爾納（David Milne）等人作品，內容豐富，展現收藏家廣泛的文化好奇心與獨一無二的個人特質，其收藏質量俱佳，頗受博物館研究人員推崇。此批收藏將以30個展廳呈 現。除了捐贈收藏，湯姆森另捐贈超過上億美元予美術館改造工程，其中包括2,000萬美元的常態營運費用。
在湯姆森的一片歐美藝術收藏中，中國鼻煙壺看似另類，實符合其對精巧工藝的偏好，也具體而微地展現出中國藝術的精緻、傳奇、神話和民間傳說。倫敦 古董商Robert Hall助其建立了約三百件的鼻煙壺收藏，其中115件將常態展出。湯姆森談到鼻煙壺時曾感性的說：「觸感很好。當你發現某項你愛的東西，你一定要觸摸 它，持握它，過程中你會越來越接近並瞭解製作者。如果當你非常接近地感受和注視某件東西時，它讓你心跳加速，你就會知道它是為你而做的。」
湯姆森第一件購藏的鼻煙壺為具乾隆款的1736～1795年清乾隆〈象牙雕佛道人物鼻煙壺〉（6.3×5.1×2.5厘米），另一件出自北京造辦 處的為清乾隆〈黃料雕仿古夔龍紋鼻煙壺〉（5.4×4.1×2.8厘米）。由於對擁有宮廷物件有興趣，此類鼻煙壺便成為收藏中的特色之一。他對自然的愛好 也反映在有機材質的鼻煙壺藏品上，他認為琥珀是最可親的材質，加上因琥珀可吸納老虎靈魂而象徵勇氣的傳說，故琥珀鼻煙壺有14件之多，其中 1780～1850年〈琥珀刻詩人孟浩然鼻煙壺〉（5.9×5.1×2.8厘米）十分可愛。另外一種是婆羅洲的犀鳥鳥喙，組織類似象牙但較軟 （hornbill ivory），中心呈金色，邊緣則為紅色，十分珍罕，少見於鼻煙壺。湯姆森收有數件，包括1821～1850年清道光〈犀鳥喙刻老者與攜琴童子鼻煙壺〉 （6.3×5.4×1.8厘米）和1800～1850年〈犀鳥喙素面龍紋鼻煙壺〉（6.3×5.3×1.7厘米）。
瓷製鼻煙壺則有1780～1820年〈粉彩瓷塑躺臥少女〉（3.8×8.6×3厘米）及〈粉彩瓷塑孩童〉（5.8×2.2×2.3厘米），皆十分 俏皮可愛。玉和翡翠鼻煙壺有1780～1850年〈紫翡翠刻籃紋鼻煙壺〉（6×5×3.3厘米）及〈翡翠鼻煙壺〉（6.2×4×1.9厘米），同時期還有 具迷人天然紋理的〈布丁石鼻煙壺〉（5.3×4.6×2.7厘米）。19世紀開始而於百年後達到巔峰的料器和水晶鼻煙壺，則有1780～1850年製、 1910年葉仲三後繪〈水晶內繪魚藻紋鼻煙壺〉（6×3.4×1.6厘米）和約1910年馬少宣繪〈透明料內繪英雄（鷹熊）圖鼻煙壺〉（6.3×4× 1.9厘米）。上述面貌豐富的鼻煙壺亦將於改建完成的美術館中展出。
肯恩‧湯姆森是1953年在英國南方小鎮伯恩茅斯（Bournemouth）度假時與藝術結緣，他當時受到維多利亞時期雕刻家班傑明‧薛佛頓 （Benjamin Cheverton）刻的一對胸像所吸引，自此踏上藝術收藏之路直到生命終點。如長期為其服務的倫敦知名古董商Sam Fogg所言，不論歷史意義深重、高價值或不起眼的作品，肯恩‧湯姆森皆十分寶愛。周遭的親友和藝術顧問皆表示，在把玩或欣賞收藏時，他總是神采煥發，對 於高超的技巧總是給予最大的敬意，不論是中世紀的象牙雕刻或拿破崙戰俘所做的船舶模型。肯恩‧湯姆森曾說，把玩藝術品讓他對藝術家創作過程感同身受。他亦 對瞭解每件作品的歷史深感興趣，花費很大精神去追溯流傳過程，甚至遠溯至作品剛離開藝術家手中的時刻。
肯恩‧湯姆森是艦隊街湯姆森男爵一世（1st Baron Thomson of Fleet）洛依‧赫伯特‧湯姆森（Roy Herbert Thomson）與艾德娜夫婦（Edna Thomson）的獨子，出生於多倫多並於安大略北灣和多倫多長大，二次世界大戰時服役於皇家加拿大空軍，之後於英國劍橋大學取得經濟與法律學位，畢業後 參與其父在南安大略剛起步的報業。其父於1954年移居蘇格蘭並買下《蘇格蘭人報》（Scotsman newspaper），肯恩成為加拿大的湯姆森報系總裁，然而英國報業迅速擴張，使他不得不舉家移居倫敦。1966年成為泰晤士報系副主席，1968年升 為主席，1971年再升為總裁，直到1981年出售報社。1976年其父過世，他繼承家族事業和艦隊街湯姆森男爵二世的頭銜，然而行事十分低調，從不曾出 席英國上議院，亦未曾在加拿大使用頭銜。
在肯恩的領導下，湯姆森報系在加拿大和美國迅速擴張，成為北美地區擁有最多日報的報業集團，其最自豪的成績為1980年取得加拿大《環球郵報》 （Globe and Mail），因這是20多年前其父併購失敗的報紙。出版業之外，湯姆森事業還包括總部位在英國的旅遊公司、北海原油、加拿大歷史最悠久且規模最大的零售商 ──哈德遜灣公司（Hudson's Bay Company）。2000年撤出英國和北美報紙前（《環球郵報》除外），肯恩一直是全世界領先的資訊提供者。其父過世時，家族財產約5億美元，30年後 肯恩過世，家族財產已高達210億美元，為加拿大首富且名列世界前十大富豪。
以下轉貼自 NYTimes
Gehry Puts a Very Different Signature on His Old Hometown’s Museum
By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF
Published: November 14, 2008
TORONTO — Frank Gehry has often said that he likes to forge deep emotional bonds with his architecture projects.
But the commission to renovate the Art Gallery of Ontario here must have been especially fraught for him. Mr. Gehry grew up on a windy, tree-lined street in a working-class neighborhood not far from the museum. His grandmother lived around the corner, where she kept live carp handy in the bathtub for making her gefilte fish.
Given that this is Mr. Gehry’s first commission in his native city, you might expect the building to be a surreal kind of self-reckoning, a voyage through the architect’s subconscious.
So the new Art Gallery of Ontario, which opened to the public on Friday, may catch some fans of the architect off guard. Rather than a tumultuous creation, this may be one of Mr. Gehry’s most gentle and self-possessed designs. It is not a perfect building, yet its billowing glass facade, which evokes a crystal ship drifting through the city, is a masterly example of how to breathe life into a staid old structure.
And its interiors underscore one of the most underrated dimensions of Mr. Gehry’s immense talent: a supple feel for context and an ability to balance exuberance with delicious moments of restraint.
Instead of tearing apart the old museum, Mr. Gehry carefully threaded new ramps, walkways and stairs through the original. As you step from one area to the next, it is as if you were engaging in a playful dance between old and new.
The original building, an imposing stone Beaux-Arts structure completed in 1918, grew in fits and starts over nearly a century. A wing designed to match the original style was added to the main building in the 1920s; a modern sculpture center and gallery shop, clad in precast concrete, were built in 1974.
The most damaging addition, however, was a two-story structure that the architect Barton Myers grafted onto the front of the old building on Dundas Street in the early 1990s. The addition’s low brick form was intended to make the museum more accessible but ended up looking cheap and tawdry. The central entrance was also moved off to one side, which meant that visitors had to pass through a labyrinth of spaces before reaching the heart of the museum.
Mr. Gehry’s first task was to clean up this mess. He tore away that addition, restoring a grand, central point of entry. He consolidated all of the museum’s commercial functions — bookstore, cafe, restaurant, theater — at one end of the building, reasserting the primacy of the museum and its art while creating a vibrant communal enclave at that street corner.
The new glass facade, swelling out one story above the sidewalk, seems to wrap the building and embrace passers-by below. Its faceted glass panels, supported by rows of curved wood beams, evoke the skeleton of a ship’s hull or the ribs of a corset. At either end of the building, the glass peels back to reveal powerful crisscrossing steel and wood structural beams.
The unpretentious materials bring to mind one of Mr. Gehry’s most powerful early works: his own 1978 house in Santa Monica, Calif., which he described as “a dumb box” wrapped in a skin of chain link, galvanized metal and plywood.
Yet an even greater strength of the museum design is how it suggests the interrelationship of art and the city. The bottom portion of the glass overhanging the street angles back slightly to reflect the facades of the pretty Victorian and Georgian houses across the way; the upper section tilts back to reflect the sky. Just above the glass facade, you glimpse the top of the new big, blue box that houses the contemporary-art galleries, its blocky form balanced on top of the old building.
The results are refreshing. Mr. Gehry doesn’t put art on a pedestal; he asserts its importance while wedding it to everyday life. The rest of the design unfolds in a meandering, almost childlike narrative. An exposed stud wall frames the entrance, blending into the classical stone shell while adding a touch of warmth. From here, a long sinuous ramp snakes its way through the center of the lobby. The ramp, which provides wheelchair access but can be used by anyone, is an odd conceit. Yet it serves the purpose of slowing your pace as you move toward the galleries, prodding you to leave outside distractions behind.
As you travel deeper into the building, you experience a delightful tension between old and new. From the lobby you enter a court framed on four sides by the original museum’s classical arcades. A glass roof supported on steel trusses has been cleaned up, and on a sunny day a heavenly light pours into the space from two stories above.
At the far end of the court, a spectacular new spiraling wood staircase rises from the second floor, punching through the glass roof and connecting to the contemporary gallery floors in the rear of the building. The staircase leans drunkenly to one side as it rises, and the tilt of the form sets the whole room in motion. When you reach the first landing, the stair rail keeps rising rather than becoming level with the floor, so that your view back across the court temporarily disappears and then returns. It’s as if you were riding a wave.
This is a textbook example of how architecture can be respectful of the past without being docile. All the old spaces and the memories they house are brought lovingly back to life.
Mr. Gehry shows the most restraint in the galleries. Some have been left completely untouched, and others, like the Thomson Canadian gallery, have been subtly tweaked. Big wooden baseboards have been added to keep the eye upward, focused on the art. Doors are cut into the corners of some of the galleries so that you enter them diagonally, which preserves wall space. (One flaw is a series of rails at waist level that were designed to allow you to lean to view smaller paintings; they cast a distracting shadow on the wall, and the effect is fussy.)
Mr. Gehry seems to have had more fun with the contemporary galleries. Big wood-frame windows offer views onto the park at the back, and skylights funnel sunlight into the upper-floor spaces. The galleries are conceived as big white cubes with a few smaller, boxy spaces arranged inside, shifts in scale that give curators more display choices. They also add an element of surprise: you’re not always sure what to expect when you round a corner.
The climax arrives in the Gallery Italia, a long, narrow sculpture corridor just behind the new glass facade. The entire composition snaps into place. The facade’s gorgeous curved surface cleaves you close to the old building. Gazing toward the ends of the hall, where the glass curls over and then peels back, you think of the gills of a fish opening up to let in air.
As you watch the figures jostling outside and then turn to the sculptures, urban life and art seem in perfect balance.
And suddenly you grasp what’s so moving about this place, despite its flaws. The exuberance is here, of course. But something else tugs at you: the architect’s humility in addressing the past.
以下轉貼自聯合書報攤
安大略美術館展新貌‧湯姆森收藏獻明珠
‧典藏古美術 2008/11/14
【文／鄭又嘉；圖／Sue Bond公關公司】
歷史超過一世紀、擁有近七萬件收藏的加拿大多倫多安大略美術館（Art Gallery of Ontario），於2002年在加拿大政府、安大略省和安大略文化魅力基金支持下啟動改造工程。此項費時六年、耗資2億5,400萬美元的工程，由甫獲 第11屆威尼斯建築雙年展終生成就金獅獎、出生於多倫多後移居美國加州的國際知名建築大師法蘭克‧蓋瑞（Frank Gehry）操刀。美術館的新面貌訂於11月14日向大眾展現。
重新面世的美術館將與城市結合，新建築具標誌性的元素有：美術館內不規則下降的螺旋樓梯，獨特的雕塑畫廊──以戲劇性的玻璃設計和成排道格拉斯冷 杉延伸至城市街區的「義大利畫廊」，以及可眺望城市景致的鈦金屬高塔，觀眾將置身於110間光線充足的展廳中欣賞超過四千件作品。改建後的美術館觀賞空間 將新增約50％。
美術館重新開放的另一個焦點，落在加拿大首富──傳媒巨擘肯恩‧湯姆森（Ken Roy Thomson，1923～2008）累積半世紀的藝術收藏。此批收藏為數甚豐，高達兩千餘件，包括從早期基督教與中世紀藝術、文藝復興時期雕塑、巴洛克 時期工藝品、18與19世紀英國藝術、船舶模型、19與20世紀加拿大繪畫到中國鼻煙壺等。代表藏品有數件魯本斯成熟初期的傑作，如國際知名的〈屠殺無辜 者（The Massacre of the Innocents）〉、12世紀馬姆斯伯里骨灰盒、中世紀象牙雕刻等數一數二的九百餘件歐洲藝術收藏，收藏主軸則為750餘件加拿大藝術，包括湯姆‧湯 姆森（Tom Thomson）的七人社（Group of Seven）、加拿大大師科爾內留斯‧克里格霍夫（Cornelius Krieghoff）和大衛‧米爾納（David Milne）等人作品，內容豐富，展現收藏家廣泛的文化好奇心與獨一無二的個人特質，其收藏質量俱佳，頗受博物館研究人員推崇。此批收藏將以30個展廳呈 現。除了捐贈收藏，湯姆森另捐贈超過上億美元予美術館改造工程，其中包括2,000萬美元的常態營運費用。
在湯姆森的一片歐美藝術收藏中，中國鼻煙壺看似另類，實符合其對精巧工藝的偏好，也具體而微地展現出中國藝術的精緻、傳奇、神話和民間傳說。倫敦 古董商Robert Hall助其建立了約三百件的鼻煙壺收藏，其中115件將常態展出。湯姆森談到鼻煙壺時曾感性的說：「觸感很好。當你發現某項你愛的東西，你一定要觸摸 它，持握它，過程中你會越來越接近並瞭解製作者。如果當你非常接近地感受和注視某件東西時，它讓你心跳加速，你就會知道它是為你而做的。」
湯姆森第一件購藏的鼻煙壺為具乾隆款的1736～1795年清乾隆〈象牙雕佛道人物鼻煙壺〉（6.3×5.1×2.5厘米），另一件出自北京造辦 處的為清乾隆〈黃料雕仿古夔龍紋鼻煙壺〉（5.4×4.1×2.8厘米）。由於對擁有宮廷物件有興趣，此類鼻煙壺便成為收藏中的特色之一。他對自然的愛好 也反映在有機材質的鼻煙壺藏品上，他認為琥珀是最可親的材質，加上因琥珀可吸納老虎靈魂而象徵勇氣的傳說，故琥珀鼻煙壺有14件之多，其中 1780～1850年〈琥珀刻詩人孟浩然鼻煙壺〉（5.9×5.1×2.8厘米）十分可愛。另外一種是婆羅洲的犀鳥鳥喙，組織類似象牙但較軟 （hornbill ivory），中心呈金色，邊緣則為紅色，十分珍罕，少見於鼻煙壺。湯姆森收有數件，包括1821～1850年清道光〈犀鳥喙刻老者與攜琴童子鼻煙壺〉 （6.3×5.4×1.8厘米）和1800～1850年〈犀鳥喙素面龍紋鼻煙壺〉（6.3×5.3×1.7厘米）。
瓷製鼻煙壺則有1780～1820年〈粉彩瓷塑躺臥少女〉（3.8×8.6×3厘米）及〈粉彩瓷塑孩童〉（5.8×2.2×2.3厘米），皆十分 俏皮可愛。玉和翡翠鼻煙壺有1780～1850年〈紫翡翠刻籃紋鼻煙壺〉（6×5×3.3厘米）及〈翡翠鼻煙壺〉（6.2×4×1.9厘米），同時期還有 具迷人天然紋理的〈布丁石鼻煙壺〉（5.3×4.6×2.7厘米）。19世紀開始而於百年後達到巔峰的料器和水晶鼻煙壺，則有1780～1850年製、 1910年葉仲三後繪〈水晶內繪魚藻紋鼻煙壺〉（6×3.4×1.6厘米）和約1910年馬少宣繪〈透明料內繪英雄（鷹熊）圖鼻煙壺〉（6.3×4× 1.9厘米）。上述面貌豐富的鼻煙壺亦將於改建完成的美術館中展出。
肯恩‧湯姆森是1953年在英國南方小鎮伯恩茅斯（Bournemouth）度假時與藝術結緣，他當時受到維多利亞時期雕刻家班傑明‧薛佛頓 （Benjamin Cheverton）刻的一對胸像所吸引，自此踏上藝術收藏之路直到生命終點。如長期為其服務的倫敦知名古董商Sam Fogg所言，不論歷史意義深重、高價值或不起眼的作品，肯恩‧湯姆森皆十分寶愛。周遭的親友和藝術顧問皆表示，在把玩或欣賞收藏時，他總是神采煥發，對 於高超的技巧總是給予最大的敬意，不論是中世紀的象牙雕刻或拿破崙戰俘所做的船舶模型。肯恩‧湯姆森曾說，把玩藝術品讓他對藝術家創作過程感同身受。他亦 對瞭解每件作品的歷史深感興趣，花費很大精神去追溯流傳過程，甚至遠溯至作品剛離開藝術家手中的時刻。
肯恩‧湯姆森是艦隊街湯姆森男爵一世（1st Baron Thomson of Fleet）洛依‧赫伯特‧湯姆森（Roy Herbert Thomson）與艾德娜夫婦（Edna Thomson）的獨子，出生於多倫多並於安大略北灣和多倫多長大，二次世界大戰時服役於皇家加拿大空軍，之後於英國劍橋大學取得經濟與法律學位，畢業後 參與其父在南安大略剛起步的報業。其父於1954年移居蘇格蘭並買下《蘇格蘭人報》（Scotsman newspaper），肯恩成為加拿大的湯姆森報系總裁，然而英國報業迅速擴張，使他不得不舉家移居倫敦。1966年成為泰晤士報系副主席，1968年升 為主席，1971年再升為總裁，直到1981年出售報社。1976年其父過世，他繼承家族事業和艦隊街湯姆森男爵二世的頭銜，然而行事十分低調，從不曾出 席英國上議院，亦未曾在加拿大使用頭銜。
在肯恩的領導下，湯姆森報系在加拿大和美國迅速擴張，成為北美地區擁有最多日報的報業集團，其最自豪的成績為1980年取得加拿大《環球郵報》 （Globe and Mail），因這是20多年前其父併購失敗的報紙。出版業之外，湯姆森事業還包括總部位在英國的旅遊公司、北海原油、加拿大歷史最悠久且規模最大的零售商 ──哈德遜灣公司（Hudson's Bay Company）。2000年撤出英國和北美報紙前（《環球郵報》除外），肯恩一直是全世界領先的資訊提供者。其父過世時，家族財產約5億美元，30年後 肯恩過世，家族財產已高達210億美元，為加拿大首富且名列世界前十大富豪。
以下轉貼自 NYTimes
Gehry Puts a Very Different Signature on His Old Hometown’s Museum
By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF
Published: November 14, 2008
TORONTO — Frank Gehry has often said that he likes to forge deep emotional bonds with his architecture projects.
But the commission to renovate the Art Gallery of Ontario here must have been especially fraught for him. Mr. Gehry grew up on a windy, tree-lined street in a working-class neighborhood not far from the museum. His grandmother lived around the corner, where she kept live carp handy in the bathtub for making her gefilte fish.
Given that this is Mr. Gehry’s first commission in his native city, you might expect the building to be a surreal kind of self-reckoning, a voyage through the architect’s subconscious.
So the new Art Gallery of Ontario, which opened to the public on Friday, may catch some fans of the architect off guard. Rather than a tumultuous creation, this may be one of Mr. Gehry’s most gentle and self-possessed designs. It is not a perfect building, yet its billowing glass facade, which evokes a crystal ship drifting through the city, is a masterly example of how to breathe life into a staid old structure.
And its interiors underscore one of the most underrated dimensions of Mr. Gehry’s immense talent: a supple feel for context and an ability to balance exuberance with delicious moments of restraint.
Instead of tearing apart the old museum, Mr. Gehry carefully threaded new ramps, walkways and stairs through the original. As you step from one area to the next, it is as if you were engaging in a playful dance between old and new.
The original building, an imposing stone Beaux-Arts structure completed in 1918, grew in fits and starts over nearly a century. A wing designed to match the original style was added to the main building in the 1920s; a modern sculpture center and gallery shop, clad in precast concrete, were built in 1974.
The most damaging addition, however, was a two-story structure that the architect Barton Myers grafted onto the front of the old building on Dundas Street in the early 1990s. The addition’s low brick form was intended to make the museum more accessible but ended up looking cheap and tawdry. The central entrance was also moved off to one side, which meant that visitors had to pass through a labyrinth of spaces before reaching the heart of the museum.
Mr. Gehry’s first task was to clean up this mess. He tore away that addition, restoring a grand, central point of entry. He consolidated all of the museum’s commercial functions — bookstore, cafe, restaurant, theater — at one end of the building, reasserting the primacy of the museum and its art while creating a vibrant communal enclave at that street corner.
The new glass facade, swelling out one story above the sidewalk, seems to wrap the building and embrace passers-by below. Its faceted glass panels, supported by rows of curved wood beams, evoke the skeleton of a ship’s hull or the ribs of a corset. At either end of the building, the glass peels back to reveal powerful crisscrossing steel and wood structural beams.
The unpretentious materials bring to mind one of Mr. Gehry’s most powerful early works: his own 1978 house in Santa Monica, Calif., which he described as “a dumb box” wrapped in a skin of chain link, galvanized metal and plywood.
Yet an even greater strength of the museum design is how it suggests the interrelationship of art and the city. The bottom portion of the glass overhanging the street angles back slightly to reflect the facades of the pretty Victorian and Georgian houses across the way; the upper section tilts back to reflect the sky. Just above the glass facade, you glimpse the top of the new big, blue box that houses the contemporary-art galleries, its blocky form balanced on top of the old building.
The results are refreshing. Mr. Gehry doesn’t put art on a pedestal; he asserts its importance while wedding it to everyday life. The rest of the design unfolds in a meandering, almost childlike narrative. An exposed stud wall frames the entrance, blending into the classical stone shell while adding a touch of warmth. From here, a long sinuous ramp snakes its way through the center of the lobby. The ramp, which provides wheelchair access but can be used by anyone, is an odd conceit. Yet it serves the purpose of slowing your pace as you move toward the galleries, prodding you to leave outside distractions behind.
As you travel deeper into the building, you experience a delightful tension between old and new. From the lobby you enter a court framed on four sides by the original museum’s classical arcades. A glass roof supported on steel trusses has been cleaned up, and on a sunny day a heavenly light pours into the space from two stories above.
At the far end of the court, a spectacular new spiraling wood staircase rises from the second floor, punching through the glass roof and connecting to the contemporary gallery floors in the rear of the building. The staircase leans drunkenly to one side as it rises, and the tilt of the form sets the whole room in motion. When you reach the first landing, the stair rail keeps rising rather than becoming level with the floor, so that your view back across the court temporarily disappears and then returns. It’s as if you were riding a wave.
This is a textbook example of how architecture can be respectful of the past without being docile. All the old spaces and the memories they house are brought lovingly back to life.
Mr. Gehry shows the most restraint in the galleries. Some have been left completely untouched, and others, like the Thomson Canadian gallery, have been subtly tweaked. Big wooden baseboards have been added to keep the eye upward, focused on the art. Doors are cut into the corners of some of the galleries so that you enter them diagonally, which preserves wall space. (One flaw is a series of rails at waist level that were designed to allow you to lean to view smaller paintings; they cast a distracting shadow on the wall, and the effect is fussy.)
Mr. Gehry seems to have had more fun with the contemporary galleries. Big wood-frame windows offer views onto the park at the back, and skylights funnel sunlight into the upper-floor spaces. The galleries are conceived as big white cubes with a few smaller, boxy spaces arranged inside, shifts in scale that give curators more display choices. They also add an element of surprise: you’re not always sure what to expect when you round a corner.
The climax arrives in the Gallery Italia, a long, narrow sculpture corridor just behind the new glass facade. The entire composition snaps into place. The facade’s gorgeous curved surface cleaves you close to the old building. Gazing toward the ends of the hall, where the glass curls over and then peels back, you think of the gills of a fish opening up to let in air.
As you watch the figures jostling outside and then turn to the sculptures, urban life and art seem in perfect balance.
And suddenly you grasp what’s so moving about this place, despite its flaws. The exuberance is here, of course. But something else tugs at you: the architect’s humility in addressing the past.
