The main feature of the building is a huge cantilevered roof – in concrete – held up by five steel Y shaped columns 12m high. From the roof, via a sophisticated system of glazing and rooflights, light filters down into the galleries which is for the most part natural; surrounding the building is an artificial lake.
The exhibition season opens with the permanent collection of the museum, which this year celebrates its 110th anniversary. Also “Vortex 2002”, a giant sculpture by Richard Serra, recently donated by the Burnett Foundation, made in Cor-Ten steel and weighing 230 tonnes. 20 metres high, the sculpture will also be accessible from inside and is to be installed outside the museum in the large sculpture park.
The Texan museum which since 1954 has been located in the cultural district alongside the Kimbell Art Museum by Louis Kahn and the Amon Center Museum by Philip Johnson, boasts one of the biggest post war collections in America – over 2400 works of modern and contemporary art, it now has over 5000 square metres of gallery space, making it the second biggest exhibition area after MoMA in New York.
The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
3200 Darnell Street, Fort Worth
T +1-817-7389215
http://www.themodern.org
