The Milwaukee Art Museum, a jutting cruciform-shaped structure
riding atop a cantilevered foundation, was deemed an architectural
masterpiece when it was completed in 1957.
Exactly 40 years later, the lakefront ground was broken for a new
addition. The Quadracci Pavilion, designed by Spanish architect
Santiago Calatrava, officially opened in the spring of 2001.
If the Saarinen design was considered the ultimate space age statement
in architecture of the ‘50s and ‘60s, Calatrava’s
first completed project in the United States represents yet another
exciting step toward the future and into the new millennium.
Poised like a great ship on the sand shore of Lake Michigan, the
addition has an integral, tension-filled aesthetic, suggestive
of an imminent departure seaward or skyward. The steel cables,
which anchor the mast to the shore, are juxtaposed to the great
birdlike wings of the Burke brise soleil. The “wings” of
the brise soleil, in reality a spectacular mammoth sunshade, open
and close each day along with the admission doors of the museum.
They are even made to “flap” awe-inspiringly every
noon hour for the delight of visitors. The overall effect is breathtaking,
and many residents opine that the museum addition has single handedly
placed Milwaukee on the map of world-class cities.
Nearly 20,000 works from antiquity to the present
make up the museum’s inventory. Of special note are the
permanent holdings in German Expressionist works, the collection
of American decorative arts, and the folk and Haitian art sections.
The collection galleries have been recently renovated, providing
increased spaciousness and light. The galleries are for the most
part arranged chronologically, allowing the viewer a sort of
historical path through art. Feature exhibitions are nearly always
set up in the Quadracci Pavilion, which provides resplendent
galleries with natural sunlight.
Our city has bragging rights! People magazine named
the Museum among three "New American Beauties" in 2003, Conde
Nast Traveler magazine recognized the Museum among the new wonders
of the world for 2002 and Time magazine called it the "Best
Design of 2001."
|
