Kimbell Art Museum boasts worldwide acclaim
The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth is a work of art on its own.
The design by architect Louis Kahn has garnered worldwide acclaim through its use of natural light and materials. With a technique Kahn called “narrow slits to the sky,” the museum uses light slots to vary the quality and intensity of the illumination in different areas of the museum.
But it's what's inside the museum walls that truly draws visitors time and again.
The Kimbell’s permanent art collection offers nearly 350 works of art ranging from antiquity to modern day. Included are European masterpieces from Fra Angelico and Caravaggio to Cézanne and Matisse, plus important collections of Egyptian, Near Eastern, Greek, and Roman antiquities, as well as Asian, Mesoamerican, and African arts.
The Kimbell Art Museum has been around in some form since the 1930s, when Kay Kimbell and his wife established the Kimbell Art Foundation. In 1972, the museum’s current building opened to the art viewing public.
While the museum’s permanent collection is small by the standard set by other metropolitan museums, the Kimbell continues to be one of the most respected collections in the world.
One of the museum’s most recent and significant acquisitions is Michelangelo’s painting of The Torment of Saint Anthony. It is the first painting by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) to enter an American collection. The oil and tempera image on a wooden panel is one of only four known easel paintings generally believed to come from his hand.
The museum has drawn in significant travelling exhibitions, along with exhibits organized by the museum, including: Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharoah, Impressionist Masterpieces from the Barnes Collection, The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago, Picturing the Bible: The Earliest Christian Art, The Mirror and the Mask: Portraiture in the Age of Picasso, Gauguin and Impressionism, Stubbs and the Horse, and more.
the Kimbell regularly offers workshops geared toward children, high-school students, deaf and hard-of-hearing students, as well as adults of all ages.
Admission to the museum’s permanent collection is always free, but there is a charge for special exhibitions. However, the museum offers half-price exhibition admission all day on Tuesdays and on 5 to 8 p.m. on Fridays.
The Kimbell Art Museum is open for leisure art appreciation Tuesdays through Thursdays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Fridays, noon to 8 p.m.; and Sundays, noon to 5 p.m.
Tours of the permanent collection are held Wednesdays at 2 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tours of special exhibitions are also available at varying times. Patrons can plan a visit around a tour with a call to the information desk at (817) 332-8451.
The museum also hosts a large and eclectic gift shop and cafe—the Buffet at the Kimbell.
Parking is free in the museum’s parking lot off Arch Adams and Darnell streets and at the Darnell Street Auditorium on Arch Adams Street across from the museum.
- by Jenn Emerson, Dallas Reporter for HelloMetro
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