Yale Bulletin and Calendar

November 17, 2006|Volume 35, Number 11|Two-Week Issue

In conjunction with the Dec. 10 reopening of its Louis Kahn-designed building, the Yale Art Gallery will present the exhibit "Responding to Kahn: A Sculptural Conversation," exploring the relationship between modern art and architecture.

Special events mark reopening of Kahn Building

To celebrate the reopening of its landmark Louis Kahn Building on Sunday, Dec. 10, after a three-year renovation, the Yale University Art Gallery will open its doors to the public for a Kahn-themed exhibit and a series of free events and special programs.

The reopening of the renowned modernist structure marks the completion of a renovation and restoration process that includes the installation of a new window-wall system, which meticulously preserves the building's architecture while using the most up-to-date materials and technology; the removal of a roof over an outdoor courtyard, which restores the building's original five-story façade; the restoration of the six-foot-high brick wall that originally surrounded the courtyard; and an expansion of the gallery's famed sculpture garden. Among the indoor improvements, the building's mechanical system has been replaced and its exhibit lighting capacity doubled. An enlarged elevator will more easily accommodate the transport of large-scale artwork within the building.

An exhibition titled "Responding to Kahovation will be kicked off by a panel discussion titled "What It Wanted To Be: Louis Kahn's Yale University Art Gallery" on Friday, Dec. 1, at 5:30 p.m. in the Robert J. McNeil Jr. Lecture Hall of the gallery, Chapel at High Street. Duncan Hazard of Polshek Partnership Architects, the firm that designed the building's renovation, and Susan Matheson, chief curator of the Yale Art Gallery, will be among the panelists.

A lecture titled "Louis I. Kahn and the Ruins of Rome" will be presented on Friday, Dec. 8, by renowned architectural historian Vincent Scully, the Sterling Professor Emeritus of the History of Art at Yale. His lecture will take place at 5:30 p.m. in the Robert J. McNeil, Jr. Lecture Hall.

At 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 9, Yale College graduate Paul Goldberger, architecture critic of The New Yorker, will deliver a lecture on "Yale and the Promise of the Modern." His lecture will take place in the Robert J. McNeil Jr., Lecture Hall.

The "Grand Reopening Day" on Sunday, Dec. 10, will begin with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the entrance to the Kahn building at 12:45 p.m.

During the rest of the day, the gallery will be open from 16 p.m. and will feature curators' presentations on the reinstallation of the individual collections. The following is a schedule of the curators' presentations, with the name and title of the curator.

1:30 p.m. -- Asian art, with David Sensabaugh, the Ruth and Bruce Dayton Curator of Asian Art;

2:30 p.m. -- Early European art, with Laurence Kanter, the Lionel Goldfrank III Curator of Early European Art;

3:30 p.m. -- African art, with Frederick John Lamp, the Frances and Benjamin Benenson Foundation Curator of African Art; and

4:30 p.m. -- Modern and contemporary art, with Jennifer Gross, the Seymour H. Knox Jr. Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.

All curators' presentations will take place in the Robert J. McNeil Jr. Lecture Hall.

Also on Sunday, there will be two screenings -- at 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. -- of the acclaimed autobiographical documentary "My Architect: A Son's Journey." The film, in which the director Nathaniel Kahn goes on an odyssey in search of his estranged late father, will take place in the Louis Kahn Lecture Hall of the Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St. The Yale University Art Gallery is the first of the architect's built projects, while the Yale Center for British Art, directly across the street from the gallery, is the last of Kahn's projects on which construction was begun in his lifetime.

Those wishing to attend any of the indoor events are advised to arrive early as seating is limited.

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