"A museum with a past prepares to embrace the future," Contra Coast Times, Oct. 09, 2005
The de Young Museum reopens in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park on Saturday with a 29-hour, open-all-night celebration marking the completion of the $202 million building and reclaiming the museum's stature in the art world. The sprawling, copper-clad structure doubles the museum's exhibit space, making room for a vast expansion of contemporary American art and historic works from the Americas, Africa and the Pacific Islands of Oceania. Some art will be familiar, such as American landscapes and portraits by Frederic Church, John Singleton Copley and Mary Cassatt. But nothing about the gleaming modern building recalls the cozy, rambling old museum, with its roots in the 19th century that introduced generations of Bay Area residents to art.
The building's striking design has been controversial from the start, especially the twisting, 144-foot tower that rises above the park's landscape. But this week's opening may soften that reaction: Visitors are treated to an astonishing view from the tower's observation level, which the museum staff expects to be the most popular attraction. Another bonus is a 400-car garage, underground between the museum and the park's Music Concourse. But it won't go far to handle the 50,000 visitors expected on opening weekend. The old de Young Museum, rebuilt and expanded several times in the 20th century, was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Because it was considered a seismic hazard, it lost out on major international exhibits. Two bond measures to pay for reconstruction failed to win the required majority in city elections, so the museum's board of directors decided to raise the money itself. The de Young closed in 2000 and was demolished in 2001. Some of its collection was squeezed into its sister museum, the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park.
The city's wealthy arts benefactors led the fund-raising campaign, but eventually nearly 7,000 people contributed $188 million to help pay for the new museum, designed by the Swiss-based team of Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. In the past, the de Young's collection was criticized for being slim, although the museum has gone on an acquisition spree during the past decade. "It was skimpy and unresolved and unclear," admits museum director Harry Parker, who has overseen reconstruction of the de Young and the Legion of Honor, which holds the city's European art collection. "The de Young is several kinds of museums at once, and normally you wouldn't think of putting them in the same institution, Parker says. "But what we do now is glory in the diverse collection rather than be puzzled by it." Parker says the architects' "daring concept" for the interior is paying off in the new, free-form configuration. "There are several points in the building where the collections meet," Parker explains. "What do you do in these spaces where they collide? When New Guinea runs into the Colonial United States, what do these collections have to do with each other?"
The de Young's curators have come up with canny ideas for transitions between cultures. In addition, there is a "Connections" gallery where artists rework the collection from a contemporary point of view. The new arrangement may be difficult to absorb at first, Parker says. "A lot of life is illogical, built on observation," he says. "Museums have tried awfully hard to be textbooks, but I think visitors resist being maneuvered into classifications. They're always cross-cutting." The diverse collections, and the way they fit together, creates a stimulating museum experience and a shared aesthetic that bridges cultures, he adds. "The very positive message is that art transcends individual differences," he says. "You just don't feel you're trapped in a textbook. It's a much more liberating experience." During the five years the de Young has been closed, its pool of visitors has drifted to other Bay Area museums -- including the downtown San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which can be jammed on weekends.
The de Young's size, its copper-sheathed architecture and controversial tower have kept it in the headlines during construction. Now museum leaders hope the art inside will be the newsmaker. Board president Diane Wilsey says the de Young may not match New York's Metropolitan Museum or Washington's National Gallery, but it will be the finest museum on the West Coast. One public radio commentator said the de Young is now the greatest museum in the West, with the possible exception of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Parker lost no time in responding: "What has L.A. got that we haven't got?"
de Young Museum
