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Building

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Amon Carter Museum of American Art, main entry hall, constructed 1961
Shellstone used to clad the exterior of the 1961 building and portions of the museum's present-day interior

Architect Philip C. Johnson (1906–2005) maintained a forty-year association with the Amon Carter Museum of American Art as the designer of the institution’s original building and two major expansions. The Amon G. Carter Foundation first commissioned Johnson in 1958 to devise a museum building that would showcase a core collection of western art and also serve as a memorial to the museum’s founder.[1] At the time Johnson won this commission he was also overseeing construction of the new Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute Museum of Art in Utica, New York.[2] Johnson found the Carter museum project particularly inspiring because of the spectacular view from the proposed museum’s building site on a gently sloping hillside overlooking downtown Fort Worth.[3] Amon G. Carter, Sr. had personally chosen the site in 1951.[4] Johnson placed the museum building as far up the hillside as possible in order to maximize this panoramic view to the east.[5]

Johnson designed a two-story portico with five arches that faced east toward the city’s skyline. The arches and their tapered support columns were clad in creamy Texas shellstone. The remaining three sides of the 20,000-square-foot building were also covered with shellstone cladding. Sheltered by the arched portico, the museum's front wall consisted of a two-story curtain of glass windows with bronze mullions.[4] The main entrance lead directly into a two-story hall adorned with the same type of shellstone used on the exterior, teak wall coverings, and a floor of pink and gray granite. Beyond the main hall were five small galleries of equal size for the display of art. On the mezzanine level were five similar galleries, each with a balcony that overlooked the main hall. These mezzanine galleries served as library and office spaces.[4] To take advantage of the expanse between the two-story portico and the site’s eastern boundary, Johnson designed a series of broad steps and terraces extending away from the building, with an expansive sunken, grassy plaza as the centerpiece, pointing toward the city’s center.[6]

The museum and grounds opened to the public on January 21, 1961, as the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art. Reaction by critics to Philip Johnson's design was generally favorable. In a March 1961 article, "Portico on a Plaza," the Architectural Forum called it "an exceedingly handsome building -- beautifully situated and beautifully illuminated."[7] Russell Lynes, writing in the May 1961 Harper's, summed up his reaction by calling it "Mr. Johnson's jewel box." [8]

Although the museum was conceived as a small memorial institution, it almost immediately became a collecting museum, and the space afforded by the existing facility quickly became inadequate.[9] In 1964, three years after the museum first opened, a 14,250-square-foot addition was completed on the west side of the original building to provide room for offices, a bookstore, a research library, and an art-storage vault.[4] Joseph R. Pelich (1894-1968) of Fort Worth, an associate architect of the original building, carried out the work after Philip Johnson expressed little interest in taking on the project.[10]

The museum opened a second major addition, this one designed by Philip Johnson and his partner, John Burgee, in 1977. The 1977 addition, which left the 1961 building and 1964 addition intact, expanded the museum's area by 36,600 square feet, more than doubling its original size.[4] The expansion, which included a three-story section, enclosed the triangular space at the far western end of the building site, thus bringing the physical plant to its western-most limit.[10] Johnson’s 1977 addition created an administrative wing, a 105-seat auditorium, a two-story storage vault, a spacious library, and two interior grassed courts that insulated occupants of the library and administrative offices from heavy traffic passing nearby.

Amon Carter Museum of American Art, central atrium (the Lantern), constructed 2001

On November 17, 1998, museum trustees announced plans to expand the museum yet again. Museum personnel had been in discussion with Philip Johnson for some time regarding the need to alter Johnson’s 1977 addition.[9] Johnson’s solution was to demolish both the 1964 and 1977 additions and create a new, much larger structure behind the 1961 building. Philip Johnson spearheaded the new design in collaboration with his partner Alan Ritchie. It would be one of the last projects on which Johnson worked.[9] In August 1999 the museum was closed to the public for an extended period while the 1961 building was refurbished, the 1964 and 1977 additions were removed, and the new addition constructed.

The current museum building reopened to the public on October 21, 2001. The 2001 expansion, which increased the museum’s available space by 50,000 square feet, rests on the same footprint as the earlier additions.[9] It is clad in dark Arabian granite so as to recede visually from the light-colored shellstone of the 1961 building.[9] The expansion’s most arresting feature is a centrally located atrium, rising fifty-five feet above the floor and topped by a curved roof with side windows, referred to as the Lantern.[9] The atrium’s interior walls are clad in the signature shellstone. A double stairway gives access from the atrium to a complex of second-floor galleries where selections from the museum’s permanent collection, along with special exhibitions, are on display.[9] In this new alignment, most of the galleries in the 1961 building, including the mezzanine area where the library and offices were once located, are used for rotating exhibitions of paintings and sculpture by Remington and Russell from Amon G. Carter’s original collection.

Other features of Philip Johnson’s 2001 expansion include a 160-seat auditorium, complete with distance-learning technology; climate-controlled vaults for both cool and cold photography storage; laboratory space for the conservation of photographs and works on paper; a research library and archives storage facility; and a museum bookstore.[11]

In the summer of 2019, the museum building was closed for a renovation of the building and the galleries. The Boston-based architecture firm Schwartz/Silver Architects oversaw the renovations; unlike the previous redesigns, there was little alteration to the museum building's structure. Instead, the museum redesigned parts of the interior arranging its collection display thematically rather than chronologically. The renovation expanded the display area by the installation of movable, modular walls. The gallery spaces, which had previously been carpeted, were replaced with American white oak hardwood floors. Following Johnson's original vision for expansive natural lighting, new LED and skylights were installed in the galleries.[12] The installation of an automatic shading system enabled the display of artworks in the lobby. [13] The Texas sculptor James Surls's Seven and Seven Flower and Justin Favela's Puente Nuevo were among the first large scale artworks displayed in the museum building's lobby and downstairs hallway as part of the interior redesign.

The 2019 renovations received positive feedback from the local press. James Russell praised the redesigned galleries in the Fort Worth Weekly, noting that they created "an atmosphere for exploration." [14] Dallas Morning News architecture critic, Mark Lamster lamented that the redesign upended the original design's " juxtaposition of the grand formal entry with . . . those more intimate galleries," but overall considered the renovated galleries "a big improvement."[15]

In addition to the redesigned galleries, facilities were created for a Gentling Study Center dedicated to the artwork of Fort Worth brothers, Stuart W. and Scott G. Gentling. The creation of the Gentling Library and Study Center complements the Amon Carter Museum's planned exhibitions and publications on the Gentling brothers.[16] The Gentling Library's interior design mirrors the teak wall coverings and mid-century furniture that characterize Johnson's original design. Architecture critic Mark Lamster singled out the Gentling Library for its "pleasingly midcentury gestalt." [15]

  1. ^ Murray, Mary; et al. (2010). Look for Beauty: Philip Johnson and Art Museum Design. Utica, New York: Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-915895-37-3.
  2. ^ Murray, Mary; et al. (2010). Look for Beauty: Philip Johnson and Art Museum Design. Utica, New York: Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. pp. 7–16. ISBN 978-0-915895-37-3.
  3. ^ Wright, George (1997). Monument for a City: Philip Johnson's Design for the Amon Carter Museum. Fort Worth: Amon Carter Museum. p. 5. ISBN 0-88360-088-9.
  4. ^ a b c d e Martin, Carter (1996). 150 Years of American Art: Amon Carter Museum Collection. Fort Worth: Amon Carter Museum. p. 5. ISBN 0-88360-087-0.
  5. ^ Wright, George (1997). Monument for a City: Philip Johnson's Design for the Amon Carter Museum. Fort Worth: Amon Carter Museum. p. 8. ISBN 0-88360-088-9.
  6. ^ Junker, Patricia; et al. (2001). An American Collection: Works from the Amon Carter Museum. New York: Hudson Hill Press in association with the Amon Carter Museum. p. 14. ISBN 1-55595-198-8.
  7. ^ "Portico on a Plaza". Architectural Forum. March 1961. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  8. ^ "Everything's Up to Date in Texas...But Me". Harper's. May 1961. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Murray, Mary; et al. (2010). Look for Beauty: Philip Johnson and Art Museum Design. Utica, New York: Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-915895-37-3.
  10. ^ a b Wright, George (1997). Monument for a City: Philip Johnson's Design for the Amon Carter Museum. Fort Worth: Amon Carter Museum. p. 16. ISBN 0-88360-088-9.
  11. ^ Junker Patricia; et al. (2001). An American Collection: Works from the Amon Carter Museum. New York: Hudson Hills Press in association with the Amon Carter Museum. p. 18. ISBN 1-55595-198-8.
  12. ^ Maxwell, Clayton (December 2019). "Fort Worth Art Steps Into the Future". Texas Monthly. 47: 54–60.
  13. ^ Hallock, Jeremy (September 11, 2001). ""After closing for the summer, the renovated Amon Carter Museum reopens with new exhibits"". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
  14. ^ Russell, James (September 11, 2019). "Amon Carter's Facelift". Fort Worth Weekly. Retrieved November 21, 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  15. ^ a b ""Fort Worth's Amon Carter museum gets a face-lift, an architecture critic and art critic respond"". Dallas Morning News. October 10, 2019. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
  16. ^ "Amon Carter Museum of American Art Establishes Gentling Study Center". Amon Carter Museum of American Art. August 7, 2019. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
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