Those who have seen the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, agree that there is no greater magnet than that experience. No building could be more powerful, says Matthew Teitelbaum, CEO and director of the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).
Matthew Teitelbaum [Sean Weaver photo. © Art Gallery of Ontario]
The lure of the structures designed by Los Angeles-based architect Frank Gehry was one of the reasons the AGO were delighted when Gehry agreed to design its $276-million expansion project, he said.
“Walking through the DG Bank in Berlin and understanding how Frank essentially took the limitations of the exterior form and created an interior, was truly magical,” he said.
Gehry, an iconic architect who grew up in Toronto, was a likely choice for the AGO project.
It took two years of planning with Gehry’s team in Los Angeles and Toronto – looking at buildings they liked, program needs to make sure the focus would be on the art, and Gehry’s vision of the interior, before they discussed what the exterior would look like, Teitelbaum said.
“The whole sense of building something in an environment that is meaningful to you is of itself interesting, but I would say, first and foremost, we were attracted to Frank because of his understanding of what it meant to present art in a building, in a space, how you create spaces for the experience of art,” he said.
Their plan was threefold: to create a building with clear pathways giving easy access to art; to celebrate transparency by making what the museum does behind the scenes visible; and to celebrate the gallery’s position in the centre of the city.
“In the end, the mantra really was about the experience of art – how to create a building that enhances the experience of works of art, like Frank’s use of natural light, the way you move through space and Frank’s response by putting glass on the front and the back, reminding people where they are,” Teitelbaum said.
Gehry’s sculptured front, called the Gallery Italia, extends out to Dundas Street, making the visitor feel there is an intimate link between the AGO and the smaller buildings across the street.
In contrast, on the south side of the building, there is a glassed-in contemporary tower that provides a vista of the city.
“In the new building, there will also be some surprises – works of art that we owned but haven’t been seen by the public. But what I think will be most extraordinary is the art that has come to us as gifts, or in some cases, selected purchases since Transformation AGO began,” Teitelbaum said. “When you add it up, 40 per cent of the art that will be on view was not at the art gallery before, so it’ll be quite a different experience.”
The gifts the gallery has received include the late Ken Thomson’s $300-million art collection, the Frum collection of African art, Inuit art donated by Esther and Samuel Sarrick and collections of extraordinary photography.
“We’ve created the AGO for everybody,” Teitelbaum said. “We want it to be a place where people feel comfortable, a place that helps define who they are. I hope people will experience the sense of welcome, that they belong here and when they’re here they have a real sense of engagement with art of the highest quality, but also with art that activates something in their own thinking, a place that sparks their own creativity.
“If people were to stop me on the street and tell me that, in a year’s time or six month’s time, the art gallery was doing that for them, I’d feel it was all worth it.”
The new AGO opens Nov. 14. Admission will be free until Nov. 16.
