Modern Art, Ft. Worth

Fort Worth’s Modern Art Museum is simply splendid. Chartered in 1892 as the Fort Worth Public Library and Art Gallery, it is the oldest art museum in Texas and one of the oldest in the western United States. A new home for the Museum, designed by architect Tadao Ando, opened in 2002. It is located in Fort Worth’s Cultural District, opposite the Kimbell Art Museum, designed by Louis I. Kahn, and near the Amon Carter Museum, designed by Philip Johnson. Ando’s design is comprised of five pavilions with 53,000 square feet of gallery space situated on a 1.5 acre pond.

In these Texas-sized spaces the gifted curator Michael Auping shows off the treasures of the permanent collection to full advantage. The museum had the perfect space to display Ladder for Booker T. Washington by Asnelm Kiefer. Later this work came to the National Gallery of Art in Washington and I eagerly went to see it. But it seemed rather forlorn in a space occupied by too many other pieces. Still, I have always been on the look-out for Kiefer and have seen other thought-provoking examples of his work at the Norton in West Palm Beach.

The Modern also hosts short-term “Focus” exhibitions of works by up-an-coming artists. My friend Linda belongs to “Reel People,” a group of film buffs who gather there. My friend Susan is a well-trained and enthusiastic docent. It was wonderful to experience the Modern with them on April 26 and have a long lunch at the divine Cafe Modern.