Architect Rafael Vinoly lets art be the star in his Cleveland Museum of Art expansion

Art ‘in its own glory’ in bigger Cleveland museum

CLEVELAND — Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Rodin and other masters are the stars of the biggest expansion in the history of the Cleveland Museum of Art, and that suits architect Rafael Vinoly just fine.

“When you feel that you are looking at the art and that the building accompanies the art — as opposed to opposes it or challenging it — I think I feel happy with that,” Vinoly said.

The first of the museum’s new galleries opens June 27, part of an eight-year, $335 million renovation that will increase the museum’s size by 50 percent by 2013.

Vinoly, whose credits include convention centers in Pittsburgh and Boston, Philadelphia’s major performing arts center and the glass-walled Tokyo International Forum conference center, recently got his first look at art installed in his galleries.

“It was the first time, I must say, that I actually saw the collection in its own glory,” Vinoly said in a telephone interview.

The expansion sits alongside the museum’s 1916 Beaux-Arts building and the fortress-like Marcel Breuer-designed 1971 building. Vinoly said his challenge was to try to relate the two very different landmarks.

The collection made Vinoly’s first decision an easy one: There was no need for an eye-catching addition.

“If you have nothing to show (in a museum), you make a splash with a building. But if you have something to show, the last thing you should do is to make the scene of the collection being compromised by the architecture,” he said.

Vinoly’s design will include three wings and a soaring glass atrium linking the buildings. The opening of the first wing, striped marble and granite with a glass-box gallery, will mark the return to public view of 19th century European art, modern and contemporary art and photographs in storage since 2005.

Timothy Rub, museum director, sensed that CMA was trying to squeeze too many objects into tight spaces and hurting the museum experience in the process.

Besides more elbow room for current exhibits, the extra space will allow the museum to show off more of its collection.

Other U.S. museums are doing the same. A study released in April by the Association of Art Museum Directors said 70 percent of those surveyed plan to feature more of their permanent collection in future exhibitions.

The Cleveland project comes amid a recession and slowing of museum expansions across the country, according to the association. Its survey showed 25 percent moving ahead with expansions, down from 40 percent last year, and 10 percent putting expansions on hold, compared with none deferred last year.

Adrian Parr, who teaches in the architecture school at the University of Cincinnati, likes the way the Vinoly galleries connect with existing museum buildings.

“I think he’s being sensitive to those two buildings, and what I mean by that is I don’t see him as an architect with a huge ego,” she said. “He doesn’t need to come in and sort of produce a landmark iconic building in that sense.”

But there’s always the art. “I think a lot of people are really looking forward to seeing some old friends,” Rub said.

On the Net:

Cleveland Museum of Art: www.clemusart.com

Rafael Vinoly: www.rvapc.com