Kimbell Art Museum
Louis Kahn's vaulted galleries in Fort Worth, holding a small but wide-ranging collection of world art.
Kay and Velma Kimbell left their collection and their fortune to found a museum, and in 1966 the trustees chose Louis Kahn to design it. The building that opened in 1972 is a row of cycloid concrete vaults lit through a narrow slit at each apex, where a perforated reflector spreads daylight across the curve. Travertine, concrete and white oak are used throughout, and the galleries are broken by three small courtyards. It is widely regarded as one of the finest museum buildings anywhere.
The collection is deliberately small and chosen for quality. It runs from antiquity to the twentieth century and includes Michelangelo's earliest known painting, works by Fra Angelico, Caravaggio, Velázquez, Poussin, Monet, Cézanne, Matisse and Picasso, along with Egyptian and classical antiquities and art from Asia, Africa and the ancient Americas. A second building by Renzo Piano opened across the lawn in 2013, adding exhibition galleries, an auditorium and an education wing.
Highlights
- Kahn's cycloid vaults and silver reflected daylight
- Michelangelo's The Torment of Saint Anthony
- Free access to the permanent collection
- Renzo Piano Pavilion facing the Kahn building
