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A Cool, Well-Lit Place: KC's Bloch Building

Posted 08/18/2007 by Jim, photo courtesy of fubganger on flickr

“Feather and Stone” is how the folks at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art are describing their new and expanded artistic establishment. The part that was there before—the main, spookily-lit, Indiana-limestone-plus-glossy-veneer Nelson-Atkins building with its gargantuan pillars and ancient-to-medieval galleries—is the “stone.”

Steven Holl, the world-renowned architect and Columbia professor, designed the “feather”: the long sleeve of wood, glass, light and white walls that is the new Bloch building, on which hang mostly the modern and dynamic works of the likes of Pollock, Rauschenberg, Warhol and de Kooning, some pre-modern, non-European Sub-Saharan artifacts, and lots of photographs.

But as clever as the Nelson’s little metaphor sounds, let’s indulge them a bit by clearing our throats, pulling out a few words we haven’t used since we typed our undergraduate thesis, and pointing out the obvious: the contrast is really between Tradition and Modernity (or is it Post-Modernity?), between History and Nature. Let’s call it, between the Regular World and the Future.

The Regular World building opts for straight floors that run parallel to the earth itself, on which you can stand comfortably and perpendicularly to the ground. The new Bloch Building of the Future prefers smooth, white inclined planes and spacious corridors that slide up and down and that require a little bit of effort on the way up. They are always well lit, and sometimes feature rubber grading to create a little friction for the feet and to prevent the over-anxious art lover from breaking his nose on the hard floor as he runs a little bit too quickly towards his favorite gallery at the end of the hall.

Holl says in this interview that he wanted to create “fluttering tees,” which “catch north light, and mix it with the south light.” We’re not sure what he means by that, apart from the fact that the place is very bright—much more bright than the Regular World—and that the luminosity, combined with the rollercoaster of inclined plans, produced a nostalgic fit in which we thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool to ride a skateboard here!”

If you enter the building, as we did, through the old building in the Real World, you are immediately confronted with a choice (so very existentialist): you must choose either right or left. You are at the top of a sort of mound, and the planes slide down either south or north. To the south (that is, your left) you can check in your coat, and you can purchase a souvenir, and you can go to the bathroom; to your right is most of the art. Actually, there is a third choice: the coffee shop on the second floor. But we’ll get to that later.

 

Naturally, we slide to the right, and head towards the art. Our first stop are the Kansas City and Nermen galleries, which feature the aforementioned classics: the moderns Kandinsky and Pollock, and the pop artists Rauschenberg and Warhol. These are something like the Founding Fathers of modern art in America, and it’s only fitting that they are among the first works to make the trip out of the old building and into the Bloch. Strolling among these and the other modern works, and it became clear to us that Steven Holl is a genius: the very environment—the inclines and “north and south” lights—are much more hospitable to the loud, bright art of these moderns. The Bloch is a good home for them.

 

It is also a good home for what we saw as we ventured a little bit further down, towards the Sub-Saharan exhibition. On display are the types of the African masks that inspired Picasso to paint his first great Cubist masterpiece, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. It is only fitting that in a new, modern museum, which houses people like Kandinsky, you also have the pre-modern, non-European works that inspired them.

 

Following on this modern thread you also have a modern genre: photography. The Bloch Building of the Future also dedicates a portion of its space to the art of photography, with the current exhibition devoted to the works of the American photographer Harry Callahan.

 

The end of the southern wing of the Bloch building contains two rooms for featured (that is, you have to pay extra) exhibitions, currently on “Developing Greatness: The Origins of American Photography 1839-1885” and “Manet to Matisse.” On the way back north, we almost tripped on Kiki Smith’s installation work titled “Constellation,” a collection of crystal figurines sitting on an aqua-green mat on the floor of the museum. We spent some time on it but it we quickly made our way to the Café, for reflection and caffeination.

 

The Café sits on the Plaza Level, on floor above everything we’ve just described, which is found on the Lobby Level. It has a hip, Starbucks-esque feel, and apart from coffee, offers to its patrons a choice of pinoit grigio and pinot noir, along with exotic energy drinks that we hadn’t heard of before. There are simple, metallic tables and chairs to eat on (efficiency and metal are the chic of the future) and the place is bright and spacious.

 

Sitting there, we couldn’t help gushing at just how cool this place is, in both senses of the word. We couldn’t do without the old Real World building, with its Caravaggios and Rodins; there is something in it that must never be lost. But the new building appeals to a sense within us that we share with those crazy bastards Pollock and Rauschenberg and which is also very American: the partial preference for a world that is cleaner, faster, and less stuffy.

 

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, along with the new Bloch Building, is found in 4525 Oak Street.  Parking is $5. For more information call 816-751-1208.

 

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