Kimbell Art Museum

Kahn’s art museum consists of long concrete vaults with a narrow slit of light running along the crown. Beneath the slit hangs a reflector of perforated aluminium that spreads a silvery daylight over the art. The museum is one of the 20th century’s most beautiful rooms for looking at paintings.

Kay and Velma Kimbell had collected art and left their fortune to a foundation for a museum. The museum’s director Richard Fargo Brown engaged Louis Kahn in 1966 and wanted light to be the most important element. The museum was built in 1969–1972 in Fort Worth’s cultural district.

The building consists of sixteen parallel concrete vaults, 30 metres long. The vaults have a cycloid form, a curve that provides support and at the same time an evenly distributed light. Along the crown of each vault runs a narrow glazed slit, and beneath it hangs a reflector of perforated aluminium that spreads the light up onto the underside of the vault. The walls are of travertine and concrete, and the floors of oak. Three of the vaults at the entrance are open porches. Courtyards cut into the plan and provide light and views.

The museum has become a model for how daylight can be used in museums. In 2013 a new pavilion by Renzo Piano, who had once worked for Kahn, was inaugurated. The Kimbell Art Museum is regarded as one of Kahn’s most perfect works and one of the best-loved museums in the United States among both artists and architects.

• Post-war modernism
• Louis Kahn