Billionaire industrialist Mitchell Rales and art historian and curator Emily Wei Rales have revealed a $200 million expansion to their Glenstone Museum in Maryland.
The Glenstone expansion adds new pavilions to the museum. 11 interlocking rooms are arranged around a water feature.
The collection features works by Giacometti, Calder, Pollock and Benglis.
The new pavilions add 50,000 square feet of exhibition space to Glenstone’s existing building, which was constructed in 2006.
Artsy reports that Mitchell Rales said: “Abstract Expressionism is over for us,” said Rales. “We did that in the ’90s….It’s unaffordable to go to art auctions and buy Warhol or Richter or Basquiat today. But fortunately, we got to these artists a very long time ago, so we’re working on things today that really aren’t at the auction houses.
“We go with our own taste and understanding, and wait 20 years to find out if we’ve been on the right track.
“Most of the things we are doing today are in the ’80s and ’90s, and living artists that are creating new work. I wouldn’t want to talk about who it is that is front and center for us today, because we don’t want to move the markets per se….We quietly go about our business.”
Emily Wei Rales encouraged visitors to take their time in appreciating the collection – calling this approach “slow art”.
She said: “We hope that you will slow down, that your pulse will also slow down, you’ll start to become aware of your breath and the changing light levels in a gallery.”
Glenstone’s visitor numbers were fewer than 10,000 in its first seven years but it is hoped to increase to around 100,000 annually following the re-opening.
Glenstone includes a 204,000-square-foot museum building called the Pavilions as well as 130 acres of rolling meadows, woodlands, and streams.
The museum will reopen to the public on October 4.
Images courtesy Glenstone Museum
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-inside-200-million-expansion-americas-new-must-see-museum
