Word: museum
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...wing of Madrid's Prado museum is humming with activity as curators prepare for its Oct. 31 opening. Above ground, in galleries built around architect Rafael Moneo's translucent, lantern-shaped patio, epic-sized historical paintings from the museum's rarely displayed 19th century collection rest against the walls, waiting to be fitted into their frames. Below ground, white-gloved workers are laboriously transferring the 3,000 works currently in storage to a new, climate-controlled archive system. And in the Room of Muses, a lone conservator painstakingly cleans a sculpture of Erato, the Greek muse of lyric poetry...
...Prado approaches its 188th birthday, its $215 million expansion - one element of a plan that has seen the renovation of Madrid's three major art museums - reaffirms the city's importance as a European arts capital. And, not incidentally, it makes the museum friendlier to the more than 2 million tourists who pass through its doors each year. "The relationship between museums and society has changed," says Miguel Zugaza, the Prado's director. "Before, museums were the preserve of the few, but now they're massively attended. We had to change to match that." By adding a new entrance...
...this expansion is much more than just an excuse to sell more tickets and Goya posters. Moneo's design serves the museum's collections rather than overwhelming them. "We chose him because, in addition to being a great Spanish architect, he is humble," says Zugaza. "He knew how to work harmoniously with the neoclassical architecture of the original." The new wing was never intended to bear the bold signature of a Pei pyramid or a Gehry curve; it manages instead to be quietly beautiful. An exquisitely crafted foyer of cedar, textured granite and brushed bronze is lined on one side...
...four new painting galleries will be used solely for temporary exhibits. The first of these, "The Prado's 19th Century Masters," which opens to the public on Oct. 31 and runs through April 2008, gives the museum a good opportunity to reveal another of its closely kept secrets: it holds important paintings created after 1828, the year of Goya's death, which has until now marked the chronological endpoint of its permanent collection. This exhibition of over 100 works opens with portraits from Goya's age - including one by him of a voluptuous Marquesa de Santa Cruz, and another...
...exhibition closes, many of its works will find their way onto the walls of the Prado's original Villanueva building; now that the main galleries no longer have to house traveling shows, there's more room to show works that have tended to languish in storage. "In 1819, the museum had a gallery of contemporary drawings where Goya's work was on display," says Zugaza. "The museum's founders thought that the collection would keep extending, but our chronic problem with insufficient space prevented that. Now, we have the opportunity to stretch to our full range." The new Prado...