Designed by Steven Holl Architects, the third gallery building on the MFAH Susan and Fayez S. Sarofim Campus, the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building will open to the public on Saturday, November 21, 2020. Dedicated to the Museum’s international collections of modern and contemporary art, the newest addition will exhibit a wide range of works, ranging from painting and sculpture to craft and design, video, and immersive installations.
Originally scheduled to open on November 1, the inauguration date was adjusted due to the effects of the pandemic, and recent hurricane preparations, on final construction work. The new Nancy and Rich Kinder Building “will open with the first comprehensive installation, drawn from the collections of Latin American and Latino art; photography; prints and drawings; decorative arts, craft, and design; and modern and contemporary art”. Containing both departmental and cross-departmental galleries, the building allows visitors to delve into modern and contemporary art and to explore the ways in which varied artistic ideas, styles, and themes have transcended boundaries.
In the dynamic spaces that Steven Holl Architects has designed for the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building, our distinctive holdings of modern and contemporary art will soon have the showcase they deserve. This area of our collection continues to grow rapidly, thanks to the exceptional endowment for acquisitions provided by our donors, with the late Caroline Wiess Law at the forefront. We are thrilled that we can now present recent purchases and our historic acquisitions in-depth and breadth, bringing our audiences a wealth of recognized masterpieces as well as discoveries by lesser-known artists. -- Gary Tinterow
The latest intervention stands in complementary contrast to the Museum’s existing gallery buildings, such as the Caroline Wiess Law Building designed in the 1920s by William Ward Watkin, with later extensions by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe; and the Audrey Jones Beck Building designed by Rafael Moneo in 2000. It also converses with the adjacent 1986 Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden, designed by Isamu Noguchi. Within its surroundings, the Kinder Building adds a horizontal architecture in translucent curved glass.
Characterized by porosity, “seven gardens slice the perimeter, marking points of entry and punctuating the elevations”. The Kinder Building’s central entry, holding the largest garden court, is located at the corner of Bissonnet and Main Street. An active social space, the ground floor includes a fine restaurant opening up to the Cullen Sculpture Garden, a café to Bissonnet, and galleries to the street. Organized horizontally on two levels, all galleries are centered around an open forum, with natural light and flexible space. Moreover, the central gallery forum provides generous spaces for the exhibition of art and vertical circulation to the upper floors.
