Kimbell Art Museum

By Nevine El-Aref

---

THE KIMBELL Art Museum in Fort Worth, known as America's best small museum, was founded in 1930s when Mr and Mrs Kay Kimbell (successful entrepreneurs in the grain business, retailing, real estate and petroleum) purchased their first watercolour paintings. In collaboration with other members of the family and close associates, the Kimbell Art Foundation was established and later became the core of the new museum. After Kimbell's death in 1964, his art collection and his entire personal fortune were bequeathed to the foundation in order to establish and maintain a public art museum in Fort Worth. Shortly thereafter, his wife contributed her share of property to facilitate the full implementation of her husband's wishes.

Since its official opening in 1972, the museum has won acclaim for its classic modern architecture designed by American architect Louis Kahn. Kahn built a museum with "the luminosity of silver", forming narrow slits to the sky which he described as skylights admitting natural light. Pierced metal reflectors beneath them disperse the light below. The museum houses important collections of Egyptian, Near Eastern, Greek and Roman antiquities, as well as Asian, Meso-American and African arts as well as 20th century masterpieces ranging from the works of Fra Angelico and Caravaggio to Cézanne and Matisse.