Crystal Bridges colors help engage the artwork

Editor’s note: This is the third story about the opening of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville. The City Wire will in the next few weeks post several stories about the museum, the art and the artists. Link here for the first story in the series, and link here for a story on art connections of Crystal Bridges.

story by Ken Kupchick, special to The City Wire

Alice Walton recounts her love of art back to one of her earliest childhood memories.

At the age of 10, the young Alice “invested” in a Picasso. It was merely a Picasso poster that she fell in love with at her father’s Ben Franklin 5&10. It was a reproduction of “Blue Nude.”

The museum is making sure that the young and the inexperienced remain engaged in the artwork by painting the various galleries in both cool and warm color schemes found in the Picasso work long-ago admired by the young Alice.

“We chose color scheme to provide an appropriateness to scale,” said Matthew Dawson, deputy director of Art and Education at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville.

Crystal Bridges opened to the public Nov. 11. The more than $50 million art museum is funded primarily by Alice Walton, daughter of Wal-Mart Stores founders Helen and Sam Walton. It is estimated that 250,000 people a year with visit the museum.

“My spaces are more historical, while other spaces are more formally presented in terms of how things look and relate to each other by their composition,” said Kevin Murphy, curator of American Art at the museum. “Both are very valid. And so you will really be able to see different kinds of hangs.”

Dawson said the smaller framed paintings, particularly from the 18th and 19th centuries needed a cooler neutral palette. The larger works, particularly in their elaborate gilded frames, could go bigger in color.

It’s also not surprising that the color schemes in the greens, blues, soft reds, browns and grays reflect the natural colors surrounding the museum. (See color image below.)

“You may recall that some of the galleries have two colors, a lower color at eye level and a darker color above twelve feet,” Dawson noted.

He explained that the two colors help scale the focus back to the height of the hanging of the work and allows the curving arched white pine beams an opportunity to glow.

“The colors were chosen by our internal installation design team,” Dawson said.

Each team member, according to Dawson, has an extensive and intimate relationship with many museums throughout the world. He said the team conducted an extensive design process that “first involved comparing notes and ideas regarding paint colors that team member experienced in past museum projects and then eventually vetting preliminary choices by using painting larger samples until the final choices were decided.”

Murphy said the curatorial staff of three plus an assistant have been wonderful and supportive in collaborating on the presentation of the artwork.

“The way it shook out, we discussed how we are going to do it. Our interests don’t overlap, so we are each given over a space or a couple of spaces to call our own,” Murphy said.

Dawson concurred.

“We are very happy with the results.”