ST. LOUIS — The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum on the campus of Washington University will reopen Sept. 28 after a major renovation and expansion that increases its display space by nearly 50 percent and includes a new 34-foot-tall polished stainless steel facade.
Suspended above a new glass-lined lobby is a new installation by artist Tomas Saraceno of a network of iridescent modules and interconnected ropes.
A new 2,700-foot gallery with double-height walls will showcase postwar and contemporary art, while the reconfigured Gertrude Bernoudy Gallery will feature major 19th- and early 20th-century European and American works.
Other renovations include a first-floor coffee bar and a suite of new galleries on the lower level, which will include the museum’s first permanent space devoted to video art and a gallery for seldom-seen historic objects from the museum’s collection.
The reinstalled Florence Steinberg Weil Sculpture Garden, with works by sculptors such as Auguste Rodin and Alexander Calder, will extend the museum’s reach into the surrounding, park-like setting.
