Opened in 1997 on the bank of the Nervión River, Frank Gehry's museum of modern and contemporary art transformed the city of Bilbao. The Basque Government funded it as part of an effort to revive the city's run-down former port.
Gehry wrapped the galleries in sweeping, curving forms of stone, glass and titanium, the thin metal plates laid like scales that shimmer in the changing light. The critic Calvin Tomkins called it "a fantastic dream ship of undulating form in a cloak of titanium." Inside, the long Arcelor Gallery holds Richard Serra's monumental steel sculptures.
The museum drew visitors from around the world almost at once, and its effect on the city became known as the Bilbao effect. In a 2010 survey of architecture experts, it was the building most often named among the most important works completed since 1980.
Comments