Glenstone Museum On the Commitment of a Collecting Couple
In 2006 Emily and Mitchell Rales opened a private museum in Potomac, about 25 kilometers from Washington DC, presenting their collection of modern and contemporary art to the public. Last October, the opening of an extension of more than 12,000 square meters began a new chapter for this extraordinary place that is freely accessible to all visitors.
This duo usually opts for discretion. But when the time came to consider an extension of their museum in Potomac, the Rales have shifted to a panoramic scale. Unaccustomed to impulse buying, the couple moves forward very carefully, considering all aspects of an artist before deciding to acquire work. Roni Horn, Louise Bourgeois and Rosemarie Trockel have joined their collection. “We have set one rule for ourselves: to buy a work only if the artist has at least fifteen years of career behind them,” says Emily Rales. “Before any acquisition, we study the evolution of the artist over the last several years.” The collection, begun in 1990, focused at first on Abstract Expressionism, with works by Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning. Then, from 2005 on, the idea of opening a museum made the collection evolve, especially by branching out into video and film. Today it has nearly 1,300 works. Carefully thought out, the addition – composed of eleven pavilions –should generate an increase in the number of visitors, from 25,000 to 100,000. Located in a huge park of almost 90 hectares developed by Adam Greenspan and Peter Walker of PWP Landscape Architecture, the building is in tune with nature, meeting strict ecological criteria. The outdoor spaces are home to works by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Ellsworth Kelly and Richard Serra, while the pavilions present pieces by On Kawara, Martin Puryear, Michael Heizer, Pipilotti Rist, Lygia Pape, Brice Marden and Cy Twombly.
Louise Bourgeois, Robert Gober, Michael Heizer, Roni Horn, Brice Marden, On Kawara, Lygia Pape, Martin Puryear, Charles Ray, Pipilotti Rist, Cy Twombly, Lawrence Weiner.
Glenstone Museum, Potomac, MD.