New AGO Expansion Opens

[Northern Exploration]

The Frank Gehry designed expansion to the Art Gallery of Ontario opens tomorrow. At 3pm a special citizenship ceremony is going to take place at the gallery. Once that is over and a couple brief speeches, the ribbon will be cut and the new citizens will be first of the general public to enter the gallery. Members have a black tie gala tonight.

The expansion was one of the 5 major cultural projects undertaken in the city in recent years. The others being the new Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts (Opera/Ballet); the Daniel Liebeskind designed and still controversial Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) addition; the Gardiner Museum of Ceramics; and the soon to open Royal Conservatory of Music addition.

The linch pin of the AGO expansion was the $70 million dollar donation of Ken Thompson's Canadian Collection of paintings and art. So lovers of the traditional Group of Seven, Krieghoff and other Canadian artists will be very happy. There is also a very large contemporary art addition.

All nice, but either boring or interesting to this forum depending on your attachment to art. But wait for it.... Thompson also donating a very large collection of model ships. A friend who is a senior person at the gallery tells me that this will be one of the most popular exhibits and a whole gallery is devoted to them. I will be going tomorrow for the openning so will let you know my impressions of the gallery as a whole but particularly whether the models ships exhibit meets up to its billing. So if lighting is ok and I can take non-flash pics I will grab some to post here. (not of the art but of the architecture)

* here is a book about to be published on the models but explains a bit about the collection.

www.paul-holberton.net/ship-models-in-the-thomson-collection-at-the-art-gallery-of-ontario,product,view,44,,,.html

[Scott]

When you get a chance, let us know what kind of ship models were there!

[Northern Exploration]

Sorry for not responding but I haven't uploaded the pictures from the gallery yet and was waiting for that. But since none were of the models due to photography rules in the gallery let me tell you what I saw.

The models date from the 1700's to around the 1940's. The most modern ships were a Liberty Ship and a very early aircraft carrier. The bulk were from the 1700's and 1800's.

Here is the commentary.

"The Thomson Collection of Ship Models spans some 350 years and contains examples of exquisite workmanship and some of the masterpieces of the genre. Foremost are rare late 17th and 18th century British dockyard models, made to scale for the Royal Navy and wealthy individuals. There is also a large number of models made by some of the 120,000 prisoners of the Napoleonic Wars. These models, made from wood and bone with rigging of silk and human hair, were produced by teams of skilled craftsmen and sold to local British collectors who gathered at the prison gates.

"The shipbuilders’ models extend from the mid 19th century to the Second World War, representing a diversity of both model style and ship type ranging from tugs, dredgers and trawlers to cargo vessels, passenger steamers, private yachts, corvettes, battleships, cruisers, torpedo boats, destroyers and two aircraft carriers."

The most amazing thing for me was the rigging on the sailing ships. The intricacy of the hand tied knots was amazing.

Here is the podcast of the ships and transcript of the commentary if anyone is really interested.

www.ago.net/thomson-ship-models-podcast/

I will post the pics later tonight or tomorrow of the few interior pics I could take and then the great views of the city from the staircase at the rear of the building.

[D'Elete BC in NJ]

Nov 18, 2008 19:28:20 GMT -8 Northern Exploration said:

Sorry for not responding but I haven't uploaded the pictures from the gallery yet and was waiting for that. But since none were of the models due to photography rules in the gallery let me tell you what I saw.

The models date from the 1700's to around the 1940's. The most modern ships were a Liberty Ship and a very early aircraft carrier. The bulk were from the 1700's and 1800's.

Here is the commentary.

"The Thomson Collection of Ship Models spans some 350 years and contains examples of exquisite workmanship and some of the masterpieces of the genre. Foremost are rare late 17th and 18th century British dockyard models, made to scale for the Royal Navy and wealthy individuals. There is also a large number of models made by some of the 120,000 prisoners of the Napoleonic Wars. These models, made from wood and bone with rigging of silk and human hair, were produced by teams of skilled craftsmen and sold to local British collectors who gathered at the prison gates.

"The shipbuilders’ models extend from the mid 19th century to the Second World War, representing a diversity of both model style and ship type ranging from tugs, dredgers and trawlers to cargo vessels, passenger steamers, private yachts, corvettes, battleships, cruisers, torpedo boats, destroyers and two aircraft carriers."

The most amazing thing for me was the rigging on the sailing ships. The intricacy of the hand tied knots was amazing.

Here is the podcast of the ships and transcript of the commentary if anyone is really interested.

www.ago.net/thomson-ship-models-podcast/

I will post the pics later tonight or tomorrow of the few interior pics I could take and then the great views of the city from the staircase at the rear of the building.

NE,
Do you still have the link I sent you with the links to the panoramic photos and other stories?

[Northern Exploration]

Nov 19, 2008 5:28:31 GMT -8 D'Elete BC in NJ said:

Nov 18, 2008 19:28:20 GMT -8 Northern Exploration said:

Sorry for not responding but I haven't uploaded the pictures from the gallery yet and was waiting for that. But since none were of the models due to photography rules in the gallery let me tell you what I saw.

The models date from the 1700's to around the 1940's. The most modern ships were a Liberty Ship and a very early aircraft carrier. The bulk were from the 1700's and 1800's.

Here is the commentary.

"The Thomson Collection of Ship Models spans some 350 years and contains examples of exquisite workmanship and some of the masterpieces of the genre. Foremost are rare late 17th and 18th century British dockyard models, made to scale for the Royal Navy and wealthy individuals. There is also a large number of models made by some of the 120,000 prisoners of the Napoleonic Wars. These models, made from wood and bone with rigging of silk and human hair, were produced by teams of skilled craftsmen and sold to local British collectors who gathered at the prison gates.

"The shipbuilders’ models extend from the mid 19th century to the Second World War, representing a diversity of both model style and ship type ranging from tugs, dredgers and trawlers to cargo vessels, passenger steamers, private yachts, corvettes, battleships, cruisers, torpedo boats, destroyers and two aircraft carriers."

The most amazing thing for me was the rigging on the sailing ships. The intricacy of the hand tied knots was amazing.

Here is the podcast of the ships and transcript of the commentary if anyone is really interested.

www.ago.net/thomson-ship-models-podcast/

I will post the pics later tonight or tomorrow of the few interior pics I could take and then the great views of the city from the staircase at the rear of the building.

NE,
Do you still have the link I sent you with the links to the panoramic photos and other stories?

You mean to the Toronto Star?

www.thestar.com/article/536567 The video is a good overview.

Oh sure steal my thunder and make my pics look like crap compared to a professional photographer . I left my camera at an office today so can`t post them tonight anyways .

[D'Elete BC in NJ]

Nov 19, 2008 19:32:49 GMT -8 Northern Exploration said:

Nov 19, 2008 5:28:31 GMT -8 D'Elete BC in NJ said:

NE,
Do you still have the link I sent you with the links to the panoramic photos and other stories?

You mean to the Toronto Star?

www.thestar.com/article/536567 The video is a good overview.

Oh sure steal my thunder and make my pics look like crap compared to a professional photographer . I left my camera at an office today so can`t post them tonight anyways .

Yeah, that's it. I wanted the link to the renovation photos: www.thestar.com/fpLarge/photo/532536

You can hide the other link so nobody has anything to compare your photos to now, if you want. ;D

[Northern Exploration]

Ok I give in. Here are a few of my pics that aren't shown in the above link to the Toronto Star pictures and reviews.

The curving glass facade of the gallery opening it up to the street. The second floor is the Corso Italia Gallery as pictured in The Star Article.




This is the spiral ramp at the reception area of the AGO. There are stairs on either side and as well in the middle of the spirals are three openings that look down into the galleries below.



Walker Court one of the older parts of the gallery now restored to the spiritual centre of the gallery and all the individual spaces now radiate outwards from here. The spiral theme continues here with the spiral staircase clad in wood from the second floor up to the Third Floor.




This is the Tannebaum Scupture Atrium connecting the oldest part of the gallery The Grange with the rest of the gallery.




A view of the downtown skyline. This is from the spiral staircase that cantilevers out over Grange Park, connecting the third to fifth floors of the Contemporary Galleries. Inside is the same wood trim with the exterior clad in titanium. The whole staircase has a curving glass window that gives an amazing view of the city. The CN Tower is in the centre of the picture.




A view of the bank towers from the staircase. The white building being the BMO 72 story First Canadian Place. The reflection in the glass is blurring the image a bit.




The white building is the OCAD (Ontario College of Art and Design) recent addition. It is called the tabletop building locally. Quite controversial when it was first built it has settled into the city quite nicely. As you can see the whole building is suspended on stilts as it were above the previous building.

There you have it - I have done my duty.