Boldly rising from the heart of downtown Aspen with a façade that pays homage to the ski town’s natural lifestyle and majestic mountain backdrop, the newly constructed Aspen Art Museum opened to the public on August 9, 2014. Designed by 2014 Pritzker Architecture Prize winner, Shigeru Ban, the new museum offers more than 30,000 square feet of art and culture, including more than 12,000 square feet of new gallery space and a public rooftop sculpture garden that offers stunning views of Aspen Mountain.

 

To celebrate the museum’s grand opening, a collection of diverse inaugural exhibits is being offered, each providing a unique view into the world of contemporary art. The lead exhibition is an unprecedented pairing of works by American artist David Hammons and French painter Yves Klein, exposing the unexpected harmony found among both artists’ substantial, yet wholly distinctive, bodies of work. 

 

Additional exhibits include significant collections from Cai Guo-Qiang, Tomma Abts, Teresita Fernández, Ernesto Neto, Rosemarie Trockel and Jim Hodges. Most fittingly, there is also an exhibit by the museum own architect. Shigeru Ban’s Humanitarian Architecture collection showcases Ban’s ongoing work designing emergency shelters in disaster areas. 

 

Construction of the $45 million museum was made possible exclusively through private donations from more than 200 philanthropists from around the country, including contributions of $1 million or more from 27 individuals. The new Aspen Art Museum is open Tuesday - Saturday (10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.), Thursdays (10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.), and Sundays (12:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.). Admission is free, courtesy of a generous endowment from Amy and John Phelan.

 

For more information, please visit www.aspenartmuseum.com