TORONTO - The revamped Art Gallery of Ontario opens to the public on Friday and its designer, world-renowned architect and Toronto native Frank Gehry, is confident it will make Canada proud.
"I honestly did not know . . . the length and breadth and width and power" of Canadian art, Gehry said Thursday at a news conference held underneath a giant wooden spiral staircase he designed for the building's central Walker Court.
"And now that I see it in this setting, in all its glory, it makes you realize that this could be a big deal for future generations," said Gehry.
"I know for me, having grown up here, it's a great pride to look at that (art) and realize how powerful it is, how important it is and what a thing to have for Canada in the future," said the Los Angeles-based architect, whose designs include the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
Gehry's $276-million re-creation of the 108-year-old art museum - which closed for 13 months during renovations - is being hailed as a masterpiece, with its extensive use of wood as well as glass and skylights to allow in natural light.
The Galleria Italia, a long corridor that links several galleries, has a facade of glass and Douglas fir that curves down an entire city block along Dundas Street.
The late Toronto-born press baron Kenneth Thomson contributed 2,000 artworks to the new AGO, including the famous Peter Paul Rubens painting "The Massacre of the Innocents." The Thomson family also donated a total of $100 million to the redesign.
"What I hope people will feel when they literally walk in is a sense of welcome," said Matthew Teitelbaum, director and CEO of the AGO who first met with Gehry and Thomson eight years ago to discuss the project.
"A sense that this is a building that embraces you, whether it's the light, wood, whether it's the procession straight into Walker Court - but that there is a sense that we as an institution want you here and want to embrace you."
The newly expanded building contains 110 galleries with more than 4,000 artworks on display. The Canadian collection includes pieces by the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson.
Gehry says he's excited that his first building design in Canada is in the city in which he grew up.
"I think a lot of people are going to be surprised by it," he said of the redesigned structure. "And people are going to come from far and wide, once they understand what it is, . . . to see it."
