Timken MUSEUM OF ART
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Timken MUSEUM OF ART WELCOME Affectionately known as San Diego’s “jewel box” of fine art, the
Timken Museum of Art in San Diego’s historic Balboa Park
is home to the Putnam Foundation’s significant collection of
European old masters, 19th century American art and Russian
icons. The collection also includes the only Rembrandt painting on public display in San Diego.
Considered one of the finest small museums in the world, the Timken Museum of Art, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2015, provides visitors with an accessible and enriching
cultural experience featuring a beautiful collection, intimate surroundings and perennially free admission.
History
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In an effort to secure the Putnam Foundation Collection for San
Diego, Ames secured financial support from the Ohio-based Timken family of the Timken roller bearing fame to help build a new gallery
for San Diego. The institution first opened its doors to the public in
October 1965. The institution was named the Timken Art Gallery (now the Timken Museum of Art) because of the very generous contributions the Timken family had made to the cultural life of San
Diego. In the years between the Foundation's establishment and the
opening of the museum, the Putnam Foundation Collection paintings remained on loan to institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York City, the National Gallery in Washington, DC, and Harvard University's Fogg Art Museum. In 1965, the paintings were reunited, and hung in their new permanent quarters at the
Timken. Located on the Prado in San Diego's beautiful Balboa
Park, the museum displays more than 60 extraordinary artworks, predominantly paintings augmented by a small holding of sculpture
and decorative art objects. The works in the Putnam Foundation
“unique and priceless� Collection are primarily in three distinct areas: European old master
paintings, 18th and 19th-century American art, and Russian icons. Each collection boasts unique and priceless representations of the specific genre. Notable works in the collection include Rembrandt's
Saint Bartholomew (the only painting by the Dutch artist on public display in San Diego); Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Parable
of the Sower; John Singleton Copley's Portrait of Mrs. Thomas
Gage; Eastman Johnson's classic The Cranberry Harvest, Island of Nantucket; and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot's View of Volterra. The
Timken is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 AM to 4:30 PM,
and Sunday from noon to 4:30 PM. The museum is closed Monday. Admission is always free.
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Architecture The mid-century modern Timken Museum of Art today stands on a prime location in Balboa Park’s Plaza de Panama, the site of an important, but temporary, edifice for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. That structure, the Home Economy Building designed by architect Carleton Winslow, was demolished in 1963. The Timken is arguably the second most important mid-century building in San Diego, after Louis Kahn’s iconic Salk
Institute. The Timken is all the more significant for being designed by a local architect. The groundwork for the museum began in
the stage for an experience unlike any other
also embellished the entry in floral-themed
lawyer Walter Ames, the sisters Amy and
19th century cast of Giambologna’s Mercury
to the bronze railings, gates and grill-work
1951. With the help of longtime friend and Anne Putnam established the nonprofit
Putnam Foundation, under which any
art acquired became part of the Putnam Foundation Collection. After Ames secured
financial support from the Timken family
and its foundation, the firm of Frank L. Hope and Associates, the largest of its kind in the region, was hired to design and build
a museum to display the collection in San Diego in perpetuity.
While the Hope firm established a working
team for the project, John Mock, Hope’s
architect in charge of contemporary design, was responsible for the conception of the building. Mock attended several meetings
with Walter Ames and Frank Hope Sr. and
Jr. to discuss the main design feature – the ability to embrace Balboa Park from within
the building. In contrast to other Balboa Park structures that focused internally on
their own exhibits, the light and airy “seethrough museum” took shape.
The symmetry, balance and palette of materials (travertine, bronze and glass) set
structure in Balboa Park. Standing next to a
in the foyer (consciously echoing a similar
cast in the west building of Washington’s National Gallery of Art), visitors can enjoy the lily pond to the east and the Plaza de
Panama to the west as the sun rises and sets. Garden courts dissect the structure’s middle
and blur lines between interior and exterior
spaces and engage San Diego’s moderate climate and abundant sunshine.
The firm hired internationally-acclaimed lighting designer Richard Kelly to design
the museum’s interior and exterior lighting scheme. Kelly, who was favored by architects
such as Kahn, Mies van der Rohe and Philip
Johnson, provided a unique skylight program
for filtered sunlight to bathe the masterpieces
in a way that was both considerate to the
health of the art and consistent during the sun’s daily journey across the sky. During
mid-summer there is often no need for artificial lights in the galleries. Hope’s
design
leader
Howard
Shaw
provided the designs for the grill work and
bronze fascia scheme on the exterior. He
bronze plates and continued the abstraction that punctuates the light, airy feeling of the Timken’s glazed openings.
According to experts, the Timken represents some of the best evidence of 1960s modernity by some of the best talent San Diego had to
offer. It is a major example of a post-World War II trend to build contemporary museum
buildings to display the art of the past, projects that include Kahn’s museums at Yale
University (1953 and 1976) and the Kimbell
in Fort Worth (1972), William Pereira’s 1966
Ahmanson Building at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Philip Johnson’s museums in Utica, New York (1960), Fort Worth (1961) and Lincoln, Neb. (1963).
Today’s rose-colored wall upholstery is
not original, installed in the early 1990s to enhance the colors of the paintings. When the Timken opened the walls were a color
complimenting the travertine floors, with
the intention that the neutral tonality of the interior would have disappeared and one’s eye only attracted to the rich colors of the paintings and the gold frames.
Two other points should be remembered
later there was a trend toward modernist
benefactors were proud that not only was no
the context of Balboa Park. The first is that
1935 Exposition, such as the Ford Building
was given to the city for the benefit, pleasure
when considering the Timken building in
it continues a trend of building structures
of contemporary design in the park. The dominant architectural style in 1915 was revival: on the East Coast Colonial Revival
architecture reflected the nation’s 18th century origins; in the Midwest one sees
Romanesque Revival; in San Diego it is
natural to find Spanish Revival. Twenty years
designs and the buildings created for the
(now the San Diego Air and Space Museum)
are art deco in form. So the creation of a
mid-century modern, International Style, museum in 1965, especially in Southern
California, should come as a logical progression. The second point is that the
Timken was the most expensive building erected in San Diego up to that time. The
expense spared, but that on completion it and inspiration of the citizens of San Diego
and visitors to the city. The building and its contents are available free to everyone.
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Our Collection
Rembrandt van Rijn, 1606-1669 Saint Bartholomew, 1657 Oil on canvas, 122.7 x 99.7 cm (48-3/8 x 39-1/4 in.)
The world-class Putnam Foundation collection of European and American masterpieces is on permanent display at the Timken Museum of Art. The Timken’s collection spans nearly 600 years of art from early Italian Renaissance devotional paintings to late nineteenth century paintings from the United States and includes important examples of French, Dutch and Flemish paintings in addition to Italian and American. A special feature of the museum is the significant collection of Russian icons, many from the Moscow and Novgorad Schools, ranging from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. Don’t miss San Diego’s only painting by Rembrandt, Saint Bartholomew; JacquesLouis David’s revolutionary portrait of the Irishman Cooper Penrose; and a masterpiece by Eastman Johnson, The Cranberry Harvest. The foyer is adorned with Parisian seventeenth century tapestries illustrating the Stories of Queen Artemisia.
Martin Johnson Heade, 1819-1904 The Magnolia Blossom, 1888 Oil on canvas, 38.4 x 61.3 cm (15-1/8 x 24-1/8 in.)
American Collection 07
Albert Bierstadt, 1830-1902
Cho-looke, the Yosemite Fall, 1864 Oil on canvas, 87 x 68.9 cm (34-1/4 x 27-1/8 in.)
John Singleton Copley, 1738-1815 Mrs. Thomas Gage, 1771. Oil on canvas,127 x 101.6 cm (50 x 40 in.)
Dutch & Flemish Collection 09
Petrus Christus, unkown-1475/76, Flemish Death of the Virgin, ca. 1460-65 Oil on oak panel, transferred to mahogany, 73.7 x 102.9 cm (67-3/8 x 54-1/2 in.)
Franz Hals, 1581/85-1666 Portrait of a Man, 1634 Oil on oak panel, 73.3 x 56.2 cm (28-7/8 x 22-1/8 in.)
French Collection 11
Jean-HonorĂŠ Fragonard, 1732 - 1806 Blindman's Buff, ca. 1775 - 80 Oil on canvas, 62.5 x 45.1 cm (24-5/8 x 17-3/4 in.)
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, 1796-1875 View of Volterra, 1838 Oil on canvas, 32.2 x 24.4 cm (62-5/8 x 47 in.)
Italian Collection 13
Luca Carlevarijs, 1663-1730 The Piazzetta at Venice, ca. 1700-10 Oil on canvas, 96.5 X 195.3 cm (38 x 76-7/8 in.)
Russian Icons 15
Our Lady of Jerusalem 17th century, Moscow School Tempera on wood panel 131.1 x 106.7 cm (51-5/8 x 42 in.)
French Tapestries 17
Four Entrefenetre Tapestries from the series Stories of Queen Artemisia Central designs by Antoine Caron (French, 1521-1599), France, ca. 1562-65
Do you love the Collection? Help it thrive by becoming a member at: www.timkenmuseum. org/join-give
Mondays: Closed Tuesday – Saturday: 10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Sundays:12–4:30 p.m. Closed on all major holidays For more information visit timkenmuseum.org or call (619) 239 5548.