When visitors enter the Yale Center For British Art (YCBA) for the first time since it reopened on May 11, it isn’t obvious that a 15-month, $33 million conservation project was just completed.

That’s on purpose. The project, on which research began more than a decade ago, wasn’t meant to in any way dramatically alter the 42-year-old building, designed by renowned American architect Louis I. Kahn.

Instead, the restoration, led by New Haven architect George Knight and executed by Turner Construction Company, under guidance Peter Inskip and Stephen Gee of Peter Inskip + Peter Jenkins Architects Limited, focused on a number of interior improvements aimed at enhancing — while not detracting from — Kahn’s original vision and the building’s iconic contemporary design.

“Yale Center for British Art adds a striking diversity to the architecture of the Yale campus and the City of New Haven,” says Robert A. M. Stern, dean of Yale School of Architecture. “The conservation of Louis Kahn’s building is a landmark project that sets a new standard for the stewardship of modern architecture.”

The first phase of the three-phase project (2008-’11) included a renovation of the exterior lower court. During the second phase, in 2013, the areas housing Prints & Drawings and Rare Books & Manuscripts were refurbished. In 2015, the entire museum was shut down to restore and reconfigure all public spaces and galleries, create a new Collections Seminar Room, incorporate state-of-the-art audio visual and lighting systems in the Lecture Hall, and make building-wide mechanical and electrical upgrades, as well as improvements to fire protection, security systems and handicap accessibility. 

Spotlight on the galleries

The re-imagination and re-installation of artworks in the permanent collection, displayed on the second and fourth floors, is titled “Britain in the World” and features more than 500 works, mostly gifted by YCBA founder Paul Mellon. YCBA’s collection of more than five centuries of British art is the largest outside of the United Kingdom.

The re-installation, led by Scott Wilcox, the museum’s deputy director for collections, showcases the permanent collections in a new light, focusing on British art, history and culture within a global context.

Speaking of light, natural light has always been in abundance in the galleries but is even more striking in the newly renovated spaces. This is for several reasons, Wilcox observes.

“One reason is that the newly redone linen (on the walls) is much whiter, so (the spaces) look lighter,” he says. “The other reason is we redesigned our temporary walls. Before, the baseboards came right down to the floor, so we lifted them up, so now there is space both above and below the panels, which makes it all seem lighter.”

Wilcox points out that in the past, in most displays, the movable partitions (known as “pogo” walls) “marched down the center, with long views, but you couldn’t get any distance” from the artwork.

“We tried to open up the spaces and frame the works of art in what we hope is a more effective way,” he explains. “You’ll have a center panel, but then the next division uses the pogos to create a frame. There is a greater sense of variety and visual drama, and it highlights some of the great paintings in the collection.”

Also adding to the fresh look, worn synthetic carpeting was replaced with new wool carpet and existing white oak trim was refinished.

Addressing how the spaces are divided, Wilcox says the objective was to get more of the collection on view without it appearing cramped. There are now about 200 more works exhibited between the second and fourth floors.

Regarding the art and artists, Wilcox says the galleries now “emphasize the number of foreign artists central to the story of British art … and also acknowledge the global reach of British art and British influence and present art that reflects the Empire and later on, the Imperial past, and we have that front and center.

“So we’re not downplaying the great masterpieces of the collection,” he says, “but we’re also acknowledging that British art doesn’t exist in a vacuum.”

Wilcox is most enthusiastic about the Long Gallery on the fourth floor, which was transformed into a teaching and study gallery, as was originally envisioned by Jules Prown, YCBA’s founding director.

“It was intended to be an open space to echo the long galleries of a British country house,” Wilcox says, “but what happened in the interest of being able to hang more of the collection was that over the years temporary walls were placed all down the gallery, which gave more hanging space, but destroyed this open vista. So we decided to bring it back to its original function as a study gallery, and leave out all the temporary walls so it becomes one space, the way Kahn intended, and hang the paintings salon style, floor to ceiling.”

Sections are divided by theme rather than chronologically and therefore can include both older and newer works, he says.

For example the “Gardens” wall includes everything from a late 17th-century birds-eye view of a garden to a 21st-century painting of London’s Kew Gardens.

Although booklets listing the artwork are available in the gallery, there are no descriptions on the walls.

“We didn’t want to cover up the walls with labels,” Wilcox says. “We wanted to let people discover the different themes for themselves.” 

Modernism and memory

In conjunction with the reopening is a special exhibition that celebrates the gift of the Rhoda Pritzker (1914-2007) collection of modern British art. It features 77 works by 46 artists from the private collection of the British journalist.

Born in Manchester, England, Pritzker married into the wealthy, philanthropic Chicago-based Pritzker family. Although she moved to the U.S., she never lost touch with her roots, reflected in her collection of 20th-century British paintings, drawings, and sculpture.

Pritzker’s entire collection was installed in her home in Chicago, notes Robin Hoffman, YCBA assistant curator of exhibition and publications.

“It wasn’t necessarily meant to go to a museum or gallery space,” Hoffman says. “It’s an idiosyncratic reflection of her taste and personal history.”

One reason Hoffman says this exhibit was timed with the YCBA reopening is that it testifies to the museum’s interest in being able to tell the whole story of British art, including contemporary art.

“Mr. Mellon was particularly interested in work that stopped around mid-19th century,” she says. “This is 100 years later … and we’re very excited about this gift.”

A second exhibition, “Art in Focus: Relics of Old London,” was curated by YCBA’s student guides and comprises a series of rare photographs of London’s architecture from 1875 to 1886 that documents parts of the city that were being swept away by rapid urban development.