The most noteworthy recent development in Fort Worth -- and one of the most important on the national culture scene -- is the Modern, a landmark design by the celebrated modernist Japanese architect Tadao Ando and a true notch on the city's belt. It is my favorite new museum -- or work of architecture, period -- since Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain. Opened in 2002, the museum, quickly hailed as a masterpiece, contains over 50,000 square feet of gallery space, making it second in size only to the Museum of Modern Art in New York among museums dedicated to contemporary and modern art. The galleries, of warmly textured poured concrete with 20-foot-high ceilings and suffused with spectacular natural light, are housed in three rectangular, flat-roofed pavilions built around a large pond. In fact the oldest art museum in Texas (chartered in 1892), the Modern possesses an impressive permanent collection of modern and contemporary paintings, sculpture, and works on paper by Picasso, Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg, David Smith, Gerhard Richter, Francis Bacon, and Jackson Pollock, as well as an impressive contemporary photography collection. A sculpture by Martin Puryear, Ladder for Booker T. Washington, proves very popular with kids; it's a two-story wooden ladder reaching to the ceiling, ever-so-narrow at the top. Another piece not to miss is Ron Mueck's stunningly lifelike and creepy Seated Woman. The outdoor sculpture collection includes large-scale works by Tony Cragg, George Segal, and Antony Gormley and a massive piece outside by Richard Serra. Plan to spend at least a couple of hours here. The restaurant overlooking the reflection pool, Café Modern, is an excellent spot for lunch -- one of the better restaurants in town, in fact.
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