If you haven't taken time to visit Charlotte's latest jewel, make time. Find out more about the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art here.
First lesson for any museum-goer: Never touch the art. Unless, of course, your family paid for the art.If youre Andreas Bechtler, wandering around the $20 million uptown museum bearing your familys name, you walk right up to a bronze sculpture of a horse by Marino Marini, offer a quick pat or two, and shake your head.
This is Marini, he says. Youre not supposed to touch it, of course.
After taking a second glance at Marinis sculpture, Bechtler remembers his three daughters playing on it years ago. This is from my children jumping on the sculpture, he says pointing to some nicks in the bronze.
Bechtler has enjoyed an exciting ride of his own during the past decade, emerging from his private retreat at Mountain Island Lake to become the face of the citys ambitious cultural metamorphosis. From big names (Warhol, Picasso and Miro, among others) to bold architecture (Swiss architect Mario Bottas terra cotta building surrounds an airy, sleek interior), the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art is considered by many as the star attraction in the newly minted South Tryon Street cultural campus.
Read the rest of this Charlotte Business Journal article, by Erik Spanberg, and see photographs of Andreas Bechtler's tour, here.
Check out what he told Tonya Jameson about what you should do when you visit the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art: