( music ) narrator: the east buiing of the national glery of art in washing d.c.- built to relieve the heavily- burdened filities ofhe original gallery, to house temporary exhibitions, and to serve as a center for advanced study in the visual arts. within these walls, visitors to our nation's capital are drawn in to a very special place where monumental accomplishments of modern masters await discovery.

built on a trapezoal plot of land adjoining the original gallery, the east building is of a unique and radical design, utilizing triangular shapes with large interior spaces. it was a collaborative effort spanning more than ten years. director j. carter brown worked closely with architect i. m. pei in its development. seven works of art were commissioned it was agreed that a ecific pieas needed to animate the unbroken expanse of wall in the central crtyard. but the artist would have to have a capacity for monumental concepts, with a sense of color and scale

appropriate to the site. a unanimous choice was spanish artist joan miro. born in the catalan city of barcelona in 1893, miro has remained close to the land and its people. but as a young man in paris, he joined with friends like max ernst and jean arp in the emerging surrealist movement of the 1920s. in his painting "the farm," miro's characteristic symbols and themes began to appear: serpenne shapes, checkeoard patterns, finitepace represented by the moon or a star. in 1922, he painted "the farmer's wife," the ancestress of countless female sbols that also became a continuing motif in miro's art. in 1924, his art broke free of gravitational constraints in theurrealc world of "harlequin's carnival."

over the years, he developed his own personal symbolism, and in the 1950s, the scal his art grew with such works as a mural at harrd university and "the wall ofhe sun" for unesco in pas. as his work grew in size, miro continued what he termed "a process of simplification." he stated, "little by little, i have managed to reach a point at which i use no more than a small number of forms d colors." this process found a culminating expression the maquette for the tial gallery's tapestry. miro entered the project with much enthusim, stating, "i'll go into this and fight it through with everything i have." over my months, the tapestry took shape in his imagination. finally, in 1976 it waset down rapidly as a maquette.

in the ancient catalan city of tarragona, joan miro meets with young master weaver josep royo to discuss the transformation of his painting into a 10-meter-high tapestry. studying a photograph of the maquette, they consider how best to translate miro's art into a heavily- textured weaving, which would capture the spirit of his concept. royo has an enormous task before him. in this converted flour mill in tarragona, many months of preparation are needed before the weaving itself can begin. nearly four miles of heavy cotton line is measured, stretched and chained for use as the tapestry's vertical warp. royo has developed a unique loom for weaving large tapestries. it has been built to accommodate the 20-foot width

and th420-warp thrds which st be accurately spaced and held in line. after all the warps have been laid out, each more than 50 feet in length, they areound sy onto a huge drum before finally being transferred to a massive overhead roller and stretched tight. on a cold february morning in 1977, the loom is ready for the weaving process to begin. the wool for the weft was imported from new zealand, carefully ed and color- matched at sabadell in the heart of catalonia, and tested for durability and resistance to fading.

weaving from the bottom up and in meregments, the completed section is pulled below the working bridge onto the floor, enabling the nished portion to be viewed as the work progresses. in march, miro visits his young colleague's studio he inspects the progress, makes suggestions, and gives his approval. royo works with a team of fellow weavers alws weaving to be performed from eitr side using multiple groups of yarn twisted together and passedver varying numbers of warps

meter by meter the forms of the tapestry graduallbegito emerge. miro has said of his approach to art, "things come to me slowly. my vocabulary formsas not been the discovery of a day. it took shape alst in spite of myself. in this way, ty ripen in my spirit." into the steamy month of august, the spirit of "femme" grows until the figure is complete. now, with only a few inches of background remaining, royo welcomes miro to his studio once more to witness the final steps of an eight-month process.

royo says, "working together, we have become so closely attuned that i can almost read his mind. i take direction as much from an expression or gesture as from words or sketches. working with miro has forced me to make a constant effort to do better, an effort from which i have benefited in many respects." for these two catalan artists, it has been a fulfilling experience. what was born in the imagination of one artist has been translated and skilully brought into being by another.

it has been more than five years since miro accepted this project. the enis now in sight, but first "femme" must be prepared for her trip. hundreds of mothballs are scattered for protection before the tapestry is cut from the loom, covered, rolled and packed for shipment. the finished tapestry roll is 20 feet long, weighing well over a ton, and the task of moving is not a simple one. a window has to be enlarged to accommodate the passage of this huge parcel from royo's studio. ( muffled comments, crane engine rumbling )

the people of tarragona watch as "femme" is cautiously lowered onto the waiting truck to begin a long voyage across the atlantic. first she must travel to barcelona to be crated, before passage by ship to her home in america. royo follows "femme" to washington, d.c., to supervise the installation on the south wall of the east building's central court. there are now many new problems to overcome. the tolerances are extremely close, demanding precise measurement, careful planning

and a team effort. the huge roll barely fits into this confined space. the workers must unroll it evenly and accurately. bolts have been embedded deep into the structural wall, behind the marble facing, to support this massive piece when it slides into place. ( muffled comments ) carefully, royo grooms "femme," as the crew gradually hoistser upwd over the last few yards of a long journey. ( music )

this is the realization of many dreams, uly a work of collaboration; the fulfilent of a vion shared by the architect and the national gallery, supported by generous patrons, brought to fruition by joan miro and josep royo. on this day, those drms and efforts are reaching a successf conusion. "femme" is at home. brown: "it's everything we hoped."

today, suspended 42 feet above the museum floor, "femme" is fulfilling her intended role. she stands tall, as the 76-foot mobile by miro's close friend alexander calder owly cires by. she is in the company of the works of other modern masters such as henry moore and jean arp, of david smith, noguchi, caro, rosati and motherwell. but she stands alone at the head of the south wall

as a unifying force and vital core of color in the east building of the national gallery of art. ( music )

narrator: it tended to look much like any other building, the usual geometric jumble of rods, forms, and scaffolds.

but by its location alone, here on the familiar axis of amerin history, it was destined to become a prominent stone in the nation's crown. the first problem architect i. m. pei faced was the shape of the site, an asymmetrical set-back trapezoid on which his building would have to respect the classic symmetry of its older sister and serve also a combined function, as an exhibition spaceand .

and there were other challenges. pei: sixty-feet height will relate perfectly with buildings on constitution avenue, and a hured feet will relate very well with buildings up pennsylvania avenue. and if we pick these two heights, we can begin to develop some interesting volum. narrator: the desire for outward textural compatibility led them back to this marble quarry in tennessee. here, 40 years ago, the materials for the original gallery had been carved from the same geologic formation. the close correlation of texture, shape, and color were critil. so into the hands of t family that d overseen the quarrying of the original gallery marble went the responsibility. stone mason: with5 shades of color, compared with the original gallery, where it was0, 21 shades of color.

narrator: the architect'model revealed how he'd divided the trapezoid shapinto triangles to serve two related but separate functions: a quiet center for the study of the visual arts and a public art gallery, with a gndublic space in between. construction manager: it reflects upon you what kind of a building you're putting up. worker: where will that escalator attach to the old building? narrator: the workers whose hands would convert the design in t final undtaking they had raised many buildings in their time, but this was a different challeng cotruction manager:we're ag to help everybody remember that we gotta do it just right. and if you hit a place three times with a vibrator, that won't hurt it. if you miss it one time, that's gonna hurt, that's right.

you're not just out there pourin' concrete; you're carefully placing architectural concrete that peoe are going to see forer. and you don't get a seco shot at it. what you do is there, man. there's no way to hide it. u're either gonna brag about it or you're gonna be awful ashamed, one of the o, so you gotta do it right. you'll just never do anything like this again in your life, and so you'd better live it up this time. just once around is the way i look at it. ( laughter ) narrator: on every detail, there was to be no compromise in precision no margin for error. working with concrete, iron, and steel, wood and plaster, they were working in tonnage and crafting in inches.

the sharp corners and angles dictated by the design hato be joined in perfect alnment. skilled cabinetmakers fashioned coffer forms of cle-grained fir, finished d rubbed like fine furni to avoid blemishes and imperfections on the final pou afteweeks ofeaving stl, the moment of truth. ( engine rumbling ) ( men talkg indistinctly )

they had performed a delicate triumph architectural casting. in the fall of 1975, the bearing walls and concrete work were in place. now they were ready to receive the marble. it would take 3 1/years to prepare properly

and place the 7,081 tons tennessee marble that would adorn the outer skin and inside walls and floor. ( men conversing in foreign language ) unlike its predecessor, it would have no cornices or trim to cover mistakes in joining. each meeting of stone would be exposed, leaving no room for error. the marble would exnd and contrac with the cycle of the seasons. they had to invent and design a neoprene gasket, permitti the building to breathe without distorting the knife-like detailing of the facade. no stone was placed indiscriminately. each was positioned for shape, texture, and color, the parts giving uty to the whole.

major artists of international reputation, and the creator of the mobile, alexandecalder, came to share ideas with gallery director j. carter brown about their works, commissioned by the gallery to enhance and celebrate the new building. brown: and then a couple more pieces come out. men: that's right. all right. there we go. narrator: the artists had been chosen because of tir preeminence and their genius for creang monumental works for monumental spaces. moore: that's lovely to have a picasso here. brown: you do give the opportunity to relate in scale to trees and other things and not just the building. moore: all my argument was not to have pieces that are attached to the building. you know, it becomes like reliefs, it's a decoration to the architecture. brown: yes, yes, yes. i think you should have a sculpture that's separate

from the architecture to give scale to the architecture and to the sculpre brown: yes. narrator: it would prove to be calder's last work of epic proportions, and he would approve its fabrication one week before his death. ( machine whirring ) the ultimate space for calder's work was the third major element in the building's design. the space-frame and main skylight would be nstructed 80 feet above the level of theoncourse floor, creating a lofty canopy with a 500-ton steelrame.

using aluminumnd dble- paned insulating glass, it wou span 16,000 square feet-- more than a third of an re-- culminating in a public space unique in architecture. and it would receive light in a selective fashion, illume but protect the twork thin, filtering out direct sunght and e ultraviolet rays that could damage the art inside. by november of 1977, they were ready to receive the first of the commissioned works. they came from england, france, spain, and from acrosamerica:

calder and moore, arp, caro, miro, motherll, rosati, their works to be placed in the grand spaces. ( orchestral music )

this building is a gift given to the natn by pl mellon, ailsa mellon bruce, and the andrew w. mellon foundation, but it is more than that. it is a statement, as one critic wrote, "of perseverance and excellence, against which all buildings and builders must now be measured."

annenberg media ♪ narrador: bienvenidos al episodio 19 de destinos: an introduction to spanish. en este episodio, vamos a acompañar a raquel a otra parte del mundo hispano: puerto rico. así que vamos a oir cómo hablan el español los puertorriqueños. hombre: creo que está a mano derecha.