Architect C. Robert Buchanan, right, talks about his design for the Vince & Phyllis Bacon Grand Gallery, A $2 million expansion at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown that opens April 15. Behind him a crew moves a portion of the Pierre Soulages mural that will be displayed there. A dinner and reception is planned for the event.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Pierre Soulages mural “14 May, 1968” will be unveiled in its new home at the Butler Institute of American Art one month shy of the 55th anniversary of the date in its name.

A dinner and reception is planned April 15 for the opening of the Vincent & Phyllis Bacon Grand Gallery, a $2 million addition to the arts and cultural institution that was designed by architect C. Robert Buchanan to showcase the massive mural by the renowned French artist, who died in October at age 102.

“It’s a beautiful space,” said Louis A. Zona, executive director of the Butler.

The three-level expansion totals 3,810 square feet and adds two levels of gallery space and additional archival space on the lowest level.

Buchanan, who has designed expansion projects for the Butler dating back to the 1960s, said the project included both practical concerns, such as adhering to fire codes, along with artistic ones.

“The front of the original Butler is a classic Romanesque building with three partis, two sides and a center,” Buchanan said. “I wanted that same pattern, but set it aside far enough so it wasn’t offensive in any way to the original building. That’s where the form and shape and function came from.”

But it also was designed for the optimal display of a specific piece of art.

“We started with a piece of art first of all and developed it from that,” Buchanan said. “The piece is 20 feet wide and 14 feet high, so we had to have a large space, and we had to protect it from the sun, so most of the glass is 99 percent UV (ultraviolet) free.”

ABOUT THE MURAL

Made up of 294 11-by-11-inch ceramic tiles, the mural originally was installed at Pittsburgh’s One Oliver Plaza. It was acquired by the Butler in 2010 and installed at its Trumbull branch in Howland. The Butler won a court battle to retain custody of the work from that museum, now known as the Medici Museum of Art.

Installing the work at the Butler will be much easier than getting it out of One Oliver Plaza in Pittsburgh.

“We only had two weeks to get it out, and they wanted the lobby to look as if there was no construction,” Zona said. “We could only work at night (and clean everything up at the end of each shift) because they wanted it to be an active lobby.”

Butler Trustee Vince Bacon and his wife, Phyllis, not only donated $1 million for the addition, Zona said, but he also was instrumental in dismantling and moving the work.

“Vince was the key person, along with our staff,” Zona said. “It was all hands on deck to get it out of there, and we did it.”

Another longtime Butler benefactor, David “Max” Draime of Howland, died before the Butler acquired the mural, but his interest in the work helped the Butler acquire it.

“I drove him down to Pittsburgh to see it,” Zona said. “He didn’t believe there was a major Soulages in Pittsburgh. ‘Can’t be. I’d have heard about it’ (Draime said). We drove up there and he wanted it — ‘Make them an offer.'”

Zona talked to the attorney for the building’s owner, who told Zona they weren’t interested in selling, but the attorney called him back a few years later, when the building was being sold and the new owners weren’t interested in preserving the mural.

“He said, ‘Are you still interested in the Soulages?’ Yes, but the man who was going to get it for us passed away,” Zona said. “He said, ‘Mr. Zona, I’m not asking you to buy it. Would you accept it as a gift?’ Yes. Yes.”

APPRECIATIVE

The Butler received a letter from Soulages in 2010 after preserving the work.

“For me, today, it is a great event to know that this ceramic is installed at the Butler Institute of Art,” Soulages wrote. “I am particularly pleased that Mr. Lou Zona has taken the initiative, and had the will to save it from destruction. His decision affects me deeply and he is now part, at the forefront, of all those interest in my work, some for over sixty years.”

“To all those who have invested in this project, whose completion today I congratulate, I extend my sincere expression of the warmest feelings. I am very grateful.”

A Soulages painting owned by Draime will be displayed in the Bacon gallery with the mural. Also featured in that space will be works from the Butler collection by Paul Jenkins, who spent his teen years in Struthers, and later lived and worked in Paris, where he was a friend and contemporary of Soulages.

The private collection of David M. and Cecile Draime, which was exhibited at the Butler in 2022, will return and be the inaugural exhibition in the gallery space created on the lower level of the new addition.

MORE HONORS

In addition to unveiling the Bacon Grand Gallery, the April 15 event also will honor Zona for his 42 years of leadership at the Butler, Buchanan for his long history designing expansions of the original building, and the David Bermant Foundation for its 2021 donation to the Butler of a kinetic art collection valued at $3.4 million.

Admission is $100 to the semiformal event. Invitations automatically will be sent to Butler members. To request an invitation, email Susan Carfano, executive administrative assistant, at soozatbutler@gmail.com or call 330-743-1107 ext. 1301.

The public probably won’t have to wait until until April to see the mural, at least from outside. Zona said he expects installation to be completed in the next week, and the mural is located behind a window that provides a full view.

“We’ve given up on trying to hide it from the public,” Zona said.