Guggenheim Museum

candid America tips

 

Why the
Guggenheim Museum
is special

The Guggenheim Museum was designed to showcase modern art. Today, its striking architecture is just as renowned as its art collection.

Guggenheim Museum
tips & insights

Controversial

The museum has been controversial ever since it was conceived about a half century ago. Some members of the art world have lavishly praised it while others have pooh-poohed its design and collections. You be the judge.

Frank Lloyd Wright

It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, one of the great modern architects. Although his architectural tour de force was commissioned in 1943, it wasn't finished until 16 years later, in 1959, because of contentious issues with city officials, among other powerful people. Wright died just months before it finally opened.

Architectural design

The bands of the circular exterior widen as they rise (see photo). The interior's most distinctive feature is a six-story atrium encircled by an upward spiraling ramp. That walkway's inner side has a dramatic open view of the atrium. The outer side is a wall where the paintings are hung.

The artwork

The Guggenheim Museum specializes in modern art from the late 19th century to the present. The artist list reads like a who's who of modernists: Calder, Cezanne, Chagall, Ernst, Giacometti, Kandinsky, Klee, Leger, Matisse, Miro, Mondrian, Moore, Picasso, Van Gogh, to name a few.

Exhibitions

The museum has permanent collections and stages two or three temporary special exhibitions per year. It's the latter that creates the most buzz and attracts the most visitors.

The major special exhibitions are almost always held in the atrium-ramp section. The  permanent collections primarily use the spaces in side rooms and in the 10-story tower.

Check beforehand whether the museum is in the midst of changing exhibitions in the ramp section. If yes, some or all the rampway may be closed. And, there is the issue of construction noise.

How to tell a newbie

The first-time visitor walks up the sloping six-story ramp and takes the elevator down. The seasoned visitor does the opposite, eliminating the uphill climb, as Wright intended.

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