Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Website: http://www.guggenheim.org/new_york_index.shtml
Tel: (212) 423-3500

Founded in 1937, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is the best-known of several museums founded by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and is often called simply The Guggenheim. It is one of the best-known museums in a section of Manhattan referred to as Museum Mile.

Originally called "The Museum of Non-Objective Painting", the Guggenheim was founded to showcase avant-garde art by high modernists such as Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian. It moved to its present location, at the corners of 89th Street and Fifth Avenue (overlooking Central Park), in 1959, when Frank Lloyd Wright's design for the site was completed. Solomon R. Guggenheim did not really know who to choose as architect for the museum, and asked his friend Baroness Hilla von Rebay to pick someone. She chose Wright, because he was the most famous at the time.

He originally wanted to design a square building, the baroness preferred a round shape though. He also wanted it to be painted in bright red, she wanted it to be in white.

The distinctive building itself became the best-known work of art. From the street, the building looks approximately like a white ribbon curled into a cylindrical stack, slightly wider at the top than the bottom. Internally, the viewing gallery forms a gentle spiral from the ground level up to the top of the building. Paintings are displayed along the walls of the spiral and also in viewing rooms found at stages along the way.

In 1992, the building was supplemented by an adjoining rectangular tower, taller than the original spiral. This augmentation of Wright's original design—widely regarded as a classic of American architecture—was controversial. Some critics likened the combined structure to a toilet.

Wright's building has proved to be unpopular with some art critics, who feel the building overshadows the artworks displayed within, and that it is particularly difficult to properly hang paintings in the shallow windowless exhibition niches which surround the central spiral. Although the atrium is generously lit by a large skylight, the niches are heavily shadowed by the walkway itself, leaving the art to be lit largely by artificial light. The walls of the niches are neither vertical nor flat (most are gently concave) meaning canvasses must be mounted proud of the wall's surface. The limited space within the niches means that sculptures are generally relegated to plinths amid the main spiral walkway itself.

In October 2005, Lisa Dennison was appointed director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Dennison, who has worked at the museum since 1973, had been deputy director since 1996, and will continue in her role as chief curator. Dennison's chief goal is to reinvigorate the New York Museum, which many critics said had been neglected under director Thomas Krens. She hopes to improve the permanent collection, attract new board members, and bring new, exciting shows to the New York Museum.

Thomas Krens remains director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, having recently won a decisive victory over billionaire philanthropist and board member Peter Lewis. A significant contributor to the Guggenheim foundation, Lewis urged the board to fire Krens, and resigned when the rest of the members refused to do so.

Address: 1071 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10012

Hours:
Sun-Wed, 9am-6pm

Admissions:
Adults $12