In 1937, Solomon R. Guggenheim established a foundation that empowered the transition from private collection to public exhibition of his holdings of non-objective art. Opening its first permanent home in the now famous Frank Lloyd Wright building in 1959, today the Guggenheim Foundation’s unique array of museums has been referred to as a constellation or a network. To some it is a single museum with discontinuous galleries. Each constituent museum is unique in terms of its architecture and programming, yet taken as a whole they operate from a single curatorial perspective.
Today there are five Guggenheims in four countries— New York, Venice, Bilbao, Berlin— with combined attendance exceeding 2.5 million annually. Since 1992 the foundation has mounted more than 250 special exhibitions at its constituent museums. Further cultural partnerships exist with the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria and with the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg which lead to the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in Las Vegas.
Images:
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum during Dan Flavin exhibition, 1992
Photo by David Heald © The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York
Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin
Photo by David Heald © The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Photo by David Heald © The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice
Photo by David Heald © The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York