The Guggenheim Museum in New York is one of the most iconic and best-known art entities associated with the city’s art culture. The Museum is the brainchild of the wealthy American businessman and passionate art collector Solomon R. Guggenheim, who nurtured the idea of building a museum and created it in the original form of the Museum of Non-Objective Painting in 1939 to showcase Guggenheim’s collection of abstract art.

How Did the Guggenheim Museum Emerge?

Solomon R. Guggenheim’s art initiative was unprecedented for those times, especially given his focus on the avant-garde and abstract art movements that didn’t enjoy much popularity in the USA in the 1930s. However, the project persisted, with Guggenheim envisioning a larger-scale space for his embodiment of love for forward-looking art.

To bring his innovative ideas to life, Guggenheim commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright, an established architect of those times, to develop and build a new spiral-shaped building for the museum. The project took almost 16 years to complete and saw the world in 1959, embodying Guggenheim’s plan to give every visitor an unrivaled aesthetic experience of viewing art while walking up and down a long ramp.

After the opening, Guggenheim’s new art space quickly gained popularity. Its founder’s love for art and the focus of the Guggenheim Foundation on the acquisition of art helped the entity accumulate a huge collection of exclusive art objects, including rare gems by Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock. Later, as part of the art network’s expansion, the Guggenheim Foundation also opened a series of international branches of the Guggenheim Museum – there are two operating museums in Bilbao and Venice, and the third one is under construction in Abu Dhabi.

Interesting Facts for Art Connoisseurs and Museum-Goers

Besides the well-known facts about the Museum shared above, you may be interested to learn a bit more unusual details about it.

• The museum was painted yellow for a short period. Though it initially launched as an off-white building, Wright envisioned it as a yellow structure. The museum was repainted white again in the 1990s.
• The Museum’s unique spiral-shaped building became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019. This way, the international community paid tribute to the unique architectural legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright.

With its outstanding art collection and unique design, the Guggenheim still stands apart from other art institutions as a natural fusion of art and architecture. Learn more about the Museum and its art exhibitions on our blog.