Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (often referred to as "The Guggenheim") is a well-known art museum on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City.  It has a large collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern and contemporary art.  It also has several special exhibitions during each year.

The museum was started by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 1939 as the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, under the guidance of its first director, the artist Hilla von Rebay. The name was changed to honor the founder, Solomon R. Guggenheim, after his death in 1952.

Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the cylindrical museum building is wider at the top than the bottom. He wanted it to be a "temple of the spirit". The building is one of the 20th century's most important architectural landmarks. The building opened on October 21, 1959, replacing rented spaces used by the museum since 1939.

To design the museum, Wright created more than 700 sketches until the final draft of the project was official. Wright spent 16 years working on the design, but he died before the building was completed. His design created a lot of arguments as many people did not like it. One person said it looked like "an indigestible hot cross bun", and another said it looked like "an inverted oatmeal dish." Some artists thought that the curved walls and ramps would make it impossible to hang their paintings properly.

References

Other websites

 Official website 
 Gwathmey Siegel Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Renovation and Addition project page 
 Architectural Review 
 Art of the Motorcycle Exhibit 
 New York Academy of Sciences Podcast about Imageless Exhibit
 Happy 50th Birthday, Guggenheim  – slideshow by Life magazine
 50 Facts on Guggenheim's 50th  – Daily News archives
 The Guggenheim 50th Birthday Party

Category:Frank Lloyd Wright buildings
Category:1939 establishments in New York (state)
Category:Museums in Manhattan