Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
While the Guggenheim's collection of modern art is undoubtedly impressive, the museum's brilliant and divisive design by architect Frank Lloyd Wright makes it impossible to separate the museum's contents from its form. The concrete inverted ziggernaut (a Babylonian step pyramid), which was built on Fifth Avenue across from Central Park just months after Wright's death, trampled on the expectations and tradition of neat square galleries upheld and cherished by the neighboring Upper East Side museums, including the nearby Metropolitan Museum.
Instead of using walls to divide artists, ideas, or historical periods, Wright combined his use of geometric shapes and nature to create a gallery space that presented art along a flowing, winding spiral, similar to a nautilus shell. The art is revealed at different angles along the descent and across the open circular rotunda in such a way that even the most well-known Monet landscape might seem like a revelation. This is best experienced as Wright intended by taking the elevator to the top of the museum and following the gentle slope down.
This novel, audacious approach to viewing and observing art has inspired grand exhibitions by today's most innovative artists, including a collection of films by Matthew Barney and a hundred sculptures by Maurizio Cattelan suspended from the ceiling. Make sure to take a break from the captivating season's main exhibit and visit the small rooms off the rotunda to see the permanent collection, which includes works by Picasso, Cezanne, Manet, and the largest collection of Kandinsky paintings to be permanently shown in America. This is especially important considering the high cost of admission ($25, students and seniors $18, children under 12 free).
- Website: https://www.guggenheim.org/
- Location: 1071 5th Ave, New York, NY 10128
