Exhibitions in New York, USA: Guggenheim Foundation celebrates 80 years with “Visionaries: Creating a Modern Guggenheim”
To commemorate the Guggenheim foundation’s important role in the curation of modern and contemporary art over the last 80 years, the institution will display over 170 pieces from its New York and Venice museums as part of an exhibition entitled “Visionaries: Creating a Modern Guggenheim”
Solomon R. Guggenheim at the Plaza Hotel, New York, ca. 1937, with Rudolf Bauer’s Andante (from Tetraptychon: Symphony in Four Movements, 1926–30) (Photo credit: Underwood and Underwood Studios, New York, courtesy HvRF Archives)
Founded in 1937, 2017 marks the 80th birthday of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. The foundation is dedicated to the collection, preservation, and research of modern and contemporary art, and has several museums all over the world, with the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (designed by Frank Gehry) currently under construction.
“Visionaries: Creating a Modern Guggenheim”
The exhibition will take a look back at the foundation’s collections of avant-garde innovations dating from the late 19th through mid-20th centuries, as well as the work of six patrons who shone spotlights on emerging artists. One such patron to be honored will be Solomon R. Guggenheim himself (1861-1949), who, along with the help of the German artist Hilla von Rebay (1890-1967), pioneered collecting and curating non-objective art.
Vasily Kandinsky Composition 8 (Komposition 8), July 1923 Oil on canvas, 140 x 201 cm Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By gift, 1937 (Photo credit: Underwood and Underwood Studios, New York, courtesy HvRF Archives)
Other patrons include Justin K. Thannhauser (1892-1976), a leading collector of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and early School of Paris pieces, Karl Nierendorf (1889-1947) the Expressionist expert, and Guggenheim’s neice, Peggy (1898-1979.)
Over 170 pieces from the permanent collections held in New York and Venice will be displayed in the institution’s rotunda on 5th Avenue, NYC. Artists whose work will be displayed include Alexander Calder, Paul Cézanne, Marc Chagall, Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, and Vincent van Gogh. Lesser-known modern-day artists will also be displayed. In all, the exhibition will contain work by 70 artists.
“Visionaries: Creating a Modern Guggenheim” will be curated by Megan Fontanella, Curator, Collections and Provenance at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1071 5th Ave, New York, NY 10128, USA). The exhibition opens on February 10, 2017.
