The History of the Guggenheim
Solomon R. Guggenheim was an American industrialist whose family made its fortune in mining. Solomon began to collect paintings in the 1930s by modern artists such as Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Marc Chagall. He established the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for the advancement of art and art education in 1937 and put his collection on display two years later. Since its opening, the Guggenheim Museum has been expanding by opening sister branches of the museum and constantly expanding its collections.
Design
When Guggenheim first put his art on display in 1939 at the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, the location was a former car showroom. Solomon and Countess Hilla Rebay, the first director of the museum, commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design a building for the art collection. The Guggenheim Museum was the last project that Frank Lloyd Wright would work on. He modeled the Guggenheim after the ziggurats of ancient Mesopotamia. The new location opened on Oct. 21, 1959, on Fifth Avenue and 89th Street in New York City.
Leadership
The early directors of the museum greatly expanded the museum's collection and enhanced the reputation of the museum. When James Johnson Sweeney became director in 1952, he introduced sculpture into the Guggenheim starting with the acquisition of Brancusi's "Adam and Eve." He also brought in 19th-century art with the acquisition of Cezanne's "Man with Crossed Arms." Thomas Messer took over as director in 1961, acquiring Impressionist and post-Impressionist works from the Justin K. Thannhauser Collection.
Thomas Krens became director of the Guggenheim in 1988, and Richard Armstrong was named director in 2008.
Collections
Under the directorship of Thomas Messer, Solomon Guggenheim's niece Peggy agreed to donate her Palazzo Venier dei Leoni in Venice and all of its art to her uncle's foundation. Peggy Guggenheim had purchased the palace in 1949 and had been allowing the public to view the palace and its works since 1951. It became part of the Guggenheim in 1980, a year after Peggy's death. Her collection included works by Braque, Dali, Ernst, Magritte and Pollock.
Holdings
Under Thomas Krens' directorship, the Guggenheim increased its art holdings by 50 percent. He brought in the Panza Collection in 1991, which consisted of Minimalist, post-Minimalist and conceptual art. Krens also introduced photography to the Guggenheims in 1993 with a $5 million gift from the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.
Locations
Aside from its Upper East Side and Venice locations, Guggenheim Museum branches include Bilbao, Spain; Berlin, Germany; Las Vegas; and SoHo in New York City. A branch of the Guggenheim is also set to open in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, in 2013. Its exhibits will include Middle Eastern contemporary art.
