Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a modern art museum located on the Upper East Side in New York City. Founded in 1937, it is one of the museums owned and operated by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and is often called The Guggenheim.

Originally known as "The Museum of Non-Objective Painting", the Guggenheim was created to showcase avant-garde art by early modernists. It moved to its present size at the corners of 89th Street and Fifth Avenue, overlooking Central Park, in 1959. The architect was the celebrated Frank Lloyd Wright. The design polarised the architecture community, though today it is widely reverred.

Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York City
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guggenheim_Museum_NYC_326503630_7378975987.jpg
Author: Gryffindor


The inside of the Guggenheim forms a gentle spiral from the ground level to the top of the building. The paintings are displayed on the walls of the spiral as well as in viewing galleries along the way.

The Solomon R Guggenheim Museum has garnered quite a lot of criticism centred on the difficulty to hang paintings on its shallow windowless exhibition niches. The niches are shadowed by the walkway, forcing the painting to require artificial lighting to be properly appreciated. As the walls of the niches are not verticle, the paintings must be mounted proud of the wall surfaces. Due to lack of space in those niches, many paintings had to be relegated to plinths on the main spiral walkway. This displeased many artists; prior to the museum's opening, twenty-one of them signed a letter protesting the treatment to their work.

Getting there

Getting there by subway requires a bit of walking. Take the 4, 5, 6 or 6X train to the 86th Street Subway Station. Walk westward on 86th Street till you reach Museum Mile. Turn right and continue along Museum Mile until you see the museum on your right.

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