Guggenheim

As I hinted in my earlier post, I’d share about my visit to the Guggenheim art museum. Well here it is, documenting my visit on July 12.

The building itself is a piece of work. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and opened in 1959, the building is “one of the 20th century’s most important architectural landmarks” (Wiki).

That iconic building shape

This is how I found out that the designer and architect are not the same person!

The building is cone shaped, like a funnel, where visitors enter from the bottom and walk in a spiral to the top. There are paintings alongside the spiral walls as well as galleries that branch out even further inside.

I had some enthusiastic models in this one.

Unfortunately, no photography was allowed past the first floor. This policy always infuriates me because I don’t see the harm in visitors taking photos. If anything, it’s giving the museum more publicity! As a result, I didn’t get many pictures of the artwork inside. The exhibit featuring Latin American Art Today, however, allowed photography:

From what I can remember about the work above, the artist captured ordinary street photos of a couple hundred Latin American men and turned them into posters for the museum. What I thought was cool was how we could switch out and change the placement of the posters hanging on the wall. I’m all for interactive art!

My friend stepped behind this poster at the right time. Haha!

The museum’s featuring exhibit was Italian Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe.

Summing up the spirit of Italian futurism:

“To be a Futurist in the Italy of the early 20th century was to be modern, young, and insurgent. Inspired by the markers of modernity—the industrial city, machines, speed, and flight—Futurism’s adherents exalted the new and the disruptive.” (Guggenheim)

I’m pretty mad at myself for not writing down the names of artists that I liked since I couldn’t photograph their artwork. However, I rediscovered some of them through the museum website and the Internet (thanks, Google).

The Spell is Broken by Giacomo Balla

The City Rises by Umberto Boccioni (Source)

Mario Chiattone (Source)

All that detail, especially in drawing the bridge’s trusses!

My favorite pieces had repeated geometric shapes colored in by watercolors, but I couldn’t find them anywhere on the Guggenheim’s website. More specifically, there was one work composed of long, thin, colorful triangles that created a larger circle. I mentally KICK myself for not taking note of the artist. Can someone please help me identify the works and who was the artist? The style looks very similar to this one by Balla, but I’m not sure if the ones that I liked were also by him:

Study for Iridescent Interpenetration (Source)

Finally, some pieces that weren’t in the futurist collection but ones I liked:

Hang it All by Gabriel Sierra

In the same exhibit:

Photocred: JunQi Z.

This geometric projection onto the floor looked so cool!

I took the above photo in an interesting exhibit. Dramatic orchestra music was playing in the background and the lights flickered and changed color in time with the beat. I’m happy with how all the colors & contrast turned out!

We reached the top and I sneaked in a picture. Bite me.

I’m still bothered by not knowing who drew my favorite watercolor geometric pieces. So, I’d highly appreciate anyone who’s reading this and knows and would be willing to share the knowledge 🙂 Have you ever been to the Guggenheim? What were some memorable exhibits or pieces that you saw?

Thanks for reading!

P.S. Off topic-note: on the way back, we entered a bookstore where I saw this CAT!! Every bookstore should have cats…

Photocred: JunQi Z.

More New York museums: Ai Wei Wei Exhibit, Museum of Arts and Design, An Afternoon at MoMA