Perhaps most uniquely, the Deutsche Guggenheim annually commissions one, or occasionally two, new artworks or series by contemporary artists, which are debuted in exhibitions organized in collaboration with the selected artist and one or more Guggenheim Museum curators, and accompanied by a catalogue and related programming. Over time, many of these works have been shown in New York and Bilbao and some have entered the Guggenheim Foundation’s permanent collection.

A number of the commissions represent a continuation of the Guggenheim Foundation’s existing commitments to particular artists, while others have afforded the opportunity to establish new working relationships. The eighteen artists who have participated in the series to date—Paweł Althamer, John Baldessari, Hanne Darboven, Anish Kapoor, William Kentridge, Jeff Koons, Julie Mehretu, Gabriel Orozco, Gerhard Richter, James Rosenquist, Andreas Slominski, Agathe Snow, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Bill Viola, Jeff Wall, Phoebe Washburn, Lawrence Weiner, and Rachel Whiteread—comprise various nationalities, genders, and generations, and work in a diversity of media.

Hanne Darboven, Hommage à Picasso, 1995–2006. 270 framed panels with 36 drawings in each; bronze bust of Picasso; 3 straw donkeys; 2 vitrines with sculptures of zodiac signs; bronze goat; 1 framed print of a Picasso's Seated Figure in Turkish Costume, 1955; and musical score by Hanne Darboven, dimensions variable. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Partial gift, Deutsche Bank AG. Commissioned by Deutsche Bank AG in consultation with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, 2007.78. © Hanne Darboven. Photo: Matthias Schormann