Finding 61: Removal of Brickwork from Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian House

May 9, 2011

From October 22nd to December 13th, 1953, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum hosted the exhibition Sixty Years of Living Architecture: The Work of Frank Lloyd Wright. In order to accommodate the show, a temporary pavilion was erected on the site of the future Frank Lloyd Wright-designed museum building. In addition to the pavilion, a model Usonian House was constructed on the lot and furnished with pieces designed by Wright. Conceived of by Wright as a sample of affordable housing for the average American, the two-bedroom house was built on a human scale, and had an open floor plan and ample natural light. The photograph shown here documents the final removal of brickwork from the Usonian House at the conclusion of the exhibition.

Before coming to New York, Sixty Years of Living Architecture had been shown in various European cities as well as in Mexico and proved to be immensely popular with the public. During the course of the exhibition in New York, over eighty-thousand visitors came to the museum, which remained open every day and had extended hours until 10 pm several days a week.

-Amanda Brown, Archives Assistant

Finding 60: Exterior Sign for the Museum of Non-Objective Painting

May 2, 2011

As evidenced by the sign visible through the museum window, this photograph, found within the Exhibition files, was taken during the Kandinsky Memorial Exhibition, which was held at the Museum of Non-Objective Painting from March 15 to April 29, 1945. Although the photograph shows the museum facade, documents found in the Hilla Rebay records help paint an even clearer picture of the exterior of 24 East 54th Street, where the museum was housed from 1939 until 1947. Correspondence between Rebay and the Reliance Sign Company, accompanied by a sketch and paint sample, reveal that the simple "Museum" sign had a blue metal background and raised white wooden letters. The 16-foot, 8-inch-high and 22-inch-wide sign hung 10 feet above the sidewalk, placing it approximately in the center of the 41-foot-high building. The blue paint samples, like the sign, are on galvanized metal. Correspondence from the sign company also reveals that Rebay, who picked sample A, was limited in her choice of blue shades for the sign due to the tendency of blue paint to fade. The sign was erected on the extreme west end of the building in February of 1940 and presumably remained there until the museum's move into a townhouse at 1071 Fifth Avenue in 1948.

–Shirin Khaki, Archives Assistant

Finding 59: The Correspondence of James Lee Byars

April 21, 2011

The artist James Lee Byars corresponded with Thomas M. Messer between 1965 and 1988, almost the entire duration of Messer's directorship at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Byars's letters arrived from various locations around the globe, including Japan where the artist resided sporadically in the late 1950s and the 1960s. Byars, not one to shy away from unusual forms of correspondence, wrote his letters on paper both tiny and huge, folded, crumpled, cut into shapes or otherwise manipulated. Byars favored bright red and gold colors, and delicate tissue and rice papers. He sent a single message spanning several postcards, a length of gold string, and decorated his large shaped cut out letters with glitter. Many letters discussed ideas for artwork and performances. However, no communication was too trivial for an unusual format—a long folded and crumpled piece of tissue paper revealed Byars' simple request for an appointment with Messer.

–Shirin Khaki, Archives Assistant

Finding 58: Illustrated Letter from Erich Müller-Kraus, 1951

April 14, 2011

During her tenure as Director of the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, Hilla Rebay corresponded with numerous artists, including a large number of artists from Germany. One of these artists was Cologne-based Erich Müller-Kraus, whose illustrated letter to Rebay is pictured here. Between the years 1948 and 1951, Müller-Kraus frequently wrote to Rebay and sent her small works on paper. He was also one of a number of European artists in need that Rebay helped through the donation of food packages and small amounts of money. In the letter featured here, the artist references his hardships with mention of the cold weather and not having enough coal.

-Amanda Brown, Archives Assistant

Finding 57: Unpacking Ceramics for Mastercraftsmen of Ancient Peru, 1968

April 8, 2011

This photograph documents the careful unpacking of artworks to be displayed in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum's 1968 exhibition, Mastercraftsmen of Ancient Peru. Conceived and initiated by Thomas Messer, Mastercraftsmen of Ancient Peru was guest-curated by Dr. Alan Sawyer, Director of the Textile Museum in Washington D.C. and an authority on Peruvian art. Over the course of several years, Dr. Sawyer made five trips to Peru in order to select works for the exhibition, and of the 700 pieces that went on view, most had never before been shown outside their country of origin. Spanning the period of 1500 BCE to 1500 CE, these pieces included textiles, ceramics, stone carving, and jewelry, as well as gold, silver, wood, and bone objects.

-Amanda Brown, Archives Assistant