The Syllabus
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View an interactive time line documenting the design and construction of the Guggenheim Museum.
The Syllabus offers points of entry into the Guggenheim's rich publication archives, with suggested readings on historical themes, topics, and trends, as well as links for further exploration.
The First Five Books
Hilla Rebay, director of the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, was not one to underestimate the power of abstraction—the nonobjective—in art:
For thousands of years astronomers, as well as laymen, believed that the earth was the center of the universe,...
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A Guide to Guides
Even from the museum's very first publication in 1937, the Solomon R.
Guggenheim Collection of Non-Objective Painting could not fit in one
volume. Cataloguing the museum's complete holdings in print has never
been an easy task, but it is still a...
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John Chamberlain
In capturing the essence of his
materials—by stressing the limpid but mysterious glimmer of
light-reflecting surfaces, the raucous color of the crushed automobile,
or the bellied fullness of foam, John Chamberlain has stopped just short
of excess....
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Lawrence Alloway
English art critic, professor, and
curator Lawrence Alloway (b. 1926, London; d. 1990, New York) brought a
unique curatorial vision to the Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum in the
early 1960s. In contrast to founding director and curator Hilla
Rebay’s
...
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Herbert Matter
Herbert Matter (b. 1907 Engelberg, Switzerland; d. 1984 Southampton, New York) was one of the mid-20th century's iconic designers. Remembered for travel posters for his native Switzerland and designs for the furniture maker Knoll, among many other...
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The Guggenheim International
The Guggenheim Museum has a long tradition of juried
competitions and awards. That lineage continues today with the Hugo Boss Prize,
but the first was the Guggenheim International Award. Established in 1956 to
survey artistic developments from...
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Cataloguing Kandinsky
Vasily Kandinsky is a central figure in the Guggenheim Museum's founding collection, and his importance is also reflected in the museum's publication history. Kandinsky has been the sole focus of no fewer than 15 books and catalogues. Beginning with...
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