Zaha Hadid, Pritzker Prize–winning architect and subject of a major retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2006, has won the architectural competition for a proposed new museum in Vilnius, Lithuania. The competition is part of a feasibility study for a center of contemporary and media art, commissioned by the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center in Vilnius and conducted jointly by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the State Hermitage Museum. The study includes architectural, economic, and cultural considerations, as well as programming recommendations for the new museum, which will be located on the banks of the Neris River. In addition to Hadid, Daniel Libeskind and Massimiliano Fuksas submitted designs for the project. An exhibition of the works of all three architects opened to the public April 10 at the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center.

Event planner David Monn's designs for the Guggenheim International Gala won in three categories at the BizBash 2008 New York Event Style Awards: overall event décor, tabletop design, and nonprofit event concept. Monn's eco-friendly design used recycled cardboard for the tables and accents, waves of cardboard covering the venue's ceiling (in homage to the undulating curves of Gala honoree Frank Gehry), and auction paddles that served as both name card and menus, to cut down on paper waste. The event took place in a parking lot on Pier 40, and Monn was lauded for his ability to transform the space, which according to the judges looked "more like art than décor." BizBash is the leading trade media for the event planning industry, and its 2008 awards took place at the Nokia Theater in Times Square before an audience of over 700 event planning professionals. The 2007 Guggenheim International Gala raised a record-breaking $4.4 million to support the Guggenheim's exhibition and education programs.

The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, a planned sixth museum in the expanding Guggenheim network, grows closer to realization with the announcement in November 2007 of an operating framework determined by members of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, and Abu Dhabi’s Tourism Development & Investment Company. The museum, to be built on Saadiyat Island adjacent to the main island of Abu Dhabi City, and to be designed by Frank Gehry, will have a joint administrative and program entity that will oversee the creation and management of the museum. The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will have its own acquisitions and commissions program with which to build a strong collection of modern and contemporary art, and Guggenheim Foundation curators will work with Guggenheim Abu Dhabi staff to recommend works for the collection and develop the exhibitions program for the museum, with a focus on regional artists and trends. In addition to an on-site staff, which will include United Arab Emirates nationals, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will have offices in New York, allowing for easier communication between the museums.

The inaugural meeting of the Guggenheim Museum’s Asian Art Council convened September 20–22, 2007, in New York under the leadership of Alexandra Munroe, Senior Curator of Asian Art. The distinguished group of 18 scholars, curators, museum directors, and artists, from 8 countries across Asia, discussed the intellectual course of modern and contemporary Asian art and debated key issues pertinent to its curatorial practice. The council's seminar meetings were organized around six panel discussions, including: "What is the mission of Asian art curators in the age of globalization?" and "Asian art in context: A nation-based, inter-Asia, or an international paradigm?" The spirited debates furthered the Guggenheim Museum's commitment to foster a sophisticated critical methodology for the study of globalism and contemporary art.

Fall 2007 was a time of historic celebrations and an especially eventful time for Guggenheim museums worldwide as important anniversaries were celebrated and a dynamic exhibition program launched the season.

On October 27, 2007, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum hosted celebrated Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli’s one-night-only performance of Luigi Pirandello’s 1917 play, Right You Are (If You Think You Are), presented by PERFORMA 07. Vezzoli’s reenvisioning of the play, which explores society’s fascination with fame and the private lives of film stars, featured a stunning celebrity cast that included Cate Blanchett, Ellen Burstyn, Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, David Strathairn, Elaine Stritch, and Dianne Wiest.

In Spain, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao commemorated its 10th anniversary in October 2007 with a series of events and the opening of two special exhibitions: Art in the USA: 300 Years of Innovation, a reflection on the complex visual narrative of a nation during times of discovery, growth, and experimentation; and Chacun à son goût (Each to Their Own Taste), featuring contemporary Basque artists invited to produce new, interactive works specifically for the museum’s exhibition spaces.

In Berlin, the Deutsche Guggenheim also marked its 10th anniversary with a week-long celebration in early November centered around the special exhibition Jeff Wall: Exposure. The exhibition, commissioned by the Deutsche Bank in consultation with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, presented four new, large-scale black-and-white photographs by the internationally renowned artist. Highlights from the series of events accompanying the exhibition opening and anniversary celebration included an artist’s talk with Jeff Wall focusing on his new photographs, and “Art Spaces for Tomorrow,” a panel discussion with international experts Janna Bullock, Walter Grasskamp, Ydessa Hendeles, Thomas Krens, Ernst Veen, and moderator Max Hollein offering their perspectives on the demands and challenges of exhibition spaces of the future.

This January, a crew and cast of over 150 people assembled at the Guggenheim Museum in New York for the filming of a new action thriller entitled The International. Directed by Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run and Perfume), The International stars Clive Owen as Interpol Agent Louis Salinger and Naomi Watts as Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman. Both are determined to bring one of the world’s most powerful banks to justice. In addition to filming on-site at the museum, Sony completed a phase of shooting in Berlin on a meticulously faithful set of the Guggenheim Museum’s ramps and lobby.

The generous support of the Terra Foundation for American Art has enabled Guggenheim educators from New York and Bilbao to co-organize artistic, scholarly, and professional opportunities to serve existing communities and to cultivate new ones targeting local educators, academics, business communities, and civic leaders.

From October 9–11, 2007 more than 20 Spanish educators participated in a series of workshops entitled Finding Connections: Across the Sea, Across the Galleries. The workshops provided curatorial overviews of Art in the USA: 300 Years of Innovation and Chacun à son goût (Each to Their Own Taste), an exhibition of contemporary Basque artists organized by guest curator Rosa Martínez. The final session, led jointly by Sharon Vatsky (New York) and Marta Prado (Bilbao), was devoted to finding thematic connections between the two exhibitions. This three-session workshop helped teachers develop their gallery teaching skills and learn to facilitate open-ended discussions.

From January 9–10, 2008, the symposium In Transit: Three Hundred Years Of Art In The USA introduced an unprecedented view of how American art can be understood from inside and outside its borders. This program assembled a dynamic cast of interdisciplinary thinkers to reflect upon the shifting perceptions of the United States within global histories of art, culture, and politics. Bringing to Bilbao a diverse and intellectually collaborative team, this international dialogue was developed by Kim Kanatani and Christina Yang (New York), and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao staff, with the advisement of Veerle Thielemans, Musée d’Art Américain Giverny.

Both programs were part of a professional museum exchange model developed by senior educators at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum for the tour of Art in the USA. Together, these programs presented a singular opportunity to understand how art can build bridges across geographic and cultural differences towards shared public understanding.

January 18, 2008

THE HUGO BOSS PRIZE 2008 Shortlist Announced

Thomas Krens, Director, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and Bruno Saelzer, Chairman and CEO, HUGO BOSS AG, announced the shortlist for the 2008 Hugo Boss Prize, which awards significant achievement in contemporary art. The Hugo Boss Prize is a biennial award administered by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and is juried by a distinguished international panel of museum directors, curators, and critics. The 2008 finalists are Christoph Buechel (b. 1966, Swiss), Patty Chang (b. 1972, American), Sam Durant (b. 1961, American), Emily Jacir (b. 1970, Palestinian), Joachim Koester (b. 1962, Danish), and Roman Signer (b. 1928, Swiss). A publication featuring the work of all six finalists with accompanying essays will be published in June 2008. The prize carries with it an award of $100,000, and sets no restrictions in terms of age, gender, race, nationality, or media. The nominations may include young, emerging artists as well as established individuals whose public recognition may be long overdue. The winner of the Hugo Boss Prize 2008 will be announced in fall 2008, and an exhibition of the winning artist's work will be presented in spring 2009 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

In just three years the Guggenheim International Gala has become one of New York's most successful and admired benefit events, and the most recent gala raised a record-breaking $4.4 million for the museum's exhibition and education programs. Over 500 guests attended the November 8, 2007, event at Pier 40. Event designer David Monn transformed the space by swathing the industrial piping and concrete pillars in folds of cardboard, and plates of food prepared by Le Cirque chefs rested on recycled card mats and cardboard tables. Monn's design—inspired by one of the 2007 honorees, Frank Gehry—caught the attention of Martha Stewart, who made the Gala the subject of a segment on her show Martha. The 2007 Gala also honored Jenny Holzer, Anish Kapoor, Catherine Opie, Richard Prince, and Tom Sachs, artists with whom the Guggenheim Foundation has been closely involved in the past year.

On Wednesday, October 17, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao was given the 2007 Basque Universal Award, a prize established in 1996 to recognize individuals, groups, or institutions whose activities promote a positive image of the Basque Country abroad. Juan Ignacio Vidarte, director of the museum, accepted the award from Basque Country President Juan José Ibarretxe. Vidarte remarked that the Basque Universal Award is the highest recognition a Basque can aspire to, and said the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is just one element in the continuing development and transformation of the Basque region and Bilbao. The award coincides with the museum’s 10th anniversary.

In his speech, Basque President Ibarretxe said the factors that were considered in granting the award included the museum’s transformative effect on the cityscape as well as the economy, having brought in over ten million visitors in the ten years that the Frank Gehry–designed building has been open. President Ibarretxe also recognized previous Basque president Jose Antonion Ardanza for initiating the project, and commended his foresight.

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives recently received funding from the New York State Council on the Arts to support the digitization of the Frank Lloyd Wright Correspondence, a collection that documents the construction of the museum between 1943 and 1959. The project enables images of records from the collection to be publicly displayed through the Guggenheim’s Web site.

The Frank Lloyd Wright correspondence consists of conversations between Wright and trustees of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, including Solomon R. Guggenheim, Harry F. Guggenheim, and Albert E. Thiele; NYC Building Commissioner Robert Moses; and the museum’s first directors, Hilla Rebay and James Johnson Sweeney. The papers include discussions of the museum site, plans, models, building costs, architect fees, contractors, and display of artwork. This correspondence describes not only the construction of the museum building, but also a revolutionary turn in the conception of American architecture and museum exhibition spaces. This project is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

The Guggenheim International Gala (GIG) will take place on November 8, 2007, at an as yet undisclosed location. Now in its third year, the GIG has become one of the most exciting and important museum benefits in New York City. The live auction is presided over by Simon de Pury, and has realized enormous success in the past with artworks by honorees including Matthew Barney, Louise Bourgeois, William Kentridge, Richard Prince, and Ed Ruscha. Tickets are already selling fast, and our friends and supporters are encouraged to save the date. If you would like more information, please contact Bronwyn Keenan at bkeenan@guggenheim.org or 212 360 4255.

Tacita Dean's oeuvre includes such diverse mediums as drawing, sound, and found photographs, but she is perhaps best known for her compelling 16mm films. While focusing on architectural relics, portraiture, history, and memory, these films also investigate cinematic mechanisms and materials. An exhibition of the artist's work will be presented at the Guggenheim Museum from February 23 through June 6, 2007. 

Established in 1996 to recognize significant achievements in contemporary art, the Hugo Boss Prize is a biennial award administered by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and presided over by an international jury of museum directors, curators, and critics. The prize carries with it an award of $50,000. Past winners of the prize are: Matthew Barney (1996), Douglas Gordon (1998), Marjetica Potrc (2000), Pierre Huyghe (2002), and Rirkrit Tiravanija (2004).

Visit the web page for this exhibition

ABOVE: Portrait of Tacita Dean. Photo by Martin Bühler, courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery, New York and Paris

November 2, 2006

2006 HUGO BOSS PRIZE WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT

The winner of the biennial Hugo Boss Prize will be announced November 14. The finalists for 2006 include:

Jennifer Allora (US) & Guillermo Calzadilla (Puerto Rico) – installation, sculpture, photo, video 
John Bock (Germany) – performance, installation, film
Tacita Dean (UK) – film, video, drawing
Damián Ortega (Mexico) – sculpture, installation
Aïda Ruilova (US) – video
Tino Sehgal (Germany) – situations 

An exhibition of the prize-winning artist’s work opens at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on February 23, 2007.

Visit the web page for this exhibition

November 2, 2006

UPCOMING EVENTS

On November 9, our second Guggenheim International Gala takes place in Central Park. This event features a benefit auction, including works by Dennis Hopper, John McCracken, Piotr Uklanski, Louise Bourgeois, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Zaha Hadid, William Kentridge, Cai Guo-Qiang, and several others. The 2005 gala was so popular that almost all the tickets sold before the invitations were even printed! Pictures and news of this event will be published in the winter 2007 issue of Guggenheim magazine.
 
In the meantime, we want to alert members to several other opportunities to party at the Guggenheim in 2006. On December 11, for the third year running, the New York City Ballet performs selections from The Nutcracker Suite, to be followed by tea and dancing in the rotunda. This ever-popular event, known as "The Nutcracker Sweet," allows the whole family to celebrate the holiday together. Due to high demand, a second, 7 pm performance (without dinner and dancing in the rotunda) has been added. On December 14, the Young Collectors Council hosts its Artist’s Ball, a famously stylish evening, sponsored by Armani. It is the final "must-attend" event of the fall season and features a silent auction of work by young artists. Please contact Bronwyn Keenan at bkeenan@guggenheim.org or (212) 360-4255 for information on both events.

ABOVE: Artist's Ball 2005. Photo: Patrick McMullan

November 2, 2006

SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM—PODCAST 2: PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

Today the Guggenheim releases its second podcast for the public. This 7 minute, 40 second presentation describes the museum's upcoming highlights, including popular programs like First Fridays, Works & Process, and Good Better Best: Perspectives on Connoisseurship. It is narrated by Lisa Dennison, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and features artists Jeff Koons and Hiroshi Sugiomoto.

The first podcast, released this past summer, discusses the ongoing restoration of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the acclaimed summer 2006 exhibition Zaha Hadid.

Visit the podcast web page

September 18, 2006

GUGGENHEIM COLLECTION IS TALK OF BONN

During its opening weeks, The Guggenheim Collection—the foundation’s largest-ever collection show, which is currently on view in two museums in Bonn, Germany—has been an outstanding success, far exceeding the expectations of its organizers. As of mid-September, the Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, which hosts the bulk of the show, had drawn nearly 220,000 visitors since the July 21 opening. Timed tickets were issued for weekend visitors to control the crowds, and the exhibition catalogue quickly sold out, forcing the museum to place an order for more copies—something it has never done before, despite hosting collection shows of other world-class institutions including the Hermitage, the Prado, and the Museum of Modern Art.

Attendance at the Kunstmuseum Bonn, where the Guggenheim's contemporary holdings are on display, has also been exceptionally high. The museum has reported 80,000 visitors through September 10, a number that already approaches its usual yearly average of 100,000. Critics have been no less enthusiastic. According to Bloomberg, the exhibition "is breathtaking in scope, and a triumph of coherent curating."

For more:
http://www.guggenheim.org/press_office.html

ABOVE: Philip Rylands, Thomas Krens, Lisa Dennison, and Juan Ignacio Vidarte in Bonn. Photo: Peter Oszvald

July 29, 2006

LTA A SUCCESS

On July 27–28, nearly 250 people attended a conference in the Peter B. Lewis Theater to learn more about important research conducted by the Guggenheim's Learning Through Art (LTA) program. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, a three-year study uncovered groundbreaking evidence concerning the impact the arts can have on student literacy and critical-thinking skills.

The conference began with a presentation by Randi Korn & Associates, the evaluation team responsible for collecting and analyzing the data. RK&A explained that students who had participated in the LTA program performed better on several critical thinking tests than those who had not. Their research was notable for being the first of its kind to use a large sample size and rigorous statistical modeling. The study's findings, according to the New York Times, are "likely to stimulate debate" at a time when funding for arts education is being cut.

Other conference highlights included keynote speeches by Kieran Egan, a noted educational thinker, and Michael Kimmelman, New York Times chief art critic, as well as presentations by contemporary artists. Following this success, LTA has been awarded a new $1 million grant by the Department of Education to conduct new research on art education and problem solving.

For more:
http://www.guggenheim.org/press_office.html

July 8, 2006

GUGGENHEIM EXPANDS TO ABU DABI

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation currently owns and operates museums in New York, Venice, and Las Vegas, and is a partner in the operation of branches in Bilbao and Berlin. This unique international model has significantly increased awareness of the Guggenheim, helped it to expand its collections and programs, and dramatically broadened its outreach and audience. But when will the network be complete? As part of its recent strategic planning process, the Board of Trustees stated its goal to seek a Guggenheim presence in Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. On July 8, this strategy came one step closer to realization, when an agreement was signed in Abu Dhabi (the capital of the United Arab Emirates) to build a new Guggenheim there. The architect will be Frank Gehry, whose design for the Bilbao Guggenheim played a major role in that project's stunning success. At 30,000 square meters, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will be significantly larger than Bilbao, and is the cornerstone of a major cultural initiative that the government hopes will lure Western tourists and investors to this progressive Middle Eastern land of beaches, skyscrapers, and vast deserts. Guggenheim Foundation Chairman William Mack led a delegation of trustees to the project launch, and Gehry has already begun work on a design. The museum is expected to be built within five years. As in Bilbao (which celebrates its tenth anniversary next year), the government will own the building itself, while the Guggenheim will oversee the architectural design and plan and implement the artistic program. The Guggenheim will also guide the Abu Dhabi museum in the formation of a major collection of international contemporary art, which will be owned by the government but fully available for display in any Guggenheim museum around the world.

For more:
http://www.guggenheim.org/press_office.html

ABOVE: Frank Gehry, David Croff, Edward Meyer, Thomas Krens, Victoria Duffy, and Dennis Hopper. Photo: Jon Walley

June 27, 2006

NEW PHOTO CURATOR

Lisa Dennison, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, announced today the appointment of Jennifer Blessing as the Guggenheim's first Curator of Photography. Blessing will be responsible for organizing special exhibitions and overseeing the museum's growing photography collection.

Blessing joined the staff of the Guggenheim in 1989 as a Project Assistant Curator. During her tenure at the museum she has organized several photo-based exhibitions including the currently touring shows Speaking with Hands: Photographs from The Buhl Collection and Family Pictures: Contemporary Photographs and Videos from the Collection of the Guggenheim Museum. She is working on an exhibition of the work of photographer Catherine Opie for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (tentatively scheduled for 2008) and a commission of work by Jeff Wall for the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin in 2007.

For more:
http://www.guggenheim.org/press_office.html

ABOVE: Jennifer Blessing. Photo: Lina Bertucci

April 4, 2006

GONZALEZ-TORRES AT VENICE BIENNALE

Nancy Spector, Guggenheim Curator of Contemporary Art and Director of Curatorial Affairs, has been selected to curate the U.S. Pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennale with an exhibition of the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres. One of only two artists ever chosen to represent the U.S. at the Biennale posthumously, Gonzalez-Torres is known for exceptionally generous, conceptually rigorous works that comprise stacks of printed paper or spills of candies that viewers can take away. In 1995, he was the subject of a retrospective at the Guggenheim, also curated by Spector. The Biennale will feature a new work based on the artist's drawings but unrealized during his lifetime.