Guggenheim Case Study http://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/visualarts/museums/Guggenheim.

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The Guggenheim Museums:

Case Study in Contemporary Museum Issues

In 1937, Solomon R. Guggenheim announced that he was going to create a philanthropic foundation to
establish a "Museum of Non-Objective Art" in New York. The
Guggenheim Museum began as a privately-funded, new
institution for non-representational, abstract, modern art, and
Guggenheim commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design a
new kind of museum space (see museum history). After
beginning in a smaller location, the Guggenheim opened the
Wright building in 1959 (see more on the building).

The first works that defined the collection were from non-
objective painters like Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Piet
Mondrian. The collection greatly expanded in the 1970s when
Peggy Guggenheim, a niece of Solomon and a famous art
collector and dealer, donated her art collection then housed in
her Venetian home, the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand
Canal in Venice (see the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice
site, now part of the Guggenheim Foundation). In the 1990s,
the Guggenheim expanded into something like an empire,
opening new museums in SoHo (New York, 1992), Bilbao
(Spain, 1997), Berlin (1997), Las Vegas (2001). In
2002-2003, the financial strains of the expansion caused
cutbacks in NY and Las Vegas. The Wright-designed, NY Guggenheim

The stages of the Guggenheim's growth and expansion since the late 1980s are a window onto artworld
and museum economics and politics. The expansion was funded by overlapping sources of money: from
the private and corporate sectors (donors and sponsorships) and from nonprofit and public sources
(foundation and public arts money). The expansion, overseen and promoted by Thomas Krens, the
museum director since 1988, included large, expensive, "blockbuster" art shows, and Krens' business
approach has generated controversy and criticism from many sides of the artworld and museum
constituents.

The following readings are sources for building a case study on current museum issues using the recent
history and current state of the Guggenheim as an example. These articles are to be read in the context
of the prior readings on the social, political, and economic conditions of art museums today.

Readings

Museum website and history of the N.Y. Guggenheim

History of Guggenheim, Bilbao
Photographs of the Gehry-designed Bilbao Museum
Artnet photos of show at Gugg-Bilbao, 2000.
Descriptions and press releases on "The Global Guggenheim" exhibition in 2001: Museum
description || Press Release
Evdoxia Baniotopoulou, "Art for Whose Sake? Modern Art Museums and Their Role in Transforming
Societies: The Case of the Guggenheim Bilbao," Journal of Conservation and Museum Studies,
November 2001.

"When Merchants Enter the Temple," Economist, 3/19/2001. [On the new business model of the
museum.]
Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, "Viva Las Vegas!" Artnet, 10/11/01. [On the Guggenheim, Las Vegas]
Herbert Muschamp, "When Art Puts Down a Bet in a House of Games," NYT, 4/12/02. [Review of
Guggenheim Las Vegas.]
Jerry Saltz, GuggEnron, Artnet, 2/13/02.

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Guggenheim Case Study http://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/visualarts/museums/Guggenheim.html

Deborah Solomon, "Is the Go-Go Guggenheim Going, Going . . .," New York Times, Magazine,
6/30/2002. [Major look at the state of the Guggenheim, in the NYT Magazine.]

Michael Kimmelman, "An Era Ends for the Guggenheim," NYT, 12/6/02. [Budget crunch and board
director's ultimatum for Krens.]
Christine Bohlen, "Chairman Gives the Guggenheim an Ultimatum, Then $12 Million," NYT,
12/4/02.
Christine Bohlen, "Retrenching Guggenheim Closes Hall in Las Vegas," NYT, 12/24/02.
David W. Dunlap, "Guggenheim Drops Plans for East River Museum," NYT, 12/31/02.

Kelly Devine Thomas, "The Guggenheim Downsizes," ARTnews, February 2003. ["After years of
expansion, Guggenheim director Thomas Krens has slashed spending, staff, and programming
—under pressure from board chair Peter Lewis to balance the budget or leave the museum ."]

Martin Irvine, 2003-2005

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