GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM
Designed by Frank Gehry, opened in 1997, Guggenheim Bilbao is now known the world over. It was an instant hit in a city that before then was much more industrial and not a must-see tourist destination. The Guggenheim Foundation was looking for a site in Europe for a second museum and had been interested in Salzburg, Austria.
A big Mozart anniversary was looming, and that city didn’t have the bandwidth to both celebrate Mozart and deal with a $100 million dollar museum project. Hence, a formerly industrial area of this city, Bilbao, became the site, and museum construction took about four years.
For anyone who has seen photos, Gehry’s building is unusually shaped, weird looking, and stunning. It has angles and towers and a thin layer of titanium on the exterior that shines slightly in different kinds of light. There are also several sculptures around the museum plaza outside, including Louise Bourgeois’ spider, a tribute to her weaver mother, and inside, such as the collapsed Badminton birdie which upon first viewing looks like a plant or fern leaves.
We spent several hours at the museum today, both inside and outside with our guide Sergio. He’s well versed in the details of its construction and able to speak in detail about the paintings and other art works inside.
PERMANENT COLLECTION
Not surprising, I suppose, many art pieces are by Americans, and women are very well represented throughout the exhibits we saw on display. Some galleries are changed out every several months.
Among the permanent pieces are a light and scrolling text piece related to AIDS by Jenny Holzer simply entitled, Installation for Bilbao, 1997, and eight huge metal sculptures that visitors can walk into or through by Richard Serra.
A sinuous one is called Snake, and the others are part of a series entitled, Torqued Ellipses, 1996-98, or The Matter of Time.
We also got a glimpse of Barbara Kruger’s skylight exhibit, The globe shrinks (for those who own it), in which the walls and floor are covered with words in red relating to inequality.
Japanese artist Yayyoi Kusama provides a strange experience in a small mirrored room with lights, Infinity Mirrored Room – A Wish for Human Happiness Calling from Beyond the Universe, 2020. The colored lights go on and off, the room briefly goes completely dark, and you see several reflections of yourself. Only four or five people fit in the closed room at a time.
And lastly, one more work we found intriguing, which our guide called Box Man. We didn’t get the name of the artist, but its emphasis on clothing to the exclusion of some other features made it memorable.
Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)
