Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao

 

  When it opened in 1997, the Frank Gehry–designed Guggenheim Museum Bilbao—a spectacular structure made of titanium, glass, and limestone—was hailed as the most important building of its time. Located in the Basque city of Bilbao in northern Spain, the museum features exhibitions organized by the Guggenheim Foundation and by the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, as well as selections from the permanent collection of the Guggenheim Museums

Instantly hailed as the most important structure of its time, Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum Bilbao has celebrated more than a decade of extraordinary success. With over a hundred exhibitions and more than ten million visitors to its credit, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao has changed the way people think about museums, and it continues to challenge assumptions about the connections between art, architecture, and collecting.

Assembled over the past decade, Bilbao’s collection of art spans from the mid-twentieth century to the present day. Concentrated on post-war painting and sculpture in America and Europe, the collection is autonomous yet complements the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s outstanding holdings of modern and contemporary art. This concept of individual collections existing within a shared network is at the heart of the Guggenheim’s aim to foster cultural exchange and exhibit art to the widest possible audience.

Under the Guggenheim Foundation’s advisement, Bilbao has acquired key works by some of the most significant artists of the second half of the twentieth century, including Anselm Kiefer, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, James Rosenquist, Clyfford Still, Cy Twombly, and Andy Warhol. The acquisition of singular masterworks by leading artists allows the museum to present a series of influential high points of modern and contemporary art. Major acquisitions include Joseph Beuys’s Lightning with Stag in Its Glare (1958–85); Jeff Koons’s Puppy (1992), now iconic in its position in the museum plaza; Mark Rothko’s Untitled (1952–53); and Robert Rauschenberg’s Barge (1962–63), purchased jointly with the museum in New York.

Facts

• This unique Museum built on a 32,500 square meter site in the center of Bilbao represents an amazing construction feat.
• The opening of the museum provided a boost for tourism. Thousands of visitors come to Bilbao every year just to see the museum.
• There are two ponds surrounding the building, one of them on the east side and the other to the southwest.
• Eleven thousand square meters of exhibition space are distributed in 19 galleries. Ten of these galleries have an almost classical orthogonal look and can be identified from outside by their stone finishes. Nine other irregularly-shaped galleries present a remarkable contrast and can be identified from outside by their unusual architecture and the covering of titanium.
• The museum has a total of 24,000 square meters of which 200 are occupied by a library, 600 by an auditorium, 1,100 by a shop and the restaurant and cafeteria occupy another 1,100 square meters. The atrium in front of the building is 300 square meters and has a height of 50 meters.
• There is a tower next to the main museum building but it is merely decorative. It contains some stairs that go from Paseo de Abandoibarra to La Salve bridge.
• The administrative offices of the museum are made of marble rather than titanium.
• Before choosing titanium, 29 different materials including stainless steel, copper and aluminum were considered.
• Each of the titanium pieces of which the museum is comprised is unique, and all of them were designed using a computer programme called "Catia".
• Some years after the completion of the building some of the titanium parts have lost their brightness due to pollution and weathering. However, the facade is cleaned many times during the year.
• The museum's location is quite noisy and because of that the glass used in the windows had to be special. The windows used are called "Natural 62" and were supplied by Idom.
• The president of the foundation in charge of the museum is Thomas Krens. The foundation receives sponsorship help as well as public donations. Approximately half the money spent by the museum comes from public authorities.
• Since its opening some people have demanded moving Picasso's painting "Guernica" from Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid to the Guggenheim as Bilbao is closer to Gernika, the town on whose bombardment the painting is based.
• In 2001 it received the Outstanding Structure Award.
• There are two sculptures outside the museum: Puppy, a 12-meter tall flower-made dog, and Mama, a 10-meter tall spider.
• The first proposed site, occupied by Alhondiga, was rejected by architect Frank Gerhy due to its small size.

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