Page 12 - "he 2020 Guggenheim issue of World of Art Contemporary Art Magazine

FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION - THAT HAS BEEN
MISUNDERSTOOD. FORM AND FUNCTION SHOULD BE ONE,
JOINED IN A SPIRITUAL UNION.
Frank Lloyd Wright

As a young architect Frank Lloyd Wright worked for Louis paintings to motorcycles to site-specific installations by
Sullivan (1856–1924) in his Chicago-based architecture contemporary artists. According to former Guggenheim
firm. Sullivan is known for steel-frame constructions, Director Tom Krens, “great architecture has this capacity
considered some of the earliest skyscrapers. Sullivan’s to adapt to changing functional uses without losing one
famous axiom, “form follows function,” became the bit of its dignity or one bit of its original intention. And I
touchstone for many architects. This means that the think that’s the great thing about the building at the end
purpose of a building should be the starting point for its of the day.”
design. Wright extended the teachings of his mentor by
changing the phrase to “form and function are one.” Up to the very end of his life, Wright carried on a battle to
be sure that the Guggenheim embodied his belief in the
This principle is thoroughly visible in the plan for the unity of form and function. On July 15, 1958, less than a
Guggenheim Museum. According to Wright’s design, year before his death, he wrote a letter that underscored
visitors would enter the building, take an elevator to the the connection between his design for the Guggenheim
top and enjoy a continuous art-viewing experience while and the paintings it would exhibit. “Yes, it is hard…to
descending along the spiral ramp. understand a struggle for harmony and unity between the
painting and the building. No, it is not to subjugate the
Wright’s design for the Guggenheim has sometimes been paintings to the building that I conceived this plan. On the
criticized for being inhospitable to the art it displays. contrary, it was to make the building and the painting a
However, over the past five decades Wright’s design has beautiful symphony such as never existed in the world of
housed a wide variety of exhibitions, from traditional Art before.

Installation view: Guggenheim International Exhibition 1960 -1961, Solomon Installation view: Jenny Holzer: For the Guggenheim 2008, Solomon
R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Photo: Robert E. Mates © The Solomon R. R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Photo: David Heald © Solomon R.
Guggenheim Foundation, New York Guggenheim Foundation

12 WORLD of ART