Page 15 - "he 2020 Guggenheim issue of World of Art Contemporary Art Magazine

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Photo: David Heald © The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York
According to architectural historian and critic Paul
Goldberger, “In many buildings, you observe them best
THE GUGGENHEIM by staying in one place and taking it all in. But the only
real way to experience the rotunda is to move along
MUSEUM ON THE INSIDE the spiral…. Because it’s the experience of…feeling the

THE SPACE WITHIN BECAME THE REALITY OF THE space change, feeling yourself go round and round at this
BUILDING. remarkable pace that Wright sets for you…seeing a piece
of art that you have just seen close-up again across the
As you step forward the low-ceilinged area suddenly rotunda from a distance. All those things are essential
opens into the rotunda and draws your eye up to the to the experience of the Guggenheim. It’s a building
skylight - or oculus - 96 feet above you. The works of art that you cannot experience by sitting in one place…. It
remain mostly hidden. Before you get to them, you must was Wright’s idea that the building is about movement
experience the building itself. through space as much as it is about space itself.”
Here we begin to grasp Wright’s vision for the museum
space - a spiral-ramped building topped by a large skylight. A monument to modernism, the unique architecture
The main rotunda is the heart of the Guggenheim of the interior space, with its spiral ramp riding to a
Museum. It functions almost like a town plaza. A quarter- domed skylight, continues to thrill visitors and provide
mile of concrete ramps climb the outer walls. Visitors a unique forum for the presentation of contemporary
on the ramps not only view the art, but are also aware art. Goldberger commented on how the Guggenheim
of people in other areas of the museum. On a busy day, changed the role of the architect: “Wright’s building made
you’ll see a continuous flow of people moving along these it socially and culturally acceptable for an architect to
ramps, viewing the exhibitions. Wright conceived of the design a highly expressive, intensely personal museum.
museum as an airy, open place where visitors would not In this sense almost every museum of our time is a child
have to retrace their steps, instead entering the building of the Guggenheim.” Now some fifty years after the
on the ground level, taking an elevator to the top, and museum’s opening, Wright’s ability to design a space
descending gradually, enjoying the art on display until flexible enough to accommodate so many various
returning to the entrance. exhibitions has proven itself.

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