Page 36 - "he 2020 Guggenheim issue of World of Art Contemporary Art Magazine

Count Giuseppe Panza di Biumo’s vast holdings of
European and American Minimalist, Post-Minimalist,
Environmental, and Conceptual art. These collections
have been augmented over the last two decades by
ABOUT THE COLLECTION
major gifts from The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation
The metamorphosis from private collection to public
and The Bohen Foundation, as well as by the series
museum is an extraordinary transition. For the
of contemporary art commissions that was made
Guggenheim, this occurred in 1937, when Solomon
possible by the Guggenheim’s unique partnership
R. Guggenheim established a foundation empowered
with Deutsche Bank for the Deutsche Guggenheim,
to operate a museum that would publicly exhibit and
Berlin, the distinct but complementary acquisitions
preserve his holdings of nonobjective art. Today the
program of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and the
Guggenheim is a museum in multiple locations with
Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative. Together
access to shared collections, common constituencies,
with numerous other important purchases and gifts
and joint programming. Nevertheless, it is the
secured by the Guggenheim’s directors and curators
permanent collection that constitutes the very core
over the years, these acquisitions have contributed
of the institution, no matter how far-reaching the
to the formation of a richly layered, international
foundation’s activities may be.
collection dating from the late 19th-century to the
present.
The story of the Guggenheim Museum is essentially
the story of several very different private collections.
Unlike most institutions dedicated to the visual
Central among these are Solomon R. Guggenheim’s
arts, the Guggenheim does not divide itself into
collection of nonobjective painting premised
departments devoted to specific mediums or eras.
on a belief in the spiritual dimensions of pure
Rather, the collection is conceived as an integrated
abstraction; his niece Peggy Guggenheim’s collection
whole that may be continuously enhanced in
of abstract and Surrealist painting and sculpture;
response to emerging talent as well as a mandate to
Justin K. Thannhauser’s array of Impressionist, Post-
fill in critical historical gaps.
Impressionist, and early modern masterpieces; and

Natalia Goncharova Kazmir Malevich
Cats (rayist percep.[tion] in rose, black, and yellow), 1913 Oil on canvas, 33 1/2 Morning in the Village after Snowstorm, 1912 Oil on canvas, 31 1/2 x 31 1/2 in
x 33 3/4 in (85.1 x 85.7 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York © (80 x 80 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris

36 WORLD of ART