The Guggenheim Collection

Book excerpt: Originally, Solomon R. Guggenheim donated works from his collection to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, which he began in 1937 to support and promote non-objective art. Then, in 1939, he established the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, which was renamed the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1952, and its signature Frank Lloyd Wright building opened on New York's Fifth Avenue in 1959. Over time, the Guggenheim has expanded the type of art that it exhibits and collects through the addition of other great collections - notably, those of Karl Nierendorf, Peggy Guggenheim, Justin and Hilde Thannhauser, and Giuseppe Panza di Biumo - as well as through opportunities that resulted from the institution's increasingly international focus in more recent decades. The Guggenheim today encompasses venues on two continents: the museum in New York, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin and the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in Las Vegas. This volume is published on the occasion of a major exhibition at the Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, and the Kunstmuseum Bonn. With its comprehensive presentation of masterworks from the Guggenheim's extended holdings, it provides insight into Modern and Contemporary art movements - from Impressionism to Cubism, Surrealism to Abstract Expressionism, Pop art and Minimalism to the most recent developments - and the distinctive features of the collection. The selection emphasizes the Guggenheim's ongoing commitment to acquiring the work of particular artists in depth, including Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Serra and Matthew Barney, among many others.