NGV scores Guggenheim coup

At a time when globalisation is a sometimes uncomfortable reality, it’s perhaps fitting that the National Gallery of Victoria’s next Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series exhibition will present works from what is arguably the world’s first (and to date, only) global art gallery, The Guggeheim.

The original of what is now the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum (then rather prosaically called the “Museum of Non-Objective Painting”) was opened in New York in 1937. In 1959, it moved to its now-iconic location on the corner of 89th St and 5th Avenue. The building, a spiral design with a domed glass roof, was the work of the noted architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who famously boasted that it would make the nearby Metropolitan Museum of Art look like “a Protestant barn”.

The combination of the distinctive building and the high-profile art work within combined to make the Guggenheim a success that enabled it to spread its wings around the world. The Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation now runs the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin; the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice; the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain, housed in its spectacular Frank Gehry designed building and the Guggenheim Hermitage in Las Vegas.

Guggenheim Collection: 1940s to Now, features iconic artworks from the Guggenheim collections from 1940s to the present. Among the “name” international artists represented are the likes of Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Roy Lichtenstein, Gilbert & George, and Jeff Koons.

While the majority of the presentation is drawn from the holdings of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, select masterpieces from the other Guggenheim collections are also featured. The exhibition includes artists whose work has never been seen before in Melbourne, and some of the Guggenheim’s most recent acquisitions are premiered here.

This is the first time ever that the Guggenheim collections have been seen in Melbourne.  This exhibition is exclusive to the National Gallery of Victoria and will not travel to any other Australian city, or anywhere else in the world.

David Edwards

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Guggenheim Collection: 1940s to Now

Venue: NGV International, St Kilda Rd, South Melbourne
Dates: 30 June - 7 October 2007
Cost: Prices: Adult: $20
Concession: $16
Family: $50
(2 adults / 3 children)
NGV Member Adult: $16
NGV Member Family: $40
Unlimited entry tickets
Adult: $50
Concession: $40
NGV Member Adult: $40

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