Guggenheim Museum, New York City

If your going to visit one museum in NY, make it this one. Not only do they have spectacular atr displays inside, they also have a spectacular bui;ding in which to house them in.

Make sure you read the directions as we got lost whilst trying to find this place.

The design (Frank Lloyd Wright, 1959) of this modern art museum is controversial, but in my opinion beautiful. The Guggenheim houses paintings by Picasso, Modigliani, Kandinsky, Chagall and Monet among others. Unfortunately when we visited in December 2001, there was a temporary exhibition and most of the permanent collection was stored in the basement at that time.

As we were in NYC with our art college, it was expected that we should visit at least one gallery during our stay. We chose the Guggenheim as some people I was travelling with enjoyed the Bilbao one, and in my opinion, I think that the time we spent in NY Guggenheim would have been better spent elsewhere.

I can appreciate art, I studied it, but the exhibits at the time we visited were, in a word, rubbish. I did not pay all that money to get in and just look at some flies stuck to the wall (seriously thats what one of the "pieces" was). At least at the Tate Modern in London if you don't like it then you haven't wasted your money.

The best part of the Guggenheim for me was a coca cola and a hotdog from the stall outside.

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There are buildings, which attract thousands of visitors not merely by their values which can be found in them, but rather because of their astonishing, amazing exterior.

One of them is the most special building of New York, the building of the Guggenheim Museum looking out on Central Park.
The American master, Frank Lloyd Wright gives the visitors not a daily architectural experience.
Curved lines border it, inside a spiral ramp curling around the central atrium defines the route of the visit. Entering the seashell we may be ready for a journey moving downwards.
The museum lacks the traditional exhibitor walls, they are replaced by a single continuous curved wall.
The building also has a huge glass dome, which is pouring plenty of light into this round museum, which hosts a very beautiful, modern artistic collection.

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You either love it or hate it, but you must admit that the Guggenheim is an unusual museum in an unusual building. Built in 1959, it tends to change exhibitions regularly and mostly focuses on one artist at a time. The building inside resembles a sloping spiral ramp. There are elevators serving different levels. The building itself just underwent a major restoration.

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One of New York's best contemporary art museums, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is also one of its most incredible structures. The museum was inaugurated in 1959 in this UFO-like structure, designed by the renowned American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. While the exterior itself is a masterpiece, numerous masterpieces by Impressionist, Post-impressionist and contemporary artists are exhibited inside. These include Picasso, Manet, Renoir and Cézanne, to name only a few.

It offers a great collection of contemporary arts but it worths a visit just also for its building. If you are not interested in visiting the museum, just go and take pics of the building, both outside and inside. In 1999 we enjoyed a wonderful jazz concert for free in the lobby, as well.

The spiral design of the Guggenheim recalls a nautilus shell, with continuous spaces flowing freely one into another. In June 1943, Frank Lloyd Wright received a letter from Hilla Rebay, the art advisor to Solomon R. Guggenheim, asking the architect to design a new building to house Guggenheim's Painting Museum. Both Guggenheim and Wright would die before the building's 1959 completion.

We take the elevator to the top of the building by elevator, and follow the exhibits downward on the slope of a continuous ramp. The galleries are divided like the membranes in citrus fruit, with self-contained yet interdependent sections. The open rotunda views varied bays of art on different levels simultaneously.

The permanent collection at the Guggenheim presents a variety of private collections from the 20th to the present. We've seen some memorable & special exhibits at the Guggenheim. The small gift shop and cafe on the first floor are limited and a bit pricey.