Guggenheim Museum

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is one of the branches of the Solomon Guggenheim Museum of Modern Art. The unique building of the institution was designed by the American-Canadian architect Frank Gehry. The architectural style is deconstructivism, the main features of which are the intricate intersection of shapes and curved surfaces.

Description

The grandiose building of the Guggenheim Museum is the embodiment of the master's architectural and artistic flight of fancy. The appearance of the stunning structure has been compared to an alien ship, a blossoming rosebud, and has even been called the architectural reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe.

The great architect's previous works left no one indifferent. The most famous are the Dancing House in Prague, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle. The author himself based the project on the image of a broken ship, reassembled.

The Guggenheim Museum stands on the river embankment. Nervion, where the trading port used to be. The height of the central atrium is 55 m. Inside there are 10 halls with right angles and 9 rooms of the most bizarre geometric shapes of walls, ceilings and even floors.

When working on the project, Gehry used the latest computer programs designed for the aerospace industry to calculate the stability of the complex structure as accurately as possible. The outer shell of the building consists of 33 thousand extremely thin and high-strength titanium sheets. The building plays with numerous colors, reflecting light, the movement of clouds and the water surface of the river.

The Guggenheim Museum was opened in 1997. Its area is 24 thousand square meters. m. Of these, 11 thousand are occupied by exhibition halls. Every year the museum is visited by almost 1 million visitors.

History of creation

The city of Bilbao is a very ordinary industrial city, seriously damaged during the Napoleonic wars in the 19th century, and especially in 1936, when it was bombed by Franco's troops. The city was restored, but it gradually fell into economic decline. It was necessary to breathe new life into it. It was decided to do this by attracting tourists. The city municipality turned to the Solomon Guggenheim Foundation, already known throughout the world. Since 1988, the Foundation has been led by T. Krenz, one of the most successful and talented organizers of the museum business. At this time, the Foundation was just looking for a suitable city to continue expanding the museum network in Europe. Krentz simply told the architect Gehry that he needed to create a museum that had no analogues.

Together they arrived in Bilbao, introduced the city authorities to the project and began work. The municipality covered all construction costs. It took a little more than three years to implement the grandiose project.

This is how the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao appeared - either a giant biblical fish covered with magical iridescent scales, or an amazing ship rapidly moving into the harbor.

During the first 3 years of operation, the museum was visited by 4 million tourists and brought almost 500 million euros to the city treasury, more than recouping all construction costs.

Exposures

The interior interiors of the museum are harmoniously combined with exhibits of contemporary art exhibitions. The permanent exhibition of the museum is the “Matter of Time” exhibition, made of super-strong steel, authored by the American R. Serra. The composition occupies the largest hall. At the entrance, visitors are greeted by a huge Puppy puppy - the symbol of the city, depicted on the coat of arms. The puppy is made of flowers. It’s interesting to look at the spider Maman, giant tulips.

The core of the Guggenheim Museum's exhibitions are sculptural video installations and electronic works. Traditional paintings and sculptures are also presented here, but most of them are occupied by works in the style of avant-garde and abstraction.

The Guggenheim Museum often hosts thematic exhibitions related to different countries and their cultures.

Writer D. Brown wrote a fascinating novel “Origin”, where the heroes find themselves in incredible adventures in a museum.