Maurizio Cattelan retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum of NY

This figure from Mr. Cattelan’s “Daddy Daddy” was previously displayed at the museum floating face down in the rotunda’s fountain.

"I've never thought about my works as something that I wanted to see again. Now I am forced to relate to them. It's a chance to see myself from a different perspective. The 130 works will come together in a new work: it's a family" the artist said to the Financial Times about his NY Guggenheim's Museum retrospective which opened this week. He adds: "There is no other way to do a shw there and pay respect to the building."

I look forward to seeing this retrospective but to be honest, I am not sure I like what I see on the pictures... It feels too much...

Pictures Credit: Chang W. Lee/The New York Times.

Frank Lloyd Wright is celebrated in the US

The Guggenheim Museum in New York, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, and the City of Chicago celebrate the famous architect.

On 1 June 1943, Baroness Hilla von Rebay, artistic advisor of the Solomon R. Guggenheim, wrote to Frank Lloyd Wright to ask him whether he wanted to design the Museum. Guggenheim wanted a building as revolutionary as the abstract art he collected. The making of the museum took sixteen years and was completed in 1959, six months after the death of the architect, who died at the age of 91. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of its construction, the Guggenheim Museum, gives a tribute to its architect, showcasing along the main ramp - which the museum is mainly known for - 64 models and more than 200 original drawings, many of which have never been exposed. The title, "From the inside out," reflects one of the basic concepts of Wright, that the internal space determines the external shape and that architecture should follow the same principles as nature.

"The interior is the main element of a building, one that must be reflected on the outside as a content," writes the founder of modern architecture pushing the analogy with nature.




Built over a waterfall, hence its name, the Fallingwater House, the Mill Run home (Pennsylvania) is the perfect illustration of the concept of Wright. "I wanted this place to become a part of yourself, Wright said to his commissioner, the industrialist J. Edgar Kaufmann. I therefore placed it in the fall, directly on the rock".
This theory also explains the hatred that Wright harbored in relation to major cities, including Chicago, where he only designed "human scale" homes, known as "Prairie Houses".
The exhibition showcases the most revolutionary aspects of his architecture and are apparently must-see!
To learn more: http://www.gowright.org/and http://www.guggenheim.org/.

Guggenheim NYC: I Want to Believe by Cai Guo-Qiang

The Guggenheim in NYC presents a very impressive and interesting show by Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang. Given the current situation in Tibet, this exhibition comes at a right time since it denounces the horrors and un-exisiting human rights in China. Among other material, the artist uses gunpowder on amazing installations or paintings. Even if the facade of the Museum is currently being renovated, this show is definitely worth the visit.

"Cai Guo-Qiang is internationally acclaimed as an artist whose creative transgressions and cultural provocations have literally exploded the accepted parameters of art making in our time. This is especially true of Inopportune: Stage One, Cai’s largest installation to date, which presents nine real cars in a cinematic progression that simulates a car bombing, occupying the central atrium of the Frank Lloyd Wright rotunda."

To learn more: http://www.guggenheim.org/exhibitions/exhibition_pages/cai.html

Guggenheim Hermitage Museum, Vilnius by Zaha Hadid Architects

Zaha Hadid Architects have won a competition to design the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania.

The competition was part of a feasibility study by the Guggenheim Foundation and the State Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg, Russia.

Architects Daniel Libeskind and Massimiliano Fuksas also submitted proposals. All three submissions will be on display at the exhibition Imagining the Future: Design Proposals for a New Museum in Vilnius at the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center in Vilnius from today until the end of June.

To learn more: http://www.zaha-hadid.com/

PINAULT VS. GUGGENHEIM in Venice

"Shortly after unveiling his collection at Venice's Palazzo Grassi last spring, French billionaire and collector François Pinault expressed an interest in opening up a second exhibition space inside the Dogana, an old customs post at the tip of the Grand Canal. But as Le Monde's Jean-Jacques Bozonnet reports, Pinault is facing some tough new competition from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. On July 24, Pinault officially submitted his project, which includes a €20 to €30 million ($25.6 to $38.4 million) investment and a design by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando, to the Venetian municipality. By September 20, the Guggenheim Foundation—already present in Venice via the Peggy Guggenheim Collection—made a surprise bid for the location, naming Zaha Hadid as the architect. A committee headed by Achille Bonito Oliva plans to reach a verdict in a few weeks.

Palazzo Grassi - Pinault's Foundation

"How to choose between the Pinault and Guggenheim collections?" asks Bozonnet. The "battle of the Dogana" is not only about the quality of each collection; it also pits two rival architects against each other: the "minimalist" Ando and the "exuberant" Hadid. Local politics also plays a vital role. While Massimo Cacciari, the left-wing mayor of the city of Venice, supports Pinault's project, Giancarlo Galan, the right-wing president of the region of Venice, is said to back the Guggenheim Foundation. According to Bozonnet, Galan persuaded the Guggenheim to collaborate on the finances with Alberto Rigotti, the founder of the bank ABM Network and a patron of the Munus society, which specializes in the promotion of cultural events. Bozonnet adds that the Guggenheim attempted to open a new space there in 1999 with a design by the Italian architect Vittorio Gregotti, but that this project was never realized.

Guggenheim Museum

For some, the competition would be more interesting with a few more rivals. "A cultural system for contemporary art in Venice must be instituted, and only the Biennale could pilot it," said Marco de Michelis, rector of the IUAV university of Venice. "Pinault and Guggenheim are already there—they won't add anything else." " ( text by Jennifer Allen)


At the end of January, the result came out : Pinault will have to share the place with the Guggenheim. But through the voice of his director Jean Jacques Aillagon, the Palazzo Grassi will communicate later on the modalities of this participation with the Guggenheim Foundation.


More about the Guggenheim Foundation :
www.guggenheim.org
www.guggenheim-venice.it


More about the Pinault's Foundation :
www.palazzograssi.it