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Museo Guggenheim - Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao - Indian Chief Travel
SPAIN  |  Bilbao, Spain Travel Guide
Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Museo Guggenheim

Avda Abandoibarra 2,
Bilbao
Basque Country
Spain
94 435 90 00

Type: Museum
Addmission Fee: €8.40
Hours: Daily July-Aug. 9 am-9 pm; Sept.-June, Tues.-Sun. 10 am-8 pm

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The silver marvel on Bilbao’s riverbank is the brainchild of Frank O. Gehry, an American architect who had previously acquired a reputation as a brazen Los Angeles visionary for creating wild, whimsical and wholly unique spaces out of cheap materials like plywood and corrugated tin. The Guggenheim, with its billowing curves sheathed in an iridescent titanium shell and accented by limestone and high-density UVA-proof glass, was a bold step forward for both the architect and the city of Bilbao. Its undulating design, which incorporates the Ría (or estuary) Nervión and Puente de La Salve in one fluid composition, has been likened to an abstract sea-going vessel, has been criticized for overpowering the art inside, and has begun to tarnish long before it was expected to. Yet, should it turn the color of rust, admirers would likely laud the change as another step in an evolution the city is grateful to have experienced since the museum’s completion in 1997. To earn hosting rights for what would be the Guggenheim Foundation’s third major institution, Bilbao had to come up with 100 million US dollars and beat out Paris, London and many other cities with a historically richer artistic tradition.

A towering Puppy designed by Jeff Koons and covered with tens of thousands of brightly colored flower stands at the entrance to the museum. Through a breezy atrium you enter the building, with over 11,000 square meters (13,000 square yards) of exhibition space. There are 19 galleries over three levels, each connected by winding walkways and bathed in natural light, warranting almost as much attention as the art it complements. The overall experience is meant to be pro-active, interactive and varied, depending on which unorthodox space you find yourself admiring.

Speak into one end of Richard Serra’s Snake and your words will be carried over 100 feet to the other end of this undulating iron installation. Along with Jenny Holzer’s Installation for Bilbao, a tall wall with columns of pulsing LED lights meant to bridge the various levels of the museum, Snake is one of the few permanent works in the museum. The revolving exhibitions consist of the Guggenheim Foundation’s world-class collection of 20th-century avant-garde art, including works by Willem de Kooning, Vasily Kandinsky, Mark Rothko, Paul Klee and countless other contemporary masters. No less impressive is the representation of Spanish artists like of Dalí, Picasso, Eduardo Chillida, Antonio Tàpies and a number of young, up-and-coming Basque artists.

Temporary exhibitions, which have ranged from the evolution of motorcycles to the transparencies of light, are often held in the cavernous Gallery 104 that extends 130 m (426 feet) beneath the Puente de La Salve. Gehry’s touch even extended to the post-modern restaurant and ground-floor café. A gift shop and a well-stocked bookstore are dedicated to him and the artists whose avant-garde creations call into question cultural norms, inciting wonder and, in the case of a city like Bilbao, widespread change.

Last updated January 7, 2012
Posted in   Spain  |  Bilbao
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