Today in History – New York Guggenheim Museum opens

CAIRO – 21 October 2017: The Guggenheim Museum in New York City, one of the world’s top contemporary art collections, opened on this day in history in 1959.

On this day in 1959, 16 years after it was first conceived, the #Guggenheim Museum opened to the public. Today our museum turns 58! pic.twitter.com/sDhHcFdxgz

— Guggenheim Museum (@Guggenheim) October 21, 2017

The museum was the brainchild of former mining tycoon Solomon R. Guggenheim, who began to take an interest in collecting art after his retirement in 1930. With the help of German baroness Hilla Rebay, he founded the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 1937 and opened his first art museum in New York in 1939, the Museum of Non-Objective Painting. Amongst the artists featured in the collection included Paul Klee, Vasily Kandinsky and Marc Chagall. Guggenheim began noticing that the collection was rapidly growing and decided a larger establishment was needed.

Thus, Rebay enlisted the help of architect Frank Lloyd Wright to create a building that was more than just a museum. As Guggenheim described, he wished for it be a “Temple of Spirit” that would provide audiences a new way of looking at art. Sixteen years later, the museum would be completed in 1959, though Guggenheim would pass away just six months before its official opening.

Crowds gathered to welcome the highly unusual building, shaped much like an upside cupcake mixed with a seashell, yet successful in its goal of being a work of art on its own. Today, the museum stands as one of New York City’s most popular displays, attracting nearly 1 million visitors each year and is an international institution with branches in Venice and Abu Dhabi.

#HBD to our building! Enjoy 15% off online purchases from the Guggenheim Store today, 10/21. Promo code SPIRAL15: https://t.co/XxuWrqA6fj pic.twitter.com/o3lUWFZ8lw

— Guggenheim Museum (@Guggenheim) October 21, 2017