The Making of the Guggenheim

Frank Lloyd Wright died on April 9 1959 – six months before the opening of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum – his masterpiece.

Fifty years after the realization of Wright’s renowned spiral, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum celebrates the golden anniversary with a major exhibition "Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward" and with the publication of the first book to explore the 16-year construction process behind this great modern building.

The exhibition brings together sixty-four projects, including privately commissioned residences, civic and government buildings, religious and performance spaces, as well as unrealized urban mega-structures. Presented on the spiral ramps of Wright’s museum through a range of mediums—including more than 200 original Frank Lloyd Wright drawings, many of which are on view to the public for the first time, as well as newly commissioned models and digital animations.

The book (to be released on June 1st 2009) The Guggenheim: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Making of the Modern Museum examines the history, design, and construction of Wright’s masterwork. Filled with drawings, models, and photographs, it includes three major essays by Hillary Ballon, Neil Levine and Joseph Siry that consider the building in three important contexts: Ballon discusses the obstacles Wright faced in getting the Guggenheim built and how his complex relationship with New York City was reflected in his design. Levine explores why Wright's Guggenheim had much greater impact on museum architecture than museums designed by Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Siry writes about the museum’s novel construction and how it impacted the work of a later generation of architects including Frank Gehry, Louis Kahn, and I.M. Pei.

Exhibition from May 15 to August 23 2009
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Avenue (at 89th Street) - New York, NY -USA