What a treat! To honor the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Guggenheim Museum's Frank Lloyd Wright building on Fifth Avenue, the Guggenheim is offering free admission on October 21, 2009 from 10 AM to 5:45 PM. Go! Take advantage of their hospitality!
This is great news, because right now there is a fantastic exhibit filling all levels of the famous spiral galleries: a retrospective of the works of Vasily Kandinsky. The exhibit runs through January 13, 2010. According to the brochure accompanying the exhibition, "His works not only represent the core and essence of the museum's permanent collection, but also inspired the design of the building."
I viewed the Kandinsky exhibit on a crowded Saturday afternoon, yet because of the way the paintings are spaced and hung, was able to see the art quite well. And although I'm not normally a big fan of guided tours or audioguides, this one is worth it. For one thing, Kandinsky was interested in a synthesis of the arts, and saw music, which is inherently abstract, as an ideal for his own painting as it became more non-objective. The audioguide lets you hear music by Schoenberg and Scriabin and others who influenced Kandinsky. Plus you can key in numbers to hear things whenever you like without having to race around to find the next work that will be discussed.
We are so lucky to have so many Kandinksy works here in New York: The Guggenheim, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich care for the three largest public holdings of his work.
Our office is only about two miles downtown from the Guggenheim, and we were happy to create some custom projects for our neighbor. At their request, Galison's Private Label division created sketchbooks, note cards, and writing journals for the Guggenheim that highlight the Frank Lloyd Wright building.
--Susan
P.S. You can find these great products in the Guggenheim's gift shop and also online:





