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Member since:05.10.2004
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New York is a survivor. Regardless of 9 11, terrorist threats, economic problems, it remains one of the most popular destinations in America. A combination of curiosity of the other side of the pond and cheap flights is drawing more and more of us over to the big apple every year. So in the presumption that some of you readers may well be about to head over this spring or summer I’ve decided to reveal one of my favourite places to visit in New York, The Guggenheim Museum in Soho. A word of warning before you take the name and run in search of it, read my review and find out exactly why, I warn you now the reasons I like the museum is not necessarily going to make it worth the trip for everyone.
It’s been 3 years since I last visited the Guggenheim museum, after a long summer spent in New York, my list of places to visit had by the time of my last visit degenerated into re-visiting those I had been to before. Of which the Guggenheim had to be one.
So what is The Guggenheim Museum?
Silly question don’t you think, after all, its name incorporates the word museum, so it must be a museum. Well no, it’s not a museum it doesn’t house any artefacts or display items reflecting a period or theme so it cant be a museum.
Inside its imposing form, the building contains art, paintings to be more specific, the Guggenheim is infact an art gallery. I’m sure that by now you must all be questioning yourselves as to what help my 3 year outdated experience can be to someone wanting to visit today. Surely, anyone visiting will be predominantly interested in which artist is on display now and how I felt about their art. Well, in short, they won’t, the art is not the reason for thousands of visitors flocking through its doors either. The art is in fact the lesser consequence of the museum itself. No one cares which artist is featuring when they plan to visit and no one remembers what artist they saw when they leave. Why because the reason people visit is to see the building, and more importantly how any hung art manages to sit on walls that are curved, and what is it like to view art from the close range of a continual spiralling ramp.
The Guggenheim Family
After the much-publicised construction of the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the others in the Guggenheim collection have embarked on a strange process. Firstly, they are brushed aside as people clamber to visit this years ‘must see’ museum. Then, after
having seen the Bilbao offering many are turning to see others in the collection. In my case, I had first visited the Gugenheim Museum, long before the Bilbao was even dreamt about. Having since been to both, I still feel that the Soho offering must be seen by anyone with an interest in space, gallery’s or architecture.
The Guggenheim Museum was the founding building for an ever growing family which later formed the Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation. First established in 1937, the following 60 years has seen the collection grow from one solitary gallery housed in someone else’s space to five galleries spanning Europe and America, three of which have buildings designed especially for Guggenheim group.
The founder of the group was a humanitarian by the name of Solomon Guggenheim. Soloman and artist Hilla Rebay had established an interest in establishing a new form of art which could be seen in a new concept of space. So basically they wanted to break free of the white box concept of a gallery and create a space which would be as stimulating as the art within. A concept which was first explored in the creation of the Guggenheim Museum.
Each of the Guggenheim galleries deserve a review of their own, so although I can not possibly do them justice during this review I can introduce you to each in turn.
· Guggenheim Museum, NY First in the collection, established in 1937 and subject of this review!
· Deutshe Guggenheim, Berlin Located on the ground floor of Deutshe Bank, established in 1997 in an effort to expand Guggenheim further into Europe.
· Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice Opened in 1951, displaying Peggy Guggenheims personal collection of art.
· Guggenheim Hermitage Museum, Las Vegas Opened this year on the ground floor of Las Vegas's Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino.
The Building
So with his concept in place, Soloman Guggenheim set about finding an architect who would understand and work with his concept, eventually commissioning one of the major architects of that time, Frank Lloyd Wright.
Frank Lloyd Wright initially visualized a building that would go against the strict grid pattern of Manhattan. But soon realised that this breaking free could be moved further than merely the external form taking on curves rather than following Manhattan convention of rectangles. He began to envisage continuous curves which were not only external but curved within forming ramps which provided a journey through the art.
The concept was embraced, and the new building opened in 1959. A mixture of excitement and controversy surrounded the opening and years to follow as many found the building the opposite poles of either inspiring or inconvenient.
Today the building still functions as an art gallery, and still draws the crowds in search of the experience of viewing art in a curved ramping space.
My Experience.
I can still remember the first time I saw the museum, although I had seen pictures many times as part of my studies, I hadn’t quite expected the building to have the impact it did. As you approach from the street the building is formidable, with layers upon layers of curves expressing the ramp within. I had expected the building to be far smaller than it actually is.
On entrance, it is impossible not to loiter in the foyer and stare up at the internal ramps spiralling above. At the top of the ever decreasing spirals is a glass rooflight from the perspective of standing in the foyer, the rooflight appears to be a bright fullstop to the spirals, which extenuates the darkness of the gaps between concrete ramp to concrete ramp.
The entrance fee is paid in the foyer, so there is only so much time you can stand taking in the view before it really does feel like you should move on to make space for the other people coming in and taking in the view.
So straight after paying you start of the ramp at each juncture of the ramp, art is on the wall beside you. The ramp is approximately 1.5 to 2meters wide, so it is impossible to stand back and take in the huge paintings on the wall. Your perspective of the wall is also skewed, the ramp is continually curving and with a gentle slope where as the art is rectangular and therefore aligning with nothing. You are sloping, the walls are curving and yet the art is rectangular. Its difficult to get across what a strange sensation this really is, its probably one of those effects you just have to experience for yourself!
Bizarrely as I headed onwards and upwards, I found myself looking out over the ramp at art I had just been past. This seemed to be the best way of viewing the actual paintings. From there, it was possible to get distance between yourself and the paintings, but was still not ideal.
Off the ramp are a series of more conventional gallery spaces, my advice is don’t be tempted to go into these on the way up, stay on the ramp and get the full effect. On your way back down you pass all of the same galleries, so I think it is better to make the most of these then.
The architecture and effect of walking up a continual ramp is far greater than the art displayed, as it is impossible to absorb both, the architecture won for me.
Location:
The Guggenheim Museum is located in central Manhattan, on a section of Fifth Avenue known by New Yorkers as Museum Mile. So visiting the museum is very convenient and while you are there you can wander along to many of the other museums close by.
Probably the most convenient method of getting there is to take the subway. Three trains stop locally to the museum at 86th Street: Either the 4, 5, or 6 stop at 86th Street. From there it is about 5 mins walk via 5th Avenue to 89 street.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 1071 5th Avenue (at 89th Street) New York NY 10128-0173 Tel: 212 423 3500
Opening Hours – Entrance Fees
Well opening hours are really not a reason to miss it. The Guggenheim is open all year everyday except for Sundays, Thursday and Christmas Day. So unless you are very unlucky you will find a day to visit.
From Sat to Wed the galleries are open from 10am – 5.45pm. Friday is the museum’s late opening day, when it is open to 8pm.
If you are planning to visit, it is advisable to allow yourself at least 1 or 2 hours to get around without rushing. So try to bare that in mind. Its not a large gallery, but there are lots of moments within the gallery where you may want to stand back and admire an element of the building, or how the building comes together with the art.
There is quite a lot of interesting art in the side galleries, so be careful not to miss them if you are going with an interest of the art. You can get a floor plan from the entrance desk, which I would definitely advise. It is very easy to get carried away with the ramping journey and end up missing everything bar the art on the ramp.
I’ve visited the gallery about 10 times and generally found that the gallery is never too busy. Apparently, it is advisable to avoid Saturdays though as this as with most attractions tends to be the busiest day.
Although we in the UK are now getting very used to free admissions into galleries and museums, the same trend has not headed over to America. In general, you will find that many attractions will have a charge attached, as with the Guggenheim Museum. The Guggenheim relies purely on private funding, so necessity rather than greed means that it is not a particularly cheap option. Tickets prices now are:
Adults $15 Students and Seniors (65 years +) with valid ID $10 Children under 12 Free Members Free
So that roughly equates to £7-8 per adult. It is possible to buy entrance tickets as part of a city pass. For $53 (£27 approx) an adult can get entrance into:
· Guggenheim Museum · American Museum of Natural History · Circle Line Sight Seeing Cruises · Empire State Building · Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum · Museum of Modern Art
Pretty good value if you do want to see all of the attractions above, I think it works out approximately half price. One thing to watch for though, is if you do have children there is a charge of £41 for 6-17 year olds, even though on some of the listed attractions without the city pass they would have got entrance for free. So if you are going as part of a family it might be worth checking how the prices stack up.
Also group discounts are on offer. If there are 10 or more of you the price per adult is $10. So it is almost worth loitering around outside to see if you can round up 10!!!
So if you have made it to the end of the review, then I guess you are interested in visiting, so my advice is do it. The experience really is unique and very rewarding. The one point I would add here though, is that although the internal spaces are all accessible from a wheelchair, I wouldn’t advise taking disabled people there. The ramp really is quite exhausting, and I would guess near impossible to continually push a wheelchair up.
Just a quick note on the ratings Ive given it, its gained the 5*'s purely for the fact that it is an enjoyable place to visit. If I were grading it as a gallery alone it may loose a few stars.
Fairly new to Ciao and browsing older reviews to get some tips. Great revue and a thoroughly good read. I was in NYNY earlier this year and wished I'd read this review before I went. Oh well, there's always next time... Tony
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Mar 11th, 2005
exceptional by (15%):
very helpful by (81%):
helpful by (4%):
