Editing Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (section)

=== Early years and Hilla Rebay ===
[[Solomon R. Guggenheim]], a member of a wealthy mining family, began collecting works of the [[old masters]] in the 1890s.<ref name=artdaily/> In 1926, he met artist [[Hilla von Rebay]],<ref name=artdaily>[http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=31711&int_modo=2 "Exhibition of Works Reflecting the Evolution of the Guggenheim's Collection Opens in Bilbao"], artdaily.org, 2009. Retrieved April 18, 2012.</ref><ref name=Stern808>{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|ps=.|p=808}}</ref> who introduced him to European [[avant-garde]] art, in particular abstract art that she felt had a spiritual and utopian aspect ([[non-objective art]]).<ref name=artdaily /> Guggenheim completely changed his collecting strategy, turning to the work of [[Wassily Kandinsky]], among others. He began to display his collection to the public at his apartment in the [[Plaza Hotel]] in New York City.<ref name=artdaily /><ref name=past>[http://pastexhibitions.guggenheim.org/hilla_rebay/biographies_2.html "Biography: Solomon R. Guggenheim"], Art of Tomorrow: Hilla Rebay and Solomon R. Guggenheim, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Retrieved March 8, 2012.</ref><ref name=Loebl283>{{harvnb|Loebl|2002|p=283|ps=.}}</ref> Guggenheim and Rebay initially considered building a museum at [[Rockefeller Center]] in [[Manhattan]].<ref name=Stern808/> As the collection grew, Guggenheim established the [[Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation]], in 1937, to foster the appreciation of [[modern art]].<ref name=Stern808/><ref name=past /><ref name=Krens8>{{harvnb|Krens|1993|p=8|ps=.}}</ref>

[[File:Albert Gleizes, 1915, Composition pour Jazz, oil on cardboard, 73 x 73 cm, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.jpg|thumb|left|225px|[[Albert Gleizes]], 1915, ''[[Composition for "Jazz"]]'', oil on cardboard, 73 × 73&nbsp;cm]]
The foundation's first venue, the '''Museum of Non-Objective Painting''', opened in 1939, under Rebay's direction, at 24 East 54th Street in midtown Manhattan.<ref name=Stern808/><ref name=Krens8/>{{sfn|Vail|2009|pp=25, 36}} Under her guidance, Guggenheim sought to include in the collection the most important examples of non-objective art by early modernists.<ref name=artdaily /><ref name=past /><ref name=Calnek>Calnek, Anthony, et al. ''The Guggenheim Collection'', pp. 39–40, New York: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 2006</ref> He wanted to display the collection at the [[1939 New York World's Fair]] in [[Queens]], but Rebay advocated for a more permanent location in Manhattan.<ref name=Stern808/> By the early 1940s, the foundation had accumulated such a large collection of avant-garde paintings that the need for a permanent museum was apparent,<ref name=Gughistory>{{Cite web |url=https://www.guggenheim.org/history |title=Guggenheim Foundation History |date=February 29, 2016 |website=Guggenheim |access-date=October 21, 2019}}</ref> and Rebay wanted to establish it before Guggenheim died.<ref name=Stern808/>

==== Design process ====
In 1943, Rebay and Guggenheim wrote a letter to [[Frank Lloyd Wright]] asking him to design a structure to house and display the collection.<ref name=Pfeiffer5>{{harvnb|Pfeiffer|1995|ps=.|p=5}}</ref>{{sfn|Vail|2009|p=333}} Rebay thought the 76-year-old Wright was dead, but Guggenheim's wife Irene Rothschild Guggenheim knew better and suggested that Rebay contact him.<ref>{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|ps=.|pp=808–809}}</ref> Wright accepted the opportunity to experiment with his "organic" style in an urban setting, saying that he had never seen a museum that was "properly designed".<ref name=NYCLint7>{{harvnb|Landmarks Preservation Commission Interior|1990|ps=.|p=7}}</ref> He was hired to design the building in June 1943.<ref name=Pfeiffer5/><ref name=Stern807>{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|ps=.|p=807}}</ref><ref name=Stern809>{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|ps=.|p=809}}</ref> He was to receive a 10 percent [[Commission (remuneration)|commission]] on the project, which was expected to cost at least $1 million.<ref name=Stern809/> It took him 15 years, more than 700 sketches and six sets of working drawings to create and complete the museum, after a series of difficulties and delays;<ref>{{cite web |title=Guggenheim Architecture |url=https://www.guggenheim.org/history/architecture |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160501233616/http://www.guggenheim.org/history/architecture |archive-date=May 1, 2016 |access-date=August 13, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|ps=.|pp=807–808}}</ref> the cost eventually doubled from the initial estimate.<ref name=nytCost>{{Cite news |date=April 4, 1952 |title=Art Museum Plan 5th Ave. Filed; Cylindrical Building Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright to Cost $2,000,000 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1952/04/04/archives/art-museum-plan-5th-ave-filed-cylindrical-building-designed-by.html |access-date=October 3, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Rebay envisioned a space that would facilitate a new way of seeing modern art. She wrote Wright that "each of these great masterpieces should be organized into space, and only you ... would test the possibilities to do so. ... I want a temple of spirit, a monument!"<ref>''The Guggenheim: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Making of the Modern Museum'', pp. 217–18, New York: Guggenheim Museum Publications, 2009</ref>{{sfn|Levine|1996|p=299}} Critic [[Paul Goldberger]] later wrote that Wright's modernist building was a catalyst for change, making it "socially and culturally acceptable for an architect to design a highly expressive, intensely personal museum. In this sense almost every museum of our time is a child of the Guggenheim."<ref>{{cite web |title=55 Years Ago Tuesday: Guggenheim Museum Officially Opens |website=CBS News |date=October 22, 2014 |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/55-years-ago-tuesday-guggenheim-museum-officially-opens/ |access-date=October 5, 2022}}</ref> The Guggenheim is the only museum Wright designed; its urban location required him to design it in a vertical rather than horizontal form, far different from his earlier, rural works.<ref name=Storrer401/> Since he was not licensed as an architect in New York, he relied on Arthur Cort Holden, of the architectural firm Holden, McLaughlin & Associates, to deal with New York City's [[New York City Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings|Board of Standards and Appeals]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dal Co |first=Francesco |title=The Guggenheim: Frank Lloyd Wright's Iconoclastic Masterpiece |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0300226058 |location=New Haven |pages=58 |oclc=969981835}}</ref>

[[File:Double spiral and helicoidal flight staircase at the entrance to the Vatican Museums designed by Giuseppe Momo 1932..jpg|thumb|[[Bramante Staircase|Staircase]] at the [[Vatican Museums]] designed by [[Giuseppe Momo]] in 1932]]
From 1943 to early 1944, Wright produced four differing designs. One had a hexagonal shape and level floors for the galleries, though all the others had circular schemes and used a ramp continuing around the building.<ref name=McCarter310>{{harvnb|McCarter|1997|p=310|ps=.}}</ref><ref name=Hitchcock1981>{{cite book |last1=Hitchcock |first1=Henry-Russell |title=Arquitectura de los siglos XIX y XX |date=1981 |publisher=Ediciones Cátedra |location=Madrid |isbn=9788437624464 |page=477 |edition=6th}}</ref>{{Efn|Wright had experimented with a ramp design as early as 1924, when he had drawn plans for a visitor center at [[Sugarloaf Mountain (Maryland)|Sugarloaf Mountain]] in Maryland, which was never built.<ref name=Pfeiffer6/> He later used the ramp design at the [[V. C. Morris Gift Shop]] in San Francisco, completed in 1948, and at the [[David and Gladys Wright House]] in Arizona, which he completed for his son in 1952.<ref name=Hitchcock1981/>}} In his notes, he indicated that he wanted a "well proportioned floor space from bottom to top—a wheel chair going around and up and down".<ref name=NYCLint7/><ref name=Stern809/><ref name=Pfeiffer6>{{harvnb|Pfeiffer|1995|ps=.|p=6}}</ref> His original concept was called an inverted "[[ziggurat]]", because it resembled the steep steps on the ziggurats built in ancient [[Mesopotamia]].<ref name=NYCLint7 /><ref name=Storrer401/> Several architecture professors have speculated that the helical ramp and glass dome of [[Giuseppe Momo]]'s [[Bramante Staircase#The modern staircase|1932 staircase]] at the [[Vatican Museums]] was an inspiration for Wright's ramp and atrium.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tanzj |first1=Daniela |last2=Bentivegna |first2=Andrea |date=July 23, 2015 |title=The Vatican Museums and the Guggenheim: Two Ingenious Spirals of Art |url=http://www.lavocedinewyork.com/en/2015/07/23/the-vatican-museums-and-the-guggenheim-two-ingenious-spirals-of-art |journal=La Voce di New York}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hersey |first1=George L. |title=High Renaissance art in St. Peter's and the Vatican: an interpretative guide |date=1993 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226327822 |location=Chicago |page=[https://archive.org/details/highrenaissancea0000hers/page/128 128]}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mindel |first1=Lee F. |date=February 28, 2013 |title=Compares the Oculi at the Vatican and the Guggenheim Museum |url=https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/lee-mindel-vatican-guggenheim-museum-frank-lloyd-wright |journal=Architectural Digest}}</ref>

==== Site selection and announcement of plans ====
Wright expected that the museum would be in [[lower Manhattan]].<ref name=McCarter308>{{harvnb|McCarter|1997|p=308|ps=.}}</ref> Instead, in March 1944, Rebay and Guggenheim acquired a site on Manhattan's [[Upper East Side]], at the corner of [[89th Street (Manhattan)|89th Street]] and the [[Museum Mile, New York|Museum Mile]] section of [[Fifth Avenue]], overlooking [[Central Park]].<ref name=Stern809/><ref>{{Cite news |date=March 21, 1944 |title=Ultra-Modern Museum to Rise in 5th Ave. To House Non-Objective Art Collection |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1944/03/21/archives/ultramodern-museum-to-rise-in-5th-ave-to-house-nonobjective-art.html |access-date=October 3, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name=NPS19>{{harvnb|National Park Service|2005|ps=.|p=19}}</ref> They considered numerous locations in Manhattan, as well as the [[Riverdale, Bronx|Riverdale]] section of the Bronx, overlooking the [[Hudson River]].<ref name=Stern809/><ref name=Ballon>{{harvnb|Ballon|2009|pp=22–27}}</ref> Guggenheim felt that the Fifth Avenue site's proximity to Central Park was important, as the park afforded relief from the noise, congestion and concrete of the city.<ref name=Storrer401>{{harvnb|Storrer|2002|pp=400–01}}</ref> Wright's preliminary sketches fit the site nearly perfectly, although the site was about {{convert|25|ft}} narrower than what Wright anticipated.<ref>{{harvnb|Pfeiffer|1995|ps=.|pp=11, 21}}</ref> Guggenheim approved Wright's sketches in mid-1944.<ref name=Stern809/> Wright called the planned building an "Archeseum ... a building in which to see the highest".<ref name=NPS19/><ref name=NYCL8>{{harvnb|Landmarks Preservation Commission|1990|ps=.|p=8}}</ref>

Wright's designs were announced in July 1945,<ref name=NPS19/> and the museum was expected to cost $1 million and be completed within a year.<ref name="nyt-1945-07-10">{{Cite news |date=July 10, 1945 |title=Museum Building to Rise as Spiral; New Guggenheim Structure Designed by F.L. Wright Is Called First of Kind |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1945/07/10/archives/museum-building-to-rise-as-spiral-new-guggenheim-structure-designed.html |access-date=October 3, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The structure's main feature was a main gallery with a helical ramp, surrounding a [[lightwell]] with a skylight.<ref name="nyt-1945-07-10" /><ref>{{cite news |date=July 10, 1945 |title=Wright Designs Bizarre 5th Av. Art Museum: His First Building in City, on Novel Lines, to House Guggenheim Collection |page=7 |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1337120835}}}}</ref> Guests would board an elevator to reach the top; a second, steeper ramp would serve as an emergency exit.<ref name=Stern809/> There would be a movie theater in the basement, an elevator tower topped by an observatory, and a smaller building featuring a smaller theater,<ref name=Pfeiffer21>{{harvnb|Pfeiffer|1995|ps=.|p=21}}</ref> in addition to storage space, a library and a cafe.<ref name="nyt-1945-07-10" /><ref name=NYCLint8>{{harvnb|Landmarks Preservation Commission Interior|1990|ps=.|p=8}}</ref> Preliminary plans also included apartments for Guggenheim and Rebay, but these plans were scrapped.<ref name=Pfeiffer21/> Guggenheim acquired an additional parcel of land on 88th Street that July.<ref name=Stern811>{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|ps=.|p=811}}</ref> Wright built a model of the museum at [[Taliesin (studio)|Taliesin]], his home in Wisconsin,<ref>{{harvnb|Pfeiffer|1995|ps=.|pp=21, 25}}</ref> and displayed it at the Plaza Hotel that September.<ref>{{cite news |date=September 21, 1945 |title=Frank Lloyd Wright Shows Plan Of a Fifth Avenue Art Museum |page=34 |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1287100423}}}}</ref><ref name="nyt-1945-09-21">{{Cite news |date=September 21, 1945 |title=Model is Unveiled of New Museum Here; Spiral-shaped Art Center Proposed for the City |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1945/09/21/archives/model-is-unveiled-of-new-museum-here-spiralshaped-art-center.html |access-date=October 3, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

==== Difficulties ====
The building's construction was delayed, first because of material shortages caused by World War II,<ref name=Stern811/><ref name="New York Herald Tribune 1946"/> then by increasing construction costs after the war.<ref name=Pfeiffer21/><ref name=Stern811/> By late 1946, Guggenheim and Rebay had redesigned the basement theater to accommodate concerts.<ref name="New York Herald Tribune 1946">{{cite news |date=November 5, 1946 |title=Wright Details How Museum Will Blend Arts: Construction on Circular Building of Non-Objective Painting Starts in Spring |page=27 |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1287185430}}}}</ref> Rebay and Wright disagreed over several aspects of the design, such as the means by which the paintings were to be mounted,<ref name=Stern811/><ref>{{harvnb|Landmarks Preservation Commission Interior|1990|ps=.|pp=7–8}}</ref> although they both wanted the design to "reflect the unity of art and architecture".<ref name=NPS23>{{harvnb|National Park Service|2005|ps=.|p=23}}</ref> Wright continued to modify his plans during the late 1940s, largely because of concerns over the building's lighting, and created another model of the museum in 1947.<ref name=Pfeiffer25>{{harvnb|Pfeiffer|1995|ps=.|p=25}}</ref> The collection was greatly expanded in 1948 through the purchase of art dealer [[Karl Nierendorf]]'s estate of some 730 works.<ref name=Calnek/>

Progress remained stalled through the late 1940s,<ref name=Stern812>{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|ps=.|p=812}}</ref> and William Muschenheim renovated an existing townhouse on the site, at 1071 Fifth Avenue, for the museum's use.<ref name=Stern812 /><ref name=NPS22>{{harvnb|National Park Service|2005|ps=.|p=22}}</ref> Guggenheim's health was in decline, but he refused Wright's offer to downsize the planned building so it could be completed during Guggenheim's lifetime.<ref name=Pfeiffer25/> After Guggenheim died in 1949, members of the [[Guggenheim family]] on the foundation's board of directors had personal and philosophical differences with Rebay.<ref name=Rebaybio>[http://pastexhibitions.guggenheim.org/hilla_rebay/biographies_1.html "Biography: Hilla Rebay"], Art of Tomorrow: Hilla Rebay and Solomon R. Guggenheim, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Retrieved March 8, 2012.</ref> Under Rebay's leadership, the museum had become what [[Aline B. Saarinen]] described as an "esoteric, occult place in which a mystic language was spoken".<ref name="nyt-1954-05-30">{{Cite news |last=Saarinen |first=Aline B. |date=May 30, 1954 |title=Lively Gallery for Living Art; Manhattan's Guggenheim is off to an exuberant new start as a showcase for pioneers who 'open up a different corner of vision' |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1954/05/30/archives/lively-gallery-for-living-art-manhattans-guggenheim-is-off-to-an.html |access-date=October 4, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name=NPS15>{{harvnb|National Park Service|2005|ps=.|p=15}}</ref> Some of the museum's staff and trustees wished to oust Rebay and cancel Wright's design.<ref name=Stern812 /><ref name=NPS22/> Wright, however, persuaded several members of the Guggenheim family to acquire additional land on Fifth Avenue so his design could be developed in full.<ref name=Stern812/><ref>{{harvnb|National Park Service|2005|ps=.|pp=22–23}}</ref>

To accommodate the growing collection, in August 1951 the Guggenheim Foundation acquired an apartment building at 1 East 88th Street to remodel for museum use.<ref>{{cite news |date=August 5, 1951 |title=Non-Objective Art Museum Plans to Grow: Remodeling of Apartment Building Will Allow More Paintings To Be Shown |page=24 |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1322198382}}}}</ref><ref name="Newsday 1951">{{cite news |date=August 13, 1951 |title=Guggenheim Fund Buys Exhibit Site |page=6 |work=Newsday |id={{ProQuest|873053656}}}}</ref> It now owned a continuous frontage on Fifth Avenue from 88th to 89th Street.<ref name="Newsday 1951"/><ref name=Pfeiffer29>{{harvnb|Pfeiffer|1995|ps=.|p=29}}</ref> This prompted Wright to redesign the new building yet again, proposing a multi-story annex with apartments behind the museum.<ref name=Stern812/><ref name=Pfeiffer29/><ref name=NPS23/> The foundation also announced that the museum would start exhibiting "objective" works of art, as well as older artwork.<ref name=NPS15/><ref>{{Cite news |date=August 5, 1951 |title=Museum Changing Exhibition Policy; Guggenheim Foundation Will Show Old Masters as Well as Non-Objective Works |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1951/08/05/archives/museum-changing-exhibition-policy-guggenheim-foundation-will-show.html |access-date=October 3, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Rebay, who disagreed with this policy, resigned as director of the museum in March 1952.<ref>{{cite news |date=March 30, 1952 |title=Miss Rebay Quits as Head Of Non-Objective Museum |page=9 |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1313587133}}}}</ref><ref name="nyt-1952-03-30">{{Cite news |last=Louchheim |first=Aline B. |date=March 30, 1952 |title=Museum Will File Plans for Building; Changes Made by Non-Objective Painting Institution – Hilla Rebay Is Director Emeritus |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1952/03/30/archives/museum-will-file-plans-for-building-changes-made-by-nonobjective.html |access-date=October 3, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Nevertheless, she left a portion of her personal collection to the foundation in her will.<ref name=cork>[http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/museums/guggenheim-new-york.htm "Guggenheim Museum New York"], ''Encyclopedia of Art'', visual-arts-cork.com. Retrieved April 18, 2012.</ref> Shortly after Rebay resigned, Wright filed plans for the building, which was now projected to cost $2 million.<ref name=nytCost/> It was renamed the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1952.<ref name=Rebaybio/>