Editing Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (section)

=== Contemporary views ===
Even before the building opened, the design polarized architecture critics<ref name=time/><ref>{{Cite news |date=October 22, 1959 |title=Controversial Guggenheim Museum Open |pages=19 |work=The Salem News |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/110757071/controversial-guggenheim-museum-open/ |access-date=October 5, 2022}}</ref> and was controversial among the public.<ref>{{cite news |date=July 19, 1959 |title=Circular Museum To Open Here Soon: Dramatic Sweep Upward to the Light Distinguishes Interior of Guggenheim Museum |page=R1 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |id={{ProQuest|114744252}}}}</ref><ref name=Pfeiffer35>{{harvnb|Pfeiffer|1995|ps=.|p=35}}</ref> Some critics believed the building would overshadow the museum's artworks.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Goldberger |first=Paul |date=May 18, 2009 |title=Frank Lloyd Wright's Final Gift |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/05/25/spiralling-upward |access-date=October 5, 2022 |magazine=The New Yorker}}</ref> [[Emily Genauer]] of the ''[[New York Herald Tribune]]'' said the building had been likened to "a giant corkscrew, a washing machine and a marshmallow",<ref name="Genauer 1959">{{cite news |last=Genauer |first=Emily |date=October 21, 1959 |title=Frank Lloyd Wright's Spiral Museum Opens: Guggenheim Museum Is Ready for Public Controversial 5th Ave. Structure Praised by Critics at Preview |page=1 |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1324222657}}}}</ref> while Solomon's niece [[Peggy Guggenheim]] believed it resembled "a huge garage".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Glueck |first=Grace |date=January 19, 1969 |title=Paintings Descending A Ramp; Paintings descending a ramp |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1969/01/19/archives/paintings-descending-a-ramp-paintings-descending-a-ramp.html |access-date=October 4, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Members of the public felt that the building contrasted with the character of Fifth Avenue.<ref name=Pfeiffer35/> Other critics, and many artists, worried that it would be difficult to properly hang paintings in the shallow, windowless, concave exhibition niches around the main gallery.<ref>{{harvnb|Pfeiffer|1995|ps=.|p=34}}</ref><ref name="nyt-1959-04-10" /><ref name=time/> Prior to the opening of the museum, 21 artists signed a letter protesting the display of their work in such a space.<ref name=Stern815/><ref name="nyt-1956-12-12">{{Cite news |last=Knox |first=Sanka |date=December 12, 1956 |title=21 Artists Assail Museum Interior; Object to Showing Pictures on Spiraling Ramp in Frank Lloyd Wright Building Ramp Spirals in Hollow Core One Criticizes Exterior |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1956/12/12/archives/21-artists-assail-museum-interior-object-to-showing-pictures-on.html |access-date=October 4, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Phyllis Mark of the ''New Leader'' commented that the walls and ceilings would "disorient the viewer" and noted that the museum could only display five percent of its collection in the new building.<ref name="Mark 1959"/>

Art critics reviewed the structure especially harshly.<ref name=NPS39>{{harvnb|National Park Service|2005|ps=.|p=39}}</ref> [[John Canaday]] of ''The New York Times'' wrote that the design would be worthy of merit if it were "stripped of its pictures",<ref name="nyt-1959-10-21">{{Cite news |last=Canaday |first=John |date=October 21, 1959 |title=Wright Vs. Painting; A Critique of Guggenheim Museum Finds Design Defeats Its Function The Guggenheim Museum, a Provocative Design by Frank Lloyd Wright, Will Be Opened Today Wright Vs. Painting |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1959/10/21/archives/wright-vs-painting-a-critique-of-guggenheim-museum-finds-design.html |access-date=October 6, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|National Park Service|2005|ps=.|pp=39–40}}</ref> while [[Hilton Kramer]] of ''[[Arts Magazine]]'' opined that the structure was "what is probably [Wright's] most useless edifice".<ref name=NPS40>{{harvnb|National Park Service|2005|ps=.|p=40}}</ref> Architectural critic [[Lewis Mumford]] summed up the opprobrium:
<blockquote>Wright has allotted the paintings and sculptures on view only as much space as would not infringe upon his abstract composition. ... [He] created a shell whose form has no relation to its function and offered no possibility of future departure from his rigid preconceptions. [The ramp] has, for a museum, a low ceiling – nine feet eight inches [295 cm] so only a picture well within the vertical boundaries thus created can be shown. The wall ... slanted outward, following the outward slant of the exterior wall, and paintings were not supposed to be hung vertically or shown in their true plane but were to be tilted back against it. ... Nor [can a visitor] escape the light shining in his eyes from the narrow slots in the wall.<ref name=Mumford1959>{{cite magazine |last=Mumford |first=Lewis |date=November 28, 1959 |title=What Wright Hath Wrought |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1959/12/05/what-wright-hath-wrought |access-date=October 5, 2022 |magazine=The New Yorker}}</ref></blockquote>

During his lifetime, Wright dismissed criticism of the structure, saying: "For the first time, art will be seen through an open window and, of all places, in New York".<ref>{{cite news |date=October 11, 1959 |title=Guggenheim Museum Will Open Oct. 21: Frank Lloyd Wright 'Temple in a Park' |page=33 |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1325266446}}}}</ref> He also felt that his design complemented Central Park, particularly with the shrubbery around the new building, which formed "a little park with a building in it".<ref name=Stern815/><ref>{{Cite news |last=Saarinen |first=Aline B. |date=September 22, 1957 |title=Tour With Mr. Wright; The noted architect, offering a preview of his new museum, talks of many things—art, architecture, nature and design. Tour With Mr. Wright |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1957/09/22/archives/tour-with-mr-wright-the-noted-architect-offering-a-preview-of-his.html |access-date=October 4, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Wright believed that the building would be well suited to [[avant-garde]] art, "which purported to represent space and form in a new, fully integrated manner".<ref name=McCarter318/>

The building also received critical acclaim. In a 1958 survey of the "Seven Wonders of American Architecture", five hundred architects ranked the Guggenheim as the 18th-best structure of more than 100 selected buildings.<ref name="Stern (1995) pp. 815–816">{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|ps=.|pp=815–816}}</ref> When the building opened, modernist architects such as [[Philip Johnson]] and [[Edward Durell Stone]] praised Wright's design,<ref name="nyt-1959-10-22-1">{{Cite news |last=Alden |first=Robert |date=October 22, 1959 |title=Art Experts Laud Wright's Design; Museum Called 'Greatest' in City and 'Thrilling,' but Problems Are Cited |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1959/10/22/archives/art-experts-laud-wrights-design-museum-called-greatest-in-city-and.html |access-date=October 4, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name=NPS38>{{harvnb|National Park Service|2005|ps=.|p=38}}</ref> and Genauer regarded it as "the most beautiful building in America".<ref name="Genauer 1959" /><ref name=NPS38/> This sentiment was shared even by commentators who questioned the building's functionality, including [[Robert M. Coates]] of ''[[The New Yorker]]'', who wrote: "My question is not 'Is it art?' (I believe it is) but 'How well will it house art?'".<ref name=NPS38/><ref name=AF1959Dec>{{cite magazine |last=Blake |first=Peter |date=December 1959 |title=The Guggenheim: Museum or Monument? |url=https://usmodernist.org/AF/AF-1959-12.PDF |magazine=Architectural Forum |volume=103 |page=180}}</ref> A writer for the ''New York Daily Mirror'' said the Guggenheim "should be put in a museum to show how mad the twentieth century is."<ref name=AF1959Dec/> Directors of other major New York City museums also praised the building, though some of them were skeptical of whether the structure could function well as a museum.<ref name=NPS39/><ref name="nyt-1959-10-22-1" />