The Gugghenheim museum is one of my favorite museums to visit as a result of the unusual shape and organic progression that is to look at the exhibitions curated at the museum. Although a very big museum, it is not close to the size of the Metropolitan. However, located close by, and in one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpieces, the Gugghenheim is so easy to explore since the attendees can walk around the spiral shape of the building either up and down and have the chance to explore the entire exhibitions without asking for directions or getting lost. In addition, every couple of floors, the museum has separate chambers where they have other special or permanent exhibitions, but the main spiral usually explores a retrospective of a specific artist or a specific theme or era throughout, which makes a cohesive experience.
Last march I visited their exhibition Gutai, devoted to the Japanese artist conglomerate that started in mid 20th century in the western city of Ashiya. There is art in many different mediums which created a very interesting journey through the Gugghenheim. The artists explored new mediums and mixed media that were non-conventional with Japanese art customs. They lived and worked in Japan after the communist regime had just ended. A lot of their art is a political commentary in everything that happened and the results of that period. The color red can be seen through the exhibition and even some pieces are so easily related to suppression, like a giant red cube built in vinyl or plastic that the audience could come inside and feel complete segregated from the outside. Others are on-site projects that have been built at the museum, such as one igloo-like piece called “Bisexual Flower” which you enter and in the darkness stands a vinyl sculpture in neon lights and a psychedelic experience ensues.
From such major pieces, in scale, you can see how many of these pieces were meant to be shown outdoors. There were works in painting, sculpture, video, mixed media, photography of on-site projects in Japan. Quite an array belonging to close to 20 artists.
It was a really interesting, colorful, and still politically filled exhibition. These group of artists have had a large impact on western art as well as asian art, and were pioneers at breaking the geographical distance between art trends and art periods.
There are still a couple of weeks left to see this spring exhibit that is on show til May 8. You can buy tickets online and plan your visit at http://www.museumtix.com/venueinfo/venueinfo.aspx?vid=873&tab=E&pvt=srgf
