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SUBJECT AREA LEGEND    
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The Architecture of the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Teacher
Information
“I need a fighter, a lover of space, an agitator,
a tester and a wise man. . . .
I want a temple of spirit, a monument!”
– Hilla Rebay, to Frank Lloyd Wright, 1943
A brief history of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
In June 1943, renowned
architect Frank Lloyd Wright received a letter from Hilla Rebay, the art
advisor to Solomon R. Guggenheim, asking him to design
a new building to house Guggenheim’s collection of non-objective art,
a radical new art form being developed by such artists as Vasily Kandinsky,
Paul
Klee, and Piet Mondrian. Guggenheim’s one requirement of the architect
was that the building should be unlike any other museum in the world. Wright,
in turn, created a design that he believed would be “the best possible
atmosphere in which to show fine paintings or listen to music.” Frank
Lloyd Wright was already known as the preeminent American architect of the
20th century, but this invitation would add another major accomplishment
to his influential
career. [more]
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