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List of illustrations

  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum seen from Fifth Avenue
  • Guggenheim Museum, main interior space before the opening
  • Solomon Guggenheim, Hilla Rebay, and Frank Lloyd Wright, New York
  • Hilla Rebay in her studio in Connecticut at the end of the 1950s
  • Portrait of Solomon Guggenheim
  • Composition 8 (Komposition 8)
  • Unstable
  • The Holy One (Red Point)
  • Solomon and Irene Guggenheim’s apartment at the Plaza Hotel, New York
  • William Muschenheim, Museum of Non-Objective Painting, New York, with the exhibition In Memory of Wassily Kandinsky
  • Art of This Century gallery, New York
  • Art of This Century gallery, New York
  • Max Ernst and Peggy Guggenheim in the Surrealist gallery, Art of This Century, New York
  • Solomon Guggenheim and Frank Lloyd Wright in New York
  • Robert Moses with the model of the Battery Park Bridge, New York
  • McCarren Pool
  • S. C. Johnson & Son Administration Building, loading test of a column prototype
  • S. C. Johnson & Son Administration Building, view of the interior of a skylight built out of Pyrex glass tubes
  • S. C. Johnson & Son Administration Building (under construction), view of the Great Workroom skylight
  • S. C. Johnson & Son Administration Building, drawing of skylights using Pyrex glass tubes
  • Guggenheim Museum's ramp’s strut and the skylight’s glass tubes, view of the Great Workroom skylight
  • Guggenheim Museum, plan and section of the glass dome
  • Johnson Research Tower, reception area of the advertising department
  • Gordon Strong Automobile Objective and Planetarium, Sugarloaf Mountain, Maryland, view and plan sketches
  • Gordon Strong Automobile Objective and Planetarium, section drawing
  • Guggenheim Museum, elevation drawing showing a red exterior
  • Guggenheim Museum, perspective drawing
  • Guggenheim Museum, perspective drawing
  • Guggenheim Museum, section drawing
  • Guggenheim Museum, section drawing
  • Guggenheim Museum, elevation
  • Guggenheim Museum, section drawing
  • Guggenheim Museum, elevation
  • Guggenheim Museum, study for a design with a hexagonal plan
  • Guggenheim Museum, entrance on Fifth Avenue
  • Guggenheim Museum, elevation study
  • Guggenheim Museum, scheme based on an inverted spiral, elevation drawing
  • Guggenheim Museum, scheme based on an inverted spiral, section drawing
  • Frank Lloyd Wright, Hilla Rebay, and Solomon Guggenheim in front of the model of the Modern Gallery, New York
  • Guggenheim Museum, the Modern Gallery, Model
  • Guggenheim Museum, the Modern Gallery, Model
  • Guggenheim Museum, the Modern Gallery, main floor; the Ocular Chamber at the right, plan drawing
  • Guggenheim Museum, the Annex, sketch of the entrance facing 88th Street
  • Guggenheim Museum, the Annex, plan drawing of the basement
  • Guggenheim Museum, the Modern Gallery, perspective drawing
  • Guggenheim Museum, skylights on the ramp leading to the auditorium
  • Harry Guggenheim on the right, with Nina Kandinsky and Thom M. Messer, at the opening of "Vasily Kandinsky, 1866–1944: A Retrospective Exhibition," at the Guggenheim Museum
  • Guggenheim Museum, the Modern Gallery, perspective
  • Guggenheim Museum, the Modern Gallery, section
  • Guggenheim Museum, the Modern Gallery, main floor, plan drawing
  • Guggenheim Museum, the Modern Gallery, main floor, plan drawing
  • Temporary pavilion for the exhibition "60 Years of Living Architecture," New York
  • Temporary pavilion for "60 Years of Living Architecture," section sketch
  • Frank Lloyd Wright and George N. Cohen at the Guggenheim Museum construction site
  • Epigraph at the entrance of the Guggenheim Museum
  • Mundaneum, Musée Mondial, overview sketches
  • Mundaneum, Musée Mondial, section
  • Guggenheim Museum, section drawing of the version of the project that Wright called “The Archeseum”
  • The Archeseum, section corresponding to the minor axis
  • Guggenheim Museum, the ramp as a U-shaped beam, interpretive drawing
  • Guggenheim Museum, various solutions explored for the ramp of the museum, interpretive drawing
  • Guggenheim Museum, sketch of the spring’s exterior walls with openings for the skylights
  • Guggenheim Museum, study of the spring’s volutes on the fourth, fifth, and sixth levels
  • Guggenheim Museum, sketch for the skylights at the exterior edge of the spring’s volutes
  • Guggenheim Museum, sketch for the skylights at the exterior edge of the spring’s volutes
  • The Guggenheim Museum under construction, view from Fifth Avenue
  • The Guggenheim Museum under construction, view of the corner of Fifth Avenue and 88th Street
  • Guggenheim Museum, a grid used to draw the loops of the spiral in plan
  • Guggenheim Museum, view of the interior from the ground floor
  • Guggenheim Museum, interpretive drawing
  • Guggenheim Museum, interpretive drawing
  • Guggenheim Museum, interpretive drawing
  • Guggenheim Museum, interpretive drawing
  • Guggenheim Museum under construction
  • Guggenheim Museum under construction
  • Guggenheim Museum under construction
  • Guggenheim Museum under construction
  • Guggenheim Museum, interior view
  • Guggenheim Museum, exterior view
  • Guggenheim Museum, The Archeseum, design for the glass roof of the cupola
  • Guggenheim Museum, interpretive drawing
  • Guggenheim Museum, drawing of the structure of the glass roof of the cupola
  • Guggenheim Museum, glass roof of the cupola under construction
  • Guggenheim Museum, glass roof of the cupola under construction
  • Guggenheim Museum, glass roof of the cupola
  • Guggenheim Museum, interior view
  • Guggenheim Museum, interior view
  • Guggenheim Museum, sketch showing the outfittings of the ramps and of the ground floor
  • Guggenheim Museum, sketch showing the outfittings of the ramps and of the ground floor
  • Catalogue cover for the 1936 exhibition "Cubism and Abstract Art" at the Museum of Modern Art
  • Torpedo, diagram of the Ideal Permanent Collection
  • Guggenheim Museum, view from Fifth Avenue
  • Guggenheim Museum, aerial view of the from above Central Park
  • Gordon Strong Automobile Objective and Planetarium, Sugarloaf Mountain, Maryland, conceptual sketch
  • Gordon Strong Automobile Objective and Planetarium, Sugarloaf Mountain, Maryland, elevation
  • Gordon Strong Automobile Objective and Planetarium, Sugarloaf Mountain, Maryland, perspective
  • Morris Gift Shop, entrance
  • Morris Gift Shop, partial view of the interior
  • S. C. Johnson & Son Administration Building, interior
  • S. C. Johnson & Son Administration Building, elevator
  • Johnson Research Tower
  • Johnson Research Tower, laboratories
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, perspective drawing
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, plan drawings
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, perspective drawing
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, perspective drawing
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, elevation drawing of the inverted spiral design
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, perspective drawing of the inverted spiral design
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, section
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, section with the Ocular Chamber
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, detail of the observatory
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, ground floor plan
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, ground floor plan
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, perspective drawing
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, perspective drawing
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, perspective drawing
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, the Modern Gallery, ground floor plan
  • Presentation of the model of the Modern Gallery, New York
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, model of the Modern Gallery
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, model of the Modern Gallery
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, model of the Modern Gallery with the addition of the Annex
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, the Modern Gallery, plan of the ground floor showing the addition of the Annex
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, the Modern Gallery, plan of the ground floor
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, section drawing, with separate details showing the ramp and the exterior wall in section
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, plan of the second floor
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Archeseum, plan drawings of the auditorium
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Archeseum, plan drawings of the ground floor
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Archeseum, plan drawings of the second floor
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Archeseum, plan drawings of the fifth floor
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Archeseum, section on the main axis (to the right of the ramp)
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Archeseum, section on the minor axis (to the right of the skylight)
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Archeseum, section and elevation of the Guggenheim Foundation’s offices
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Archeseum, west elevation
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Archeseum, presentation perspective drawing
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Guggenheim Museum, plan of the ground floor
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Archeseum, structural drawings of the cupola’s glass roof
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, studies for the cupola’s glass roof
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, sketch of the lobby
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, sketches of the chairs for the cafeteria
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, studies for the gallery screens
  • Site of the Guggenheim Museum, southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 89th Street
  • Fifth Avenue near the future site of the Guggenheim Museum
  • Building the Guggenheim Museum’s drum
  • Building the Guggenheim Museum’s drum
  • Building the Guggenheim Museum's drum
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, molds used to cast concrete
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, molds used to cast concrete
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, welding the bars for the ramp’s reinforced concrete
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, building the floor of the lobby
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, construction of the structure of the glass cupola and the final shape of the hairpins
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, construction of the structure of the glass cupola and the final shape of the hairpins
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, construction of the structure of the glass cupola and the final shape of the hairpins
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, the auditorium
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, ground floor
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, exhibition spaces on the ramp
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, exhibition spaces on the ramp
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, interior
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, exterior
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, exterior
Free
Description: The Guggenheim: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Iconoclastic Masterpiece
Contents
PublisherYale University Press
Free
Description: The Guggenheim: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Iconoclastic Masterpiece
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the subject of this book, shows how even a contemporary building can be an example of “timeless architecture” (my chosen translation of architettura di sempre, a concept inspired by Max Weber that I have often explored in my writings). I use this term to distinguish a work that does not “throw...
PublisherYale University Press
Description: The Guggenheim: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Iconoclastic Masterpiece
Following a complicated confrontation between Frank Lloyd Wright, his consultants, and the Board of Standards and Appeals, the City of New York granted a construction permit for the new museum in March 1956, four years after the trustees of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation had approved the plans. The project violated several regulations in the construction code of the time, and in all...
PublisherYale University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.1-6
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00265.001

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Description: The Guggenheim: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Iconoclastic Masterpiece
~Skimming the main points alone is enough to show why the Guggenheim evokes an aloof detachment, even to the point of self-conceit. In retelling the story, it is important to remember that the building’s present name, the “Guggenheim Museum,” is only the latest in a series of different appellations. For his part, Solomon originally called it...
PublisherYale University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.7-17
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00265.002

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Description: The Guggenheim: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Iconoclastic Masterpiece
~From 1943, Wright grew increasingly aware of the innate dangers in the unspoken but mutual animosity his patrons harbored for the Museum of Modern Art, which was under the leadership of Alfred H. Barr Jr. Even when Wright had just started working for Solomon Guggenheim, he took up the matter with insistence. We will return to these considerations later. For now,...
PublisherYale University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.18-25
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00265.003

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Description: The Guggenheim: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Iconoclastic Masterpiece
~Though he did not abandon hope that Solomon Guggenheim would personally visit the Riverdale lot, in July 1943 Wright told Hilla Rebay, “if finally Mr. Guggenheim should prefer to leave his mark within the center of present New York City, I think the Park Avenue sites Moses suggested are both excellent.” And he continued, once again making a loaded...
PublisherYale University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.26-37
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00265.004

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Description: The Guggenheim: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Iconoclastic Masterpiece
~In the final weeks of 1943, Wright began the first draft of his proposal for the project—which was destined to come to a close only after six reworkings—amidst the growing turmoil that would accompany the construction of the Guggenheim Museum during its entire course. This first draft was the beginning of a story best summed up by Erasmus’s adage...
PublisherYale University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.38-60
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00265.005

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Description: The Guggenheim: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Iconoclastic Masterpiece
~Wright persevered, carrying on with his drawings and model for the 1945 Modern Gallery and then his 1947 proposals. In defending his designs he showed his obstinacy, equaled by his skill in responding to the observations and objections raised concerning the project, agreeing to modify it without compromising its objectives and design. In 1948, to meet the cost...
PublisherYale University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.61-70
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00265.006

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Description: The Guggenheim: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Iconoclastic Masterpiece
~In 1945, illustrating the model of the Modern Gallery and explaining the characteristics of the construction of the coil he had designed and what the structure would provide, Wright astonished the audience gathered in New York for the presentation. On that occasion he made use of a disconcerting image, promptly recorded...
PublisherYale University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.71-100
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00265.007

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Description: The Guggenheim: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Iconoclastic Masterpiece
~Wright was in New York for the last time in January 1959. On April 3, six days before his death, he wrote from Taliesin West to Medley Whelpley, trustee of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, exhorting him to “be a good fellow.” Specifically, he implored him to intervene so that his project would not be subjected to further alteration, in the form of...
PublisherYale University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.101-110
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00265.008

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Free
Description: The Guggenheim: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Iconoclastic Masterpiece
~Since in the pages of this book images have partially taken the place of footnotes, I feel that I owe the reader some explanations. I hope that the most demanding readers, interested in delving deeper into the study of Wright’s work, will welcome this information as friendly suggestions.
PublisherYale University Press
Free
Description: The Guggenheim: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Iconoclastic Masterpiece
~While preparing this book I discussed with a few friends as I was writing; the most patient ones read my first, handwritten manuscript; each of these friends, but Nicholas Adams and Tomaso Trombetti especially, with the book before them, will be able to judge the debts I have amassed. I owe a particular debt to Katherine Boller, her colleagues at Yale...
PublisherYale University Press
Free
Description: The Guggenheim: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Iconoclastic Masterpiece
Photograph Credits
PublisherYale University Press
The Guggenheim: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Iconoclastic Masterpiece
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