The metamorphosis from private collection to public museum is an extraordinary transition. For the Guggenheim, this occurred in 1937, when Solomon R. Guggenheim established a foundation empowered to operate a museum that would publicly exhibit and preserve his holdings of non-objective art. Today, the Guggenheim is a museum in multiple locations with access to shared collections, common constituencies, and joint programming. Nevertheless, it is the permanent collection that constitutes the very core of the institution, no matter ho... Read more

The metamorphosis from private collection to public museum is an extraordinary transition. For the Guggenheim, this occurred in 1937, when Solomon R. Guggenheim established a foundation empowered to operate a museum that would publicly exhibit and preserve his holdings of non-objective art. Today, the Guggenheim is a museum in multiple locations with access to shared collections, common constituencies, and joint programming. Nevertheless, it is the permanent collection that constitutes the very core of the institution, no matter how far-reaching its activities may be. The story of the Guggenheim Museum is essentially the story of six very different private collections√¢‚Ǩ‚ÄùSolomon R. Guggenheim’s collection of non-objective painting premised on a belief in the spiritual dimensions of pure abstraction; his niece Peggy Guggenheim’s collection of Surrealist and abstract painting and sculpture; Justin K. Thannhauser’s array of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and early Modern masterpieces; Karl Nierendorf’s holdings in German Expressionism; Katherine S. Dreier’s paintings and sculptures of the historic avant-garde; and Dr. Giuseppe Panza di Biumo’s vast holdings of European and American Minimalist, Post-Minimalist, Environmental, and Conceptual art√¢‚Ǩ‚Äùthat have been augmented through the years by the museum’s directors and curators to form one richly layered collection dating from the late 19th-century to the present. Unlike most institutions dedicated to the visual arts, the Guggenheim does not divide itself into departments devoted to specific mediums or eras. Rather, the collection is conceived as an integrated whole that may be continuously enhanced in response to emerging talent as well as a mandate to fill in critical historical gaps.