Visionaries: Creating a Modern Guggenheim Part I

Opening on February 10, 2017, on the occasion of the eightieth anniversary of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Visionaries: Creating a Modern Guggenheim features more than 170 modern objects from the permanent collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice. 

Assembling many of the foundation’s most iconic works along with treasures by artists less familiar, this celebratory exhibition explores avant-garde innovations of the late nineteenth through mid-twentieth centuries, as well as the groundbreaking activities of six pioneering arts patrons who brought to light some of the most significant artists of their day and established the Guggenheim Foundation’s identity as a forward- looking institution. Visionaries includes important works by artists such as Alexander Calder, Paul Cézanne, Marc Chagall, Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Fernand Léger, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, and Vincent van Gogh. 

Visionaries: Creating a Modern Guggenheim is organized by Megan Fontanella, Curator, Collections and Provenance, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, with support from Ylinka Barotto, Curatorial Assistant, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. 

Installed in the Frank Lloyd Wright–designed rotunda and the Thannhauser Gallery on Tower Level 2, this exhibition showcases the museum’s exceptional modern holdings as organized through the perspectives of six proponents of the avant-garde who intersected with the Guggenheim Foundation in the early decades of its history and gave their personal collections, in whole or in part, to the institution. 

Of these visionaries, foremost is the museum’s founder, Solomon R. Guggenheim, who, with support from his trusted advisor, the German-born artist Hilla Rebay, set aside a more traditional collecting focus to become a great champion of nonobjective art—a strand of abstraction with spiritual aims, epitomized by the work of Vasily Kandinsky. Amassed against the backdrop of economic crisis and war in the 1930s and 1940s, Guggenheim’s unparalleled modern holdings formed the basis of his foundation, established eighty years ago in 1937 with the goal of encouraging art, art education, and enlightenment for the public. 

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation’s formative collection was subsequently shaped through major acquisitions from contemporaries who shared Guggenheim’s pioneering spirit. These acquisitions include a group of prized Impressionist and early School of Paris masterworks from Justin K. Thannhauser; the eclectic Expressionist inventory of émigré art dealer Karl Nierendorf; the rich holdings of abstract and Surrealist painting and sculpture from self-proclaimed “art addict” Peggy Guggenheim, Solomon’s niece; and key examples from the estates of artists Katherine S. Dreier and Hilla Rebay, both pivotal in promoting modern art in America. Highlights from each of these collections feature prominently in Visionaries and convey a narrative on avant-garde innovation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 
 

Visionaries offers a rare opportunity to explore in-depth key artists represented among the museum’s holdings, such as Kandinsky and Klee, through multiple examples that reflect the shared interest in their work among the six featured patrons. The exhibition includes nearly twenty-five works from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, seldom displayed outside of the Venice palazzo, including canvases by Max Ernst, René Magritte, and Yves Tanguy, and sculptures by Joseph Cornell and Alberto Giacometti. 

Among this group, Jackson Pollock’s Alchemy (1947), considered among his finest paintings and a celebrated icon of postwar abstraction, will be shown in the United States for the first time in almost fifty years.  

More than a dozen works on paper by Picasso and Van Gogh, rarely on view to the public, will be installed in the Thannhauser Gallery, where the earliest works represented in the Guggenheim collection are typically on display. Additionally, sculptures by Edgar Degas and paintings by Pierre- Auguste Renoir, Paul Gauguin, and Édouard Manet will be placed on the ramps for the occasion of the exhibition. In May, a fresh selection of works on paper by artists including Klee, Picasso, and Van Gogh will replace the first grouping. 

Several conservation projects have been initiated as part of the planning of this anniversary exhibition. Red Lily Pads (1956), a painted steel sculpture by Alexander Calder spanning nearly 17 feet that will be suspended over the rotunda’s fountain, underwent extensive historical research and analysis, resulting in a beautifully integrated surface and restoration of the mobile’s proper balance. 

Manet’s Woman in Evening Dress (1877–80) was studied by a group of curators, conservators, and scientists who traced the history of the work and examined discolored resin varnish and overpaint on the surface. A complex treatment removed this coating to reveal a cool palette, vigorous brushwork, and the fine details of Manet’s sketchy composition. 

Luciano Pensabene Buemi, Conservator of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, cleaned The Studio (L'Atelier), 1928, an oil and crayon on canvas by Picasso, before the work traveled to New York. Additionally, works by Josef Albers, Kandinsky, and Mondrian, among others, were treated in preparation for the exhibition.

Vasily Kandinsky(1866-1944)

Black Lines, December 1913 Schwarze Linien, December 1913

Oil on canvas
51 x 51 5/8 inches (129.4 x 131.1 cm)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By gift
37.241 

Vasily Kandinsky(1866-1944)

Landscape with Red Spots, No. 2, 1913 Landschaft mit roten Flecken, Nr. 2, 1913

Oil on canvas
46 1/4 x 55 1/8 inches (117.5 x 140 cm)
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, 1976
76.2553.33 

Vasily Kandinsky(1866-1944)

White Center, 1921 Weisses Zentrum, 1921

Oil on canvas
46 3/4 x 53 3/4 inches (118.7 x 136.5 cm)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Hilla Rebay Collection 71.1936.R98 

Vasily Kandinsky(1866-1944)

Circles on Black, 1921 Krugi na Chyornom, 1921

Oil on canvas
53 3/4 x 47 1/8 inches (136.5 x 120 cm)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection
46.1050 

Vasily Kandinsky(1866-1944)

Dominant Curve, April 1936 Courbe dominante, April 1936

Oil on canvas
50 7/8 x 76 1/2 inches (129.2 x 194.3 cm)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection
45.989

Vasily Kandinsky(1866-1944)

Several Circles, January–February 1926 Einige Kreise, January–February 1926

Oil on canvas
55 1/4 x 55 3/8 inches (140.3 x 140.7 cm)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By gift
41.283 

Vasily Kandinsky(1866-1944)

Painting with White Border, May 1913 Bild mit weißem Rand, May 1913

Oil on canvas
55 1/4 x 78 7/8 inches (140.3 x 200.3 cm)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By gift
37.245 

Vasily Kandinsky(1866-1944)

Blue Mountain, 1908–09 Der blaue Berg, 1908–09

Oil on canvas
41 3/4 x 38 inches (106 x 96.6 cm)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By gift
41.505 

Vasily Kandinsky(1866-1944)

Improvisation 28 (Second Version), 1912 Improvisation 28 [zweite Fassung], 1912

Oil on canvas
43 7/8 x 63 7/8 inches (111.4 x 162.1 cm)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By gift
37.239

Camille Pissarro(1830-1903)

The Hermitage at Pontoise, ca. 1867
Les côteaux de l’Hermitage, Pontoise, ca. 1867

Oil on canvas
59 5/8 x 79 inches (151.4 x 200.6 cm)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Thannhauser Collection, Gift, Justin K. Thannhauser, 1978
78.2514.67 

Pierre-Auguste Renoir(1841-1919)

Woman with Parakeet, 1871 La femme à la perruche, 1871

Oil on canvas
36 1/4 x 25 5/8 inches (92.1 x 65.1 cm)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Thannhauser Collection, Gift, Justin K. Thannhauser, 1978
78.2514.68 

Édouard Manet(1832-1883)

Before the Mirror, 1876 Devant la glace, 1876

Oil on canvas
36 1/4 x 28 1/8 inches (92.1 x 71.4 cm)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Thannhauser Collection, Gift, Justin K. Thannhauser, 1978
78.2514.27 

Paul Gauguin(1848-1903)

Haere Mai, 1891
Oil on burlap
28 1/2 x 36 inches (72.4 x 91.4 cm)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Thannhauser Collection, Gift, Justin K. Thannhauser, 1978
78.2514.16 

Vincent van Gogh(1853-1890)

Mountains at Saint-Rémy, July 1889 Montagnes à Saint-Rémy, July 1889
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Thannhauser Collection, Gift, Justin K. Thannhauser, 1978

Edgar Degas(1834-1917)

Dancers in Green and Yellow, ca. 1903 Danseuses vertes et jaunes, ca. 1903

Pastel and charcoal on several pieces of tracing paper, mounted on paperboard
38 7/8 x 28 1/8 inches (98.8 x 71.5 cm)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Thannhauser Collection, Gift, Justin K. Thannhauser, 1978 

78.2514.12

Henri Rousseau(1844-1910)

The Football Players, 1908 Les joueurs de football, 1908

Oil on canvas
39 1/2 x 31 5/8 inches (100.3 x 80.3 cm) Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York 60.1583

Remarks: Formerly collection Justin K. Thannhauser

Henri Rousseau(1844-1910)

Artillerymen, ca. 1893–95 Les artilleurs, ca. 1893–95

Oil on canvas
31 1/8 x 39 inches (79.1 x 98.9 cm)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By gift
38.711

Remarks: Exhibited at Galerie Thannhauser, Berlin, 1927