Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

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The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a modern and contemporary art museum designed by architect Frank Gehry and located in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. It is built alongside the Nervion River, which runs through the city of Bilbao to the Atlantic Coast. The Guggenheim is one of several museums of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. The museum features both permanent and visiting exhibits featuring works of both Spanish and international artists.

1 The building
2 The exhibitions
3 Accessing the museum
4 External links

[edit] The building

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, designed by Frank Gehry and opened to the public in 1997,was immediately vaulted to prominence as one of the world's most spectacular buildings in the style of Deconstructivism. The museum's design and construction serve as an object lesson in Frank Gehry's style and method. Like much of Gehry's other work, the structure consists of radically sculpted, organic contours. Sited as it is in a port town, it is intended to resemble a ship. Its brilliantly reflective panels resemble fish scales, echoing the other organic life(and, in particular, fish-like) forms that recur commonly in Gehry's designs, as well as the river Nervión upon which the museum sits. Also in typical Gehry fashion, the building is uniquely a product of the period's technology. Computer-aided design (CATIA) and visualizations were used heavily in the structure's design.

Computer simulations of the building's structure made it feasible to build shapes that architects of earlier eras would have found nearly impossible to construct. Also important is that while the museum is a spectacular monument from the river, on street level it is quite modest and does not overwhelm its traditional surroundings. The museum was opened as part of a revitalization effort for the city of Bilbao and for the Basque Country. Almost immediately after its opening, the Guggenheim Bilbao became a popular tourist attraction, drawing visitors from around the globe. It was widely credited with "putting Bilbao on the map".

The building was constructed on time and budget, which is rare for architecture of this type. In an interview in Harvard Design Magazine [1] Gehry explained how he did it. First, he ensured that what he calls the "organization of the artist" prevailed during construction, in order to prevent political and business interests from interfering with the design. Second, he made sure he had a detailed and realistic cost estimate before proceeding. Third, he used CATIA and close collaboration with the individual building trades to control costs during construction.

[edit] The exhibitions

The exhibitions in the museum itself change often, the museum hosts thematic exhibitions, centered for example on Chinese or Russian art.

The museum's permanent collection concerns 20th century art, traditional paintings and sculptures are often in a minority compared to installations and electronic forms. The highlight of the permanent collection is the Fish room, a huge gallery that hosts iron sculptures from Richard Serra like The Snake.

Some art enthusiasts feel that the building itself far too often overshadows the museum's collection.

[edit] Accessing the museum

The best way to access the museum is using the tramway, Guggenheim stop. The line 18 of the bus system has a nearby stop. The museum is located 500 m north of the Moyúa station on the Bilbao Metro.