INTRODUCTION The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao was the result of an unprecedented collaboration between the Basque Institutions and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. In the late 1980s, in the face of a deep industrial crisis, the regional government launched several major infrastructure projects in an ambitious bid to regenerate the city—one key idea being the construction of a museum of contemporary art in collaboration with a prestigious international art institution. The US-based Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation was looking to continue its expansion in Europe and this alignment of interests between the Basque Institutions and the Foundation, and the complementary nature of their resources, led to the inauguration of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao on 19 October 1997. Since that time the Museum has surpassed even the most optimistic of expectations.
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Opposite: Exterior of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao at sunset, with Richard Serra’s Plow (1992), on extended loan from a private collection. Below: The pool on the riverfront façade, with Anish Kapoor’s sculpture Tall Tree & The Eye (2009); in the background is Daniel Buren’s art intervention Red Arches / Arku gorriak (2007). Both form part of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao collection.
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INTRODUCTION The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao was the result of an unprecedented collaboration between the Basque Institutions and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. In the late 1980s, in the face of a deep industrial crisis, the regional government launched several major infrastructure projects in an ambitious bid to regenerate the city—one key idea being the construction of a museum of contemporary art in collaboration with a prestigious international art institution. The US-based Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation was looking to continue its expansion in Europe and this alignment of interests between the Basque Institutions and the Foundation, and the complementary nature of their resources, led to the inauguration of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao on 19 October 1997. Since that time the Museum has surpassed even the most optimistic of expectations.
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Opposite: Exterior of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao at sunset, with Richard Serra’s Plow (1992), on extended loan from a private collection. Below: The pool on the riverfront façade, with Anish Kapoor’s sculpture Tall Tree & The Eye (2009); in the background is Daniel Buren’s art intervention Red Arches / Arku gorriak (2007). Both form part of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao collection.
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Below: The Atrium seen through the columns of Installation for Bilbao (1997), created by Jenny Holzer specifically for this gallery.
Frank Gehry won the competition to design the Museum building. It called for an extraordinary structure that would project a powerful, iconic identity but be in harmony with the art it would house. The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is itself a colossal sculpture composed of curvilinear volumes of titanium, limestone, and glass, offering a wide variety of organic and orthogonal exhibition spaces, able to host a widely diverse range of artistic approaches and languages. Gehry’s project also ensured that the building would integrate perfectly with the layout of the city. Located in the Abandoibarra district, it became a driving force for the development of this area, once an industrial and port zone but now home to university facilities, public buildings and commercial, residential, and leisure zones. Once the Museum had been founded, the work began to build a collection of artistic holdings that would accurately reflect contemporary art and have its own unique identity. The collections in the Guggenheim Constellation of Museums are mutually complementary and offer the public a comprehensive view of the most important aesthetic developments that have taken place from the last decades of the nineteenth century to the present day.
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Natural light filters into the Museum interior through the Atrium skylight.
Overleaf: Outdoor artwork from the Museum’s collection, created by Daniel Buren (Red Arches / Arku gorriak, 2007), Louise Bourgeois (Maman, 1999), Yves Klein (Fire Fountain, 1961), Jeff Koons (Tulips, 1995–2004), and Anish Kapoor (Tall Tree & The Eye, 2009).
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao was conceived to fulfil a range of cultural and artistic objectives, as well as to stimulate urban and social regeneration and economic revitalization. It has succeeded in placing Bilbao on the international art stage; promoting interest in art among local people; and been key to transforming the city. Bilbao is now more cosmopolitan and enjoys a richer cultural life and a higher-profile image abroad, attracting an average of one million visitors per year to the Museum and generating significant economic activity in the surrounding area.
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Below: The Atrium seen through the columns of Installation for Bilbao (1997), created by Jenny Holzer specifically for this gallery.
Frank Gehry won the competition to design the Museum building. It called for an extraordinary structure that would project a powerful, iconic identity but be in harmony with the art it would house. The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is itself a colossal sculpture composed of curvilinear volumes of titanium, limestone, and glass, offering a wide variety of organic and orthogonal exhibition spaces, able to host a widely diverse range of artistic approaches and languages. Gehry’s project also ensured that the building would integrate perfectly with the layout of the city. Located in the Abandoibarra district, it became a driving force for the development of this area, once an industrial and port zone but now home to university facilities, public buildings and commercial, residential, and leisure zones. Once the Museum had been founded, the work began to build a collection of artistic holdings that would accurately reflect contemporary art and have its own unique identity. The collections in the Guggenheim Constellation of Museums are mutually complementary and offer the public a comprehensive view of the most important aesthetic developments that have taken place from the last decades of the nineteenth century to the present day.
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Natural light filters into the Museum interior through the Atrium skylight.
Overleaf: Outdoor artwork from the Museum’s collection, created by Daniel Buren (Red Arches / Arku gorriak, 2007), Louise Bourgeois (Maman, 1999), Yves Klein (Fire Fountain, 1961), Jeff Koons (Tulips, 1995–2004), and Anish Kapoor (Tall Tree & The Eye, 2009).
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao was conceived to fulfil a range of cultural and artistic objectives, as well as to stimulate urban and social regeneration and economic revitalization. It has succeeded in placing Bilbao on the international art stage; promoting interest in art among local people; and been key to transforming the city. Bilbao is now more cosmopolitan and enjoys a richer cultural life and a higher-profile image abroad, attracting an average of one million visitors per year to the Museum and generating significant economic activity in the surrounding area.
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Jorge Oteiza
Metaphysical Box by Conjunction of Two Trihedrons. Homage to Leonardo (Caja metafísica por conjunción de dos triedros. Homenaje a Leonardo), 1958 Steel 28.5 x 25 x 26.5 cm Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa
After many years living in South America, in 1947 Jorge Oteiza returned to the Basque Country where he began to develop his ‘experimental purpose’ (propósito experimental ). Oteiza believed that all artistic practice depends upon progressing from an empty void or negative nothingness towards a space of plenitude that can be found in an active void. In his sculptural and theoretical work, Oteiza combines ideas of experimentation and spirituality derived from his reinterpretation of the works of modern masters such as Kandinsky, Mondrian, and Malevich, as well as great classical artists of the Renaissance and Baroque periods like Leonardo da Vinci, Velázquez, and El Greco. Through them Oteiza sets out a parallel history of art, centered on the evolution of spatial awareness and of the ethical and political consciousness of human beings in space. In so doing he puts into practice a process of studying solid and void through simple, geometric objects such as the cylinder, sphere, and cube. Working from numerous small model experiments, grouped according to a shared concept (‘experimental families’ or series), Oteiza develops an influential theory on the relationships between tension, gravity, pressure, and torsion. Created in 1958, Homage to Leonardo or Homage to the Annunciation by Leonardo forms part of the group of works that concludes Jorge Oteiza’s rich artistic career in the late 1950s. These constitute the experimental core of his work and represent his most important and influential pieces in the context of modern sculpture. Although he studied a variety of geometric forms, it was in the cube that Oteiza found the solution to the questions his exploration had posed: the definition of an empty space that could be filled with spiritual energy. The ‘metaphysical boxes,’ of which this work is an extraordinary example, generate within them a mysterious, dark space and, when placed on a marble or stone base, are instrumental in generating the sensation of sacred space that the artist had sought to achieve.
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METAPHYSICAL BOX BY CONJUNCTION OF TWO TRIHEDRONS |
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Jorge Oteiza
Metaphysical Box by Conjunction of Two Trihedrons. Homage to Leonardo (Caja metafísica por conjunción de dos triedros. Homenaje a Leonardo), 1958 Steel 28.5 x 25 x 26.5 cm Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa
After many years living in South America, in 1947 Jorge Oteiza returned to the Basque Country where he began to develop his ‘experimental purpose’ (propósito experimental ). Oteiza believed that all artistic practice depends upon progressing from an empty void or negative nothingness towards a space of plenitude that can be found in an active void. In his sculptural and theoretical work, Oteiza combines ideas of experimentation and spirituality derived from his reinterpretation of the works of modern masters such as Kandinsky, Mondrian, and Malevich, as well as great classical artists of the Renaissance and Baroque periods like Leonardo da Vinci, Velázquez, and El Greco. Through them Oteiza sets out a parallel history of art, centered on the evolution of spatial awareness and of the ethical and political consciousness of human beings in space. In so doing he puts into practice a process of studying solid and void through simple, geometric objects such as the cylinder, sphere, and cube. Working from numerous small model experiments, grouped according to a shared concept (‘experimental families’ or series), Oteiza develops an influential theory on the relationships between tension, gravity, pressure, and torsion. Created in 1958, Homage to Leonardo or Homage to the Annunciation by Leonardo forms part of the group of works that concludes Jorge Oteiza’s rich artistic career in the late 1950s. These constitute the experimental core of his work and represent his most important and influential pieces in the context of modern sculpture. Although he studied a variety of geometric forms, it was in the cube that Oteiza found the solution to the questions his exploration had posed: the definition of an empty space that could be filled with spiritual energy. The ‘metaphysical boxes,’ of which this work is an extraordinary example, generate within them a mysterious, dark space and, when placed on a marble or stone base, are instrumental in generating the sensation of sacred space that the artist had sought to achieve.
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METAPHYSICAL BOX BY CONJUNCTION OF TWO TRIHEDRONS |
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Anselm Kiefer
The Land of the Two Rivers (Zweistromland), 1995 Emulsion, acrylic, lead, and salt (produced by electrolysis using a zinc plate condenser) on canvas 416 x 710 cm Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa
Born in Germany shortly before the final European battle of World War II, Anselm Kiefer grew up experiencing the results of modern warfare, the division of his homeland, and the reconstruction of a divided nation that would fight for regeneration. Kiefer went on to explore and observe the interwoven presence of German mythology and history and the bearing these had had on the rise of fascism. In his series Occupations (Besetzungen, 1969), one of his early projects, Kiefer photographed himself making Nazi salutes in various locations during a trip around Switzerland, France, and Italy. In his later paintings—immense landscapes and architectural interiors, often encrusted with straw and sand—we find references to Germany’s political and literary heritage, including the legend of the Nibelung, Richard Wagner, Albert Speer’s architecture, and Adolf Hitler. From the mid 1980s and especially after his move to the south of France in the early 1990s, Kiefer’s iconography expanded and his work began to encompass more universal themes like civilization, culture, and spirituality, drawing on sources such as the Kabbalah, alchemy, and ancient mythology. The title of this piece, The Land of the Two Rivers, refers to the area bounded by the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, the cradle of ancient Babylon, the home of Gilgamesh—whose legend Kiefer explores in Gilgamesh and Enkidu in the Cedar Forest II (Gilgamesch und Enkidu im Zedernwald II, 1981), also part of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao collection—the place where writing was invented by the Sumerians in the fourth millennium before Christ, and a key region for Judaism and Christianity.
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The inscriptions on the canvas itself allude to the written word, the permanence of which transcends civilizations and epochs. This monumental work was preceded by a sculpture of the same name in which books made of lead conveyed the sense of the durability associated with writing and history. Echoes of these lands, their civilizations, and the creation of written culture can be glimpsed in Kiefer’s paintings.
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Anselm Kiefer
The Land of the Two Rivers (Zweistromland), 1995 Emulsion, acrylic, lead, and salt (produced by electrolysis using a zinc plate condenser) on canvas 416 x 710 cm Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa
Born in Germany shortly before the final European battle of World War II, Anselm Kiefer grew up experiencing the results of modern warfare, the division of his homeland, and the reconstruction of a divided nation that would fight for regeneration. Kiefer went on to explore and observe the interwoven presence of German mythology and history and the bearing these had had on the rise of fascism. In his series Occupations (Besetzungen, 1969), one of his early projects, Kiefer photographed himself making Nazi salutes in various locations during a trip around Switzerland, France, and Italy. In his later paintings—immense landscapes and architectural interiors, often encrusted with straw and sand—we find references to Germany’s political and literary heritage, including the legend of the Nibelung, Richard Wagner, Albert Speer’s architecture, and Adolf Hitler. From the mid 1980s and especially after his move to the south of France in the early 1990s, Kiefer’s iconography expanded and his work began to encompass more universal themes like civilization, culture, and spirituality, drawing on sources such as the Kabbalah, alchemy, and ancient mythology. The title of this piece, The Land of the Two Rivers, refers to the area bounded by the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, the cradle of ancient Babylon, the home of Gilgamesh—whose legend Kiefer explores in Gilgamesh and Enkidu in the Cedar Forest II (Gilgamesch und Enkidu im Zedernwald II, 1981), also part of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao collection—the place where writing was invented by the Sumerians in the fourth millennium before Christ, and a key region for Judaism and Christianity.
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The inscriptions on the canvas itself allude to the written word, the permanence of which transcends civilizations and epochs. This monumental work was preceded by a sculpture of the same name in which books made of lead conveyed the sense of the durability associated with writing and history. Echoes of these lands, their civilizations, and the creation of written culture can be glimpsed in Kiefer’s paintings.
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Jenny Holzer
Installation for Bilbao, 1997/2017 Electronic LED sign, 9 columns Site-specific dimensions Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa
Jenny Holzer has made the word a vessel for artistic expression. The simple, direct language of her aphorisms expresses self-evident truths that are developed into long series of statements about war, politics, death, and violence. In the 1970s Holzer began producing text on billboards, T-shirts, leaflets, and condom packets. In the 1980s her aphorisms started appearing among the large billboards lighting up the streets of New York and, shortly after, she began exploring other mediums, such as video and large electronic signs. For Holzer, objects became less important than the thinking behind them and she began focusing on the creative process, transforming action into pure reflection. Art became a vehicle for conveying a message aimed at a broad and diverse audience and expressed in the form of incisive, assertive, factual language. Words and concepts become a way of making us question ourselves, of consolidating our experience and examining our conscience in unfamiliar places. The enormous power of language comes into its own in this captivating, dramatic way.
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INSTALLATION FOR BILBAO  |
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Jenny Holzer
Installation for Bilbao, 1997/2017 Electronic LED sign, 9 columns Site-specific dimensions Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa
Jenny Holzer has made the word a vessel for artistic expression. The simple, direct language of her aphorisms expresses self-evident truths that are developed into long series of statements about war, politics, death, and violence. In the 1970s Holzer began producing text on billboards, T-shirts, leaflets, and condom packets. In the 1980s her aphorisms started appearing among the large billboards lighting up the streets of New York and, shortly after, she began exploring other mediums, such as video and large electronic signs. For Holzer, objects became less important than the thinking behind them and she began focusing on the creative process, transforming action into pure reflection. Art became a vehicle for conveying a message aimed at a broad and diverse audience and expressed in the form of incisive, assertive, factual language. Words and concepts become a way of making us question ourselves, of consolidating our experience and examining our conscience in unfamiliar places. The enormous power of language comes into its own in this captivating, dramatic way.
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Fujiko Nakaya
Fog Sculpture #08025 (F.O.G.), 1998 Water fog generated by 1,000 fog nozzles and high-pressure pump/motor system Site-specific dimensions Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa Gift of Robert Rauschenberg
For Fujiko Nakaya, fog is a means of transmitting light and shadow, much like video. Her work with fog initially arose from her interest in decomposition and the process of decay. While an art student in the United States—having moved there with her family from Japan in the early 1950s—Nakaya used her paintings of dying flowers and clouds to express her fascination with the natural processes of formation and dissolution. Her first fog sculpture was created during her collaboration with Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.).
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This organisation, founded in 1967 by the artist Robert Rauschenberg and the engineer Billy Klüver, was dedicated to promoting collaborations between engineers and artists. In this piece, the Pepsi Cola pavilion, designed by E.A.T. for the 1970 Osaka Expo, was enveloped in fog. With the help of atmospheric physicist Thomas Mee, Nakaya has been able to develop the necessary technology to create and operate her fog sculptures. Nakaya’s Fog Sculpture #08025 (F.O.G.) was commissioned at Rauschenberg’s invitation to coincide with the opening of his retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in 1998. The initials that form part of its title—F. O. G.—in fact refer to the name of the architect who designed the Museum building: Frank O. Gehry. Soon after the opening, Rauschenberg acquired Nakaya’s work and donated it to the Museum. Since then it has remained installed in the pool on the riverfront façade of Gehry’s sinuous titanium building. This mist plays off the reflections and contrasts created between the sheet of water, the flow of the river, and the metal wall of reflective scales that acts as a backdrop. The sculpture is composed of artificially produced water droplets that dissipate into the atmosphere. As Nakaya has said, it is ‘both a phenomenon and an artefact, a precarious dynamism (…) of nature’s balance’.⁷
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Fujiko Nakaya
Fog Sculpture #08025 (F.O.G.), 1998 Water fog generated by 1,000 fog nozzles and high-pressure pump/motor system Site-specific dimensions Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa Gift of Robert Rauschenberg
For Fujiko Nakaya, fog is a means of transmitting light and shadow, much like video. Her work with fog initially arose from her interest in decomposition and the process of decay. While an art student in the United States—having moved there with her family from Japan in the early 1950s—Nakaya used her paintings of dying flowers and clouds to express her fascination with the natural processes of formation and dissolution. Her first fog sculpture was created during her collaboration with Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.).
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This organisation, founded in 1967 by the artist Robert Rauschenberg and the engineer Billy Klüver, was dedicated to promoting collaborations between engineers and artists. In this piece, the Pepsi Cola pavilion, designed by E.A.T. for the 1970 Osaka Expo, was enveloped in fog. With the help of atmospheric physicist Thomas Mee, Nakaya has been able to develop the necessary technology to create and operate her fog sculptures. Nakaya’s Fog Sculpture #08025 (F.O.G.) was commissioned at Rauschenberg’s invitation to coincide with the opening of his retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in 1998. The initials that form part of its title—F. O. G.—in fact refer to the name of the architect who designed the Museum building: Frank O. Gehry. Soon after the opening, Rauschenberg acquired Nakaya’s work and donated it to the Museum. Since then it has remained installed in the pool on the riverfront façade of Gehry’s sinuous titanium building. This mist plays off the reflections and contrasts created between the sheet of water, the flow of the river, and the metal wall of reflective scales that acts as a backdrop. The sculpture is composed of artificially produced water droplets that dissipate into the atmosphere. As Nakaya has said, it is ‘both a phenomenon and an artefact, a precarious dynamism (…) of nature’s balance’.⁷
FOG SCULPTURE #08025 (F.O.G.) |
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This edition © Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd, in collaboration with the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 2019 Text © FMGB Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa, 2019 Images © FMGB Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa, photos: Erika Barahona Ede Artworks © the artists; pp. 16–17 Jorge Oteiza © Pilar Oteiza, A+V Agencia de Creadores Visuales, 2019; pp. 36–39 © 2019 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by DACS, London; pp. 40–41 © Foundation Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona/VEGAP, Madrid and DACS, London 2019; © FMGB Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa, 2019 First published in 2019 by Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd. 10 Lion Yard Tremadoc Road London SW4 7NQ, United Kingdom www.scalapublishers.com Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Abandoibarra Etorb., 2, 48009 Bilbao, Bizkaia (Spain) www.guggenheim-bilbao.eus isbn 978-1-78551-246-9 Editor: Laura Fox Designer: Matthew Wilson (Mexington) English translation by Alayne Pullen in association with First Edition Translations Ltd, Cambridge UK Printed and bound in Turkey 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way or by any means including electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or in any other way, without the written permission of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd. Director's Choice is a registered trademark of Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd.
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Cover: Richard Serra The Matter of Time, 1994–2005 (See pp. 46–49) Frontispiece: Panoramic view of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao