The survey of the late Swedish abstract painter has drawn 600,000 visitors, increased museum memberships, and broke another record in catalogue sales.
Guggenheim Museum
Pulled into Robert Mapplethorpe’s Vortex of Voyeurism
“What’s S&M?” I overhear a woman asking her husband in the exhibition. “The artist says here that it stands for sex and magic, but this set up doesn’t look very magical.”
Hilma af Klint, Outlier for the Ages
Hilma af Klint reminds us that institutionally approved narratives generally function as touchstones for conformists and the weak-kneed.
Hilma af Klint, the Spiritualist Painter Who Pioneered Abstract Art
Witchy and prescient, Hilma af Klint’s paintings from the early 1900s curiously combine spiritualism with an interest in evolutionary biology.
Major Art Institutions Navigate Ties to Saudi Arabia After Disappearance of Journalist [UPDATED]
The Smithsonian, Sotheby’s, and landmark institutions across NYC are under pressure to address their financial connections to the Saudi Arabian government in the wake of the suspected murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
A Playful and Prurient Performance About Pornography
In Prurience, Christopher Green asks his audience to “consider if society is in the grip of an actual addiction or a moral panic.”
Someone Yarn-Bombed a Guggenheim Museum Toilet with Gold Crochet
The guerrilla intervention was in place for two hours during the museum’s pay-what-you-wish period on Saturday.
Fox Business Anchor Outraged at Guggenheim in Wake of Golden Toilet Offer
From a slew of negative reviews on Yelp and Facebook to a Fox anchor calling on chief curator Nancy Spector to resign, the backlash to revelations that the Guggenheim offered the Trumps a gold toilet is many-pronged.
Trumps Wanted a van Gogh for the White House But Were Offered a Gold Toilet
When Donald and Melania Trump requested a Vincent van Gogh painting from the Guggenheim, the museum responded with a counteroffer.
Hawking Audio Guides at the Guggenheim
In this piece from his new nonfiction collection, Dragon at the Edge of a Flat World: Portraits and Revelations, Joseph Keckler revisits his stint as an audio guide salesman.
Documenting the Many Contradictions of Contemporary China
The Guggenheim’s series Turn It On: China on Film, 2000–2017, curated by Ai Weiwei and Wang Fen, gathers documentaries by Chinese artists and filmmakers.
Ryan McNamara’s Populist Approach to Dance Falls Short at the Guggenheim
Commedia dell’arte packed less punch, in part because of the formal space of the Guggenheim and McNamara’s status as an art-world darling.