It's ironic that Solomon R. Guggenheim, founder of one of the world's most important institutions of 20th-century art, was an Old Masters guy. That didn't change until 1930, when he was 69 and his friend Hilla Rebay brought him to Vasily Kandinsky's studio in Dessau, Germany, igniting a fervent retirement hobby. Soon Guggenheim was inviting guests to his apartment in the Plaza Hotel to marvel at his growing collection of Chagalls, Picassos, and Delaunays—and his many Kandinskys. In 1937 he would create the foundation that would become the Guggenheim Museum.
Now, 80 years later, an exhibition, "Visionaries: Creating a Modern Guggenheim," is on view at the Manhattan museum to honor its namesake and five other patrons (founding director Rebay, Solomon's niece Peggy Guggenheim, Katherine S. Dreier, Justin K. Thannhauser, and Karl Nierendorf) whose donations of artworks shaped the museum's identity—proving that some gifts are better than cash.
Throughout the '30s and '40s these benefactors contributed nearly 2,000 pieces, covering crucial periods from Impressionism and Surrealism to Expressionism and postwar abstraction. One hundred seventy of them are displayed around the Frank Lloyd Wright–designed rotunda, beginning with Camille Pissarro's The Hermitage at Pontoise (1867) and ending with Jackson Pollock's Alchemy (1947)
"Each of these core acquisitions brought something different to the table," says curator Megan Fontanella. "These are stories that really give you a sense of the person behind the collection, which we don't often see."
This article originally appeared in the March 2017 issue of Town & Country.
Leena Kim is an editor at Town & Country, where she covers travel, jewelry, education, weddings, and culture.
