Megan Fontanella

The story of the pioneering collectors and artists behind the Guggenheim's radical collectionVisionaries: Creating a Modern Guggenheim celebrates the late 19th- and early 20th-century masterworks at the core of the institution's holdings, and the trailblazers--artists and early patrons alike--whose contributions helped define the forward-looking identity of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Central to Visionaries is the story of museum founder Solomon R. Guggenheim, who with support from his trusted advisor, Hilla Rebay, become a great champion of "nonobjective" art and assembled a radical collection against the backdrop of economic crisis and war in the 1930s and '40s.A lead catalog essay by museum curator Megan Fontanella explores Solomon Guggenheim's fascinating activities in this period, together with that of five similarly pioneering art patrons whose personal holdings would become essential components of the foundation collection: Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and early School of Paris artworks from Justin K. Thannhauser; the eclectic Expressionist inventory of migr art dealer Karl Nierendorf; the incomparable abstract and Surrealist paintings and sculptures from self-proclaimed "art addict" Peggy Guggenheim; and key modern examples from the estates of artists Katherine S. Dreier and Rebay. Alongside vibrant illustrations of works by such iconic artists as Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock, Visionaries also features essays by six curators examining touchstone works from the foundation collection.

This revised and redesigned edition of the Guggenheim Museum’s guide to its New York collection is a concise primer on art of the late 19th to the early 21st centuries Revised, updated, and completely redesigned, the fourth edition of the Guggenheim Museum’s popular guide to its New York collection is a beautifully produced volume, not only a handy overview of the museum’s holdings but also a concise, engaging primer on the art of the late 19th through the early 21st centuries. Organized alphabetically, the book consists of entries on more than 170 of the most important paintings, sculptures, photographs, videos, site-specific installations, and other works in the collection by artists from Marina Abramovic to Maurizio Cattelan to Julie Mehretu to Gilberto Zorio. Also included are definitions of key terms and concepts of modern art, from “Appropriation” to “Non-Objective” to “Postcolonial” and beyond. The Guggenheim Museum Collection is beloved for this wealth of masterpieces by leading modern artists, such as Marc Chagall, Vasily Kandinsky, and Pablo Picasso. Reflecting the recent growth in the collection, this edition of the guide includes new entries on Romare Bearden, Tacita Dean, Cao Fei, David Hammons, Catherine Opie and Adrian Piper, among many others. The text is by the museum’s curators as well as prominent authors and scholars, including Homi Bhabha, Tom Crow, Nikki Greene and Jeffrey Schnapp.