Guggenheim Bilbao
Saturday I visited the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao. There are four existing Guggenheim locations; New York, Venice, Berlin, and Bilbao, and one currently under development in Abu Dhabi.
Guggenheim Bilbao is an enormous building, the architecture inside and out is incredible. The design is so unique and varied that you could spend hours just looking at the building itself before even beginning to observe the art contained within.
Guggenheim Bilbao- The back of the museum which faces the river.
The first floor has permanent exhibits which are a part of the history of the museum, and are an integral part of the design of the building.
The second and third floors house various galleries which are changed periodically throughout the year. Currently the second floor galleries all contain exhibits pertaining to the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. The many displays show different stages of his upbringing, education, completed projects, and his unbuilt work.
The immense scale of the architectural projects he worked on is mind blowing, and his advanced and futuristic style, design, and methods are still complex in comparison with our “modern” architecture designs. Frank Lloyd Wright also had a very anti large city mindset, so all of his plans which included office space, high rise apartments, and other city-like elements, were spread out over thousands of acres to ensure that there was still an abundance of nature throughout the hustle-and-bustle of a city.
The third level is currently home to various collections from artists past and present, which are part of the other Guggenheim collections. There is also a particularly interesting exhibit by a Brazilian artist, whose name, at the moment, I cannot recall.
The entrance to the museum.
The Matter of Time by Richard Serra
An anonymous artist's contribution to the area surroundng the Guggenheim
The experience at the Guggenheim was great, and if I have the chance to visit any of the other Guggenheim museums I will definitely do so.
Below is the link to the Guggenheim Bilbao website for more information, or to see pictures of the exhibits, and explore the museum online.
http://www.guggenheim-bilbao.es/
I leave Bilbao December 1st in the afternoon, so I will be back in Barcelona at about 2PM on Tuesday. I need to do a few things to figure out where I will be staying, and get in touch with my cousin about meeting her for coffee or something before I head home.
I fly out of Barcelona December 3rd, and should arrive home just after 3PM. I am glad to be heading home soon, and I feel confident that I have completed my goal of checking out the schools here, and getting the information I needed to be able to apply for next year. I have also had the opportunity to meet many great people, learn new things about the culture everywhere I have stayed, and to visit Spain and Andrra for the first time.
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving, and I will see you all soon.
-Me
