Solomon R.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, museum of modern and contemporary art, located in New York City, opened in 1959 in a building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is named after Solomon R. Guggenheim, an American industrialist and philanthropist. In 1936 the German artist Hilla Rebay organized an exhibition of Guggenheim's art collection entitled Solomon R. Guggenheim Collection of Non-Objective Paintings featuring Marc Chagall and Wassily Kandinsky among others. The expansion of Solomon R. Guggenheim's art collection led to the formation of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 1937, endowed to operate museums. The museum's collections include large numbers of impressionist, postimpressionist, cubist, and abstract artworks (see Impressionism; Postimpressionism; Cubism; Abstract Art) by such artists as Fernand Leger, Lyonel Feininger, Robert Delaunay, Paul Cezanne, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, and Pablo Picasso. Since its beginning, the museum's collection has broadened and it now includes sculpture, paintings, and artworks from the entire modern period. The museum houses a restaurant and an auditorium. In 1992 the renovation and expansion of the building was completed by the architects Gwathmey and Siegel. The Guggenheim Museum Soho, designed by Isozaki Arata and located in the Soho area of New York City, opened in 1992. The additional space allows a greater portion of the museum's permanent collection to be exhibited. Reviewed by: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.