My Favorite Paintings at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City was an iconic modern building, and I was a bit surprised to see some paintings from somewhat older era - early 20th century, which in current art market has almost become "classical".



My favorite painting was Saint-Séverin No. 3 (1909-10) by French painter Robert Delaunay (1885-1941). This monochromatic painting depicted the tall nave of the cathedral and the interlocking buttresses, elongated, soaring, resembling a giant pipe organ, or a glimpse of the hollow of abdominal cavity — vast, cavernous, seductive yet foreboding.


Saint-Séverin No. 3, 1909-10, Robert Delaunay [CC0 or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The other favorite of mine was a Cubism-influenced Paris par la fenêtre (Paris Through the Window) (1913) by Marc Chagall, who in his typical fashion, fancifully mixed together various motifs and elements — people, cat, village, window, city, his native Russia and Paris, folk art elements and cosmopolitan sophistication, and the sense of joy, freedom, anxiety and perhaps, malfeasance or even evil. Also very striking was the interplay of his vivid colors, though in a more muted way to his standards.


Marc Chagall, 1913, Paris par la fenêtre (Paris Through the Window), oil on canvas, 136 x 141.9 cm, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Source:  Guggenheim Collection Online [public domain]


My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 142: My Favorite Drawing and Artefact at Morgan Library & Museum in New York City
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 140: My Favorite Paintings at Neue Galerie, New York City

List of My Favorite Artworks in the Museums I've Visited

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- Last Trip to a Museum in 2012 - The William S. Paley Collection: A Taste for Modernism at De Young Museum in San Francisco
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Guggenheim Museum Collections

Only on my fourth trip to New York City, did I visit Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. I didn't know that it had a quite extensive painting collections, since it is mostly connected to photography. I did walk by it during my second trip to New York, when I bravely drove into Manhattan.

When I arrived, its iconic ramp was closed due to exhibition installation. It was a very slight disappointment since I was attracted to a special exhibit: The Geometry of Kandinsky and Malevich which ended the day after my arrival from San Fransisco.

It was an interesting exhibit but at the end I was overwhelmed by its own permanent painting collection. Below are a sample of its impressive works:


Portrait of Johann Harms, 1916. Oil with wax on canvas, Egon Schiele


Saint-Séverin No. 3, 1909–10. Oil on canvas, Robert Delaunay


Still Life Flask, Glass, and Jug (Fiasque, verre et poterie), ca. 1877. Oil on canvas, Paul Cézanne


Paris Through the Window (Paris par la fenêtre), 1913. Oil on canvas, Marc Chagall


Landscape with Snow (Paysage enneigé), Late February 1888. Oil on canvas, Vincent van Gogh


Mountains at Saint-Rémy (Montagnes à Saint-Rémy), July 1889. Oil on canvas, Vincent van Gogh

The museum showed another special exhibit: Grey Area, which showcased a young talent, Julie Mehretu (born 1970, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia). Her works were deceptively simple and extremely complex. According to Guggenheim Museum, "inspired in part by Berlin, the city in which Mehretu created the works, the paintings evoke the psychogeography of a place and the effects of the built environment on individuals, while at the same time contemplating the past and the surviving traces of lived history."



It was a wonderful re-visiting her work. I have seen some of her work in Berkeley Art Museum in 2004 - Matrix 211. The catalogue in that exhibition stated that "In her large-scale canvases Julie Mehretu aspires to produce “over-the-top epic narratives,” stories of our time. Painting on vellum and Mylar, Mehretu methodically builds with abstract marks to create emotionally charged worlds."



As for the building itself, it is a truly marvel. Though I was not able to walk on the ramp, view it from below, side gallery and from without, was satisfying enough.























>> New York City Report, September 2010, Part II: Central Park, New York City