Bilbao – Guggenheim Museum: June Crespo.Vascular until 6 September’24

Bilbao is a true lifestyle destination and has to be one of the most enjoyable places in Europe to spend a city break at! The town is packed with restaurants & bars, as food is a BIG thing here, whilst music festivals and live performances take place throughout the year and then…there’s the Guggenheim Museum. Impressive beyond belief, treat it like an art mekka, as the world flocks to this place for outstanding blockbuster shows. Everything about this city screams creativity & lifestyle, so there’s something to enjoy in every corner

Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao

Bilbao, a port city in the Northern Basque region of Spain, home to the spectacular Guggenheim Museum. Which is potentially Bilbao’s most famous visitor attraction, drawing in crowds in their hundreds of thousands each year! First established in 1997, part of a plan to transform the city of Bilbao, the museum is part of a partnership between the Basque Institutions and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Soon to be celebrating its 24th birthday, as part of the international collection of Guggenheim Museums, the Guggenheim Bilbao is one of the largest museums in Spain. Here at TA-DAH.TV we’ve done our research into this amazing museum to offer you this exciting insight into all that the Guggenheim has to offer as a tourist attraction. Now you can be ready for a trip to the beautiful city of Bilbao, being sure to tick off the Guggenheim Museum while you are there!

The design and history of the Guggenheim Museum

The magnificent building was designed by Canadian American architect, Frank Gehry. The vast space covers 24,000 m2 with 9,000 of this dedicated to exhibition space, so there’s plenty to explore. Gehry’s design has created a sculpture-like structure which seamlessly integrates into Bilbao’s urban design and the surrounding area. To see inside the museum and the stunning structure of this building, check out the museum’s virtual tour! For the city and people of Bilbao it has generally had a positive economic impact, drawing in millions of visitors and millions in economic activity.

Taking pride of place, at the entrance to the museum, is a sculpture created and designed by the famous Jeff Koons. Aptly named ‘Puppy’ this sculpture is that of a giant West Highland Terrier! Completely covered in flowering plants. Thanks to the imposing size of this sculpture, Puppy really does take your breath away. Koons designed this sculpture for the entrance of the museum to entice the public and in his words; ‘Puppy, majestic and robust whilst guarding the doors of the museum, fills the audience with admiration and joy.’

Temporary exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

Well-known for its large-scale art installations and exhibitions, the museum has held a vast array of exhibitions over the years since its opening. Temporary exhibitions have been popular with the public, including tourists, drawing in thousands.

Current Exhibitions:

• THE ROARING TWENTIES
  May 7, 2021 – September 19, 2021
• CECILIA BENGOLEA. ANIMATIONS IN WATER
  June 24, 2021 – October 24, 2021
• LEARNING THROUGH ART 2021
  June 15, 2021 – September 19, 2021
• THE LINE OF WIT
  June 11, 2021 – January 16, 2022

Previous Exhibitions:

• KANDINSKY
  November 20, 2020–May 23, 2021
• JENNY HOLZER: THING INDESCRIBABLE
  March 22–September 9, 2019
• DAVID HOCKNEY: A BIGGER PICTURE – This was one of the museum’s most successful exhibitions which drew in over 290,000 visitors!
  May 15 – September 30 2021
• LUCIO FONTANA: ON THE THRESHOLD
  May 17–September 29, 2019

Permanent exhibitions and collections

From the opening of the museum, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao has been working to establish a permanent collection of art pieces. This consists of works from the mid-twentieth century up to the present day.

Pieces within the collection include famed works from notable names such as:

• UNTITLED
  Mark Rothko
  Following the common theme of Rothko’s other works, Untitled consists of large expanses of colour delineated by uneven, hazy shades.
• TULIPS
  Jeff Koons
  As part of Koons’s Celebration series, Tulips embodies the generic, mass-produced objects that we often associate with celebrations like birthdays, holidays, and festive periods. Tulips looks very much like a bouquet of balloon flowers, of gigantic proportions.
• INSTALLATION FOR BILBAO
  Jenny Holzer
  Holzer’s piece consists of a row of nine vertical, double-sided L.E.D. signboards. This piece was designed as a site-specific piece to work alongside the building’s design.
• MAMAN
  Louise Bourgeois
  Maman is frankly quite terrifying, but also what a spectacle! At almost 9 meters tall, this sculpture takes on the form of a spider which is said to have been inspired by the concept of maternity and the combination of fragility and strength found amongst the silk spiders. This piece is quite the conversation starter.