The
Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is one of the reasons visitors come. It didn't exist the last time I passed through Basque Country over 30 years ago.
It occupies a scenic spot on the Nervión. But it wasn't so scenic before when it was a port area.
It's a modern and contemporary art museum with a changing collection of exhibits and retrospectives inside. The outdoor pieces are more permanent.
One of them is
Maman by Louise Bourgeois, a bronze spider, a tribute to her mother, who was a weaver. It seems it is one of 6 bronze copies around the world. The original steel sculpture is now at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.
People also come to see the titanium skin of the museum.
The footbridge across the Nervión is also attractive.
Murals on the other side of the river.
It took me a while to find the official entrance. But I didn't mind as I enjoyed perambulating around the museum. I might also have been early for my time slot, but that wasn't checked; the slots are a way to spread visits more evenly.
Helen Frankenthaler was an abstract expressionist painter.
This was a modern display of vertical scrolling text.
Barbara Kruger is a conceptual artist and collagist. Her works address cultural constructions. She works across several media.
This exhibit used displays of huge texts.
I didn't take any notes but no matter, a search finds that this is
Lo profunda es el aire (How profound is the air) by Basque sculptor
Eduardo Chillada. It's sculpted from a single block of alabaster. It's a permanent exhibit.
Some works are integrated into the architecture. This is Soft Shuttlecock by couple
Claes Oldenburg and
Coosje van Bruggen.
This is The Matter of Time by
Richard Serra. The work is designed to be walked through, experiential art. The panels oxidise more over time, deepening the rust.
At the floor level it looks like this.
An outdoor terrace with a couple of works.
It was a very pleasant day.
A couple of displays connected to computers generating, or perhaps hallucinating, architectural designs.
The museum is also the permanent home of
Jeff Koons' Puppy, a copy of which was on display outside the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney some years ago. His works have been criticised as kitsch. No doubt they are crowd pleasers.
Unfortunately Puppy was under maintenance so all I have is this photo of the poster covering the site.
I have an interest in EVs so I took a picture of a charger in the parking area.
Well, viewing all that art was hard work, so I rewarded myself with an edible sculpture as it was a warm day before walking back to downtown and catching a tram back.
And those are all the photos from the day. I guess the rest of the day was mundane.
