Collecting Abstraction: The Multiple Narratives of Modernism

Why is it important for the Guggenheim Museum to collect and preserve art?

To Guggenheim Museum founder Solomon R. Guggenheim and founding director Hilla Rebay abstraction was not just a radical art form. They also saw its potential as an immensely powerful tool for better understanding and changing the world. When Rebay introduced Vasily Kandinsky’s work to Guggenheim around 1929, she set the course of Guggenheim’s collection, and ultimately the collecting legacy of the museum he would later establish. The centrality of abstraction to the art institution’s approach to collecting is the heart of a new Guggenheim documentary, "Collecting Abstraction: The Multiple Narratives of Modernism."

"Collecting Abstraction" journeys through the decades-long history of abstraction in the Guggenheim’s collection and iconic exhibitions, illustrating an enduring commitment to the artists of our time, the multiple perspectives art offers, and the conversations artworks can stimulate. Through open and honest dialogue with various voices from the Guggenheim Museum, "Collecting Abstraction" demonstrates the ways in which the founding principles of the Guggenheim’s collection continue to guide its present and future.

Learn more about the Guggenheim collection at https://www.guggenheim.org/collection-online.