Nerve Endings Firing Away

The Guggenheim Museum is like Mecca for any Frank Lloyd Wright fan. Well, after Falling Water of course. I hadn’t descended the famed ramp yet and had just peered in at the atrium last time. This time, however rains and the company of my Mama, Mami, and cousin (all three are architects too), the decision to visit Guggenheim was almost unanimous. Like typical desis (and other freeloaders from other countries) we waited for the ‘pay as you wish’ hour. As soon as we entered, we headed toward the elevator as you should whilst in Guggenheim. You begin exploring the museum from the top and work your way downwards along the ramp. You see the artwork on the circular walls of the spiral and when you are done, you are at ground level again. However, the Annex, built after FLW’s death and the mirror-like structure (Eye of the Storm) in the atrium totally ruined my perception of the Guggenheim. The Annex, first of all lets visitors drift away from the ramp and go off on a tangent, like any plain-Jane museum. The Guggenheim was supposed to be piece of art in itself; more specially a piece of non-objectivist art. The Annex totally defeats the purpose. I admit that circular walls and the uneven floor of the ramp may not be ideal for a visitor to the museum (main criticisms of Guggenheim), but then the Guggenheim wasn’t your run-of-the-mill museum. You are free to criticize and stay away.

I heard that the artist Daniel Buren spent almost ten years trying to convince museum authorities into displaying his Eye of the Storm. In my opinion, they should let him spend another ten. The mirror ‘scuplture’ in its attempt to be inconspicuous and giving the visitor an illusion of reality only succeeds in goading the visitor to imagine what it would be like if the mirror wasn’t there. Effectively, that is a failure of the structure. Also, the intermittent breaks when you go behind the structure as you descend down the ramp again is contrary to Lloyd’s idea of giving the visitor a seamless perception of his descent to ground level. Also, since refraction and reflection are such bitches, you never get a jointed view of the structure (is it possible?). I had dreamed of taking a wide-angle shot of the atrium lying flat on the ground, getting a clear shot of the glass and the spiraling ramp ever since I was in architecture school. I guess I have to keep that for next time.

If you rather read a layperson’s account of the Guggenheim, hop over to Ash’s Exploration of the Infinite Abyss. Also, check out the Guggenheim photoset at my Flickr page.