The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

the long version

This book celebrates the Guggenheim from its inception to the present. In a highly informative essay, Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, Vice President and Director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, traces an odyssey that began in 1943 with a letter imploring Wright to build a "temple of spirit" for a small museum of non-objective paintings. The project endured delays and upsets for sixteen years before construction was completed in 1959, only months after Wright's death. After a major restoration and expansion project, completed in 1992, the architect's original vision has now truly been fulfilled. This beautiful volume also includes fascinating photographs taken during the museum's construction, a portfolio of photographs interpreting Wright's structure as a work of art, and images of exhibition installations within the newly restored building.