Carry On Ramping...So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright

The Guggenheim (full name Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum) is a different museum altogether. The architecture (Frank Lloyd Wright’s) is iconic inside and out, the collection not to the standard of MoMA (but then where is, it is still chockfull of goodies); the space is so eyecatching that there is a general view that this can detract from the exhibits. It is a fair point, but once you get accustomed to the rampways and relatively low ceilings in the gallery walls, it does become a lovely environment for seeing some topnotch art. Having said that, it is disappointing that curators don’t appear to notice shadows cast over the paintings, surely these could be rectified with some sympathetic spotlighting.

The last time I saw the Guggenheim it was getting shot to bits by euro-banking-assassins in the International with Clive Owen strangely less easy to hit than contemporary glass sculpture. Evil banks destroying a private art collection and risking the lives of the public. Must be some social comment there somewhere.

Anyways, the main exhibit running up those famous ramps was in honour of the 50th anniversary of the unveiling of Frank Lloyd Wright’s building, showcasing Wright’s career with a mix of models and drawings.

A treat for any architecture-geeks (a group to which I sadly don’t fully subscribe), but for me most interesting was the uniform emphasis on both completed and unrealised Wright projects. Fanciful developments that would have been extraordinary had they been built: vast lobby areas of a civic building containing enormous glass globes acting as exotic aquaria; a hilltop drive-thru planetarium also unbuilt. You can just imagine Bond villains lording it in these places, and maybe that’s the sort of clientele that Wright needed at some stages of his career as his ideas exceeded the briefs he was given. What was missing for me, was the context and the reality of architecture on this scale – if they didn’t build this or that, why not? And what did they build instead?

I had visions of a sit-com with the chief character being an over-enthusiastic architect – each episode ending with his wealthy but sensible patron turning up at a building site to find the original plans had been changed and now sees 1000ft glass towers/Escher staircases/invisible doors/an extra 60 revolving storeys that detach from the main building on flamingo-legs… cut to wealthy patron shouting and shaking his fist: ‘FRANK!!!!!’…credits roll.