Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

1071 Fifth Ave at 88th St (212-423-3500)


Subway: 4, 5, 6 to 86th St. Sun-Wed 10am-6pm; Fri, Sat 10am-8pm. $12, students and seniors $7, under 12 free, voluntary donation Fri 6-8pm. AmEx, MC, V.

Other location: Guggenheim Museum Soho , 575 Broadway at Prince St (212-423-3500). Subway: N, R to Prince St. Wed-Fri, Sun 11am-6pm; Sat 11am-8pm.





Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Guggenheim itself is a stunning work of art. In addition to works by Kandinsky, Picasso, van Gogh, Degas and Manet, the museum owns Peggy Guggenheim's trove of Cubist, Surrealist and abstract Expressionist works, and the Panza di Biumo collection of American Minimalist and Conceptual art from the 1960s and 1970s. The photography collection began after a donation of more than 200 works by the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. In 1992 the museum reopened after a two-year renovation; a new ten-story tower increased the museum's space to include a sculpture gallery (with great views of Central Park) and a café. Since then, the guggenheim has made news with its ambitious global expansion, its penchant for sweeping historical presentations (such as its elegant overview of 5,000 years of Chinese art) and its in-depth retrospectives of such major American artists as Robert Rauschenberg. Admission prices are some of the highest in the city; they do allow entry to the Guggenheim's Soho branch, but only for exhibitions being shown in both locations. Even if you don't want to pay to see the collection inside, visit the museum to admire the stunning white building coiled among the turn-of-the-century mansions on Fifth Avenue.
The downtown guggenheim opened in 1992 to showcase selections from the permanent collection, as well as temporary exhibitions.