Wright's Spiral Opens: Guggenheim Museum Debuts
Frank Lloyd Wright spent 16 years designing the Guggenheim Museum, producing over 700 sketches and six sets of working drawings before its opening on October 21, 1959. He died six months before the building was completed. The design was radical: a continuous spiral ramp that visitors walked down from top to bottom, viewing art along the outer wall. Twenty-one artists, including Willem de Kooning and Robert Motherwell, signed a letter protesting that the tilted walls and narrow bays were unsuitable for displaying paintings. Critics were divided. Some called it Wright's masterpiece; others said the architecture overwhelmed the art. The building itself won: it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019 and draws over a million visitors annually. Many come for the architecture alone.
October 21, 1959
67 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on October 21
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