Apologies for very late posting this month. Reasons? No good one, really. Sorry.
Behold, the new Guggenheim Museum in Abu Dhabi. . . say, what. . . ? Yes, there is something about the Guggenheim Foundation, or enterprise, or entity, or whatever it is, that is causing the museum to replicate itself all over the world. It begins to resemble something like “Ice Nine,” the mysterious self-replicating, Earth-destroying substance in Kurt Vonnegut’s 1963 novel Cat’s Cradle.
And so now there is a Guggie in Abu Dhabi, of all places, not exactly a bulwark of Western Civ — but the capital of the uber-wealthy United Arab Emirates. There was nothing much there in the blazing sands before the mid-20th century, but after striking oil. . . well, you know how that works. And with those nouveau riche circumstances comes a certain obligation to strive for status, which is where the art comes in.
The building itself was designed by the late Frank Gehry, our artiest architect. It is described by Artnet as a “dynamic, layered exterior composed of nine metallic cones.” The architect himself put it this way before he passed away in 2023: “I was looking for a way to express the times we lived in. . . . Our time is full of movement and change, and this building was the first curvy use of those ideas.”
Ah, yes. Of our time. Gotta do what is being done, and that’s what is being done. And when you get it done for the $1-billion price tag, you will surely have a one-of-a-kind status totem to brag on. (And Frank’s estate gets a real nice commission.)
Among the featured artists will be bygone American art-stars Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. One strains to imagine what the average denizen of Abu Dhabi will make of their works, tied, as they are so symbolically, to the grubby 20th century sub-culture of the downtown Manhattan scene. But whatever else the art represents, it sure costs a lot.
As for the look of the museum itself. Well, kind of looks like a construction site where the various building materials were piled-up upon delivery, before construction even started. Frank Gehry was renowned as a prankster. Hope the Iranians don’t blow it up.
Thanks to Justin J. Perrault for the nomination!
There seems to be a real effort to uglify the world #obamalibrary.
It’s the opposite of God’s beautiful creation.
It's embarrisingly ugly. Yes, like a pile of construction materials, placed like a jenga game. Pull them out, one by one, until it collapses.