Ann Hamilton. Human Carriage. 2009. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST. ©ANN HAMILTON. Installation view of The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, from the 30th of January to the 19th of April, 2009. PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID HEALD. ©THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION, NEW YORK.

Tracing a Trans-National Art Mandate

The Guggenheim isn’t a place, it’s a Point of View, assert Alexandra Munroe and Sandhini Poddar, as they introduce its Asian Art Program.

FOUNDED IN 1937, THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM Foundation is dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of art, architecture and other manifestations of visual culture, primarily of the modern and contemporary periods, and to collecting, conserving and studying the art of our time. The Guggenheim maintains a premier collection of modern and contemporary art and leads a global network of museums, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain; Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice; and Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin. This network will expand to include the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Museum, United Arab Emirates, slated to open at the end of 2013. The Guggenheim has also partnered with the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria.

Over the last fifteen years, the Guggenheim has helped create the possibilities for what a global art institution can be in the radically new conditions of our contemporary era. It is often said that the Guggenheim isn’t a place; it’s a point of view. In 2006, the Foundation resolved to strengthen its commitment to developing and executing world-class exhibition and education programming, and to expand its acquisitions to maintain the excellence of its renowned collections. The creative production coming out of Asia and the intellectual discourse surrounding modern and contemporary Asian art demanded the institution’s serious and in-depth commitment. Acknowledging the need to integrate these histories into its exhibition programming and collections, the Foundation launched the Asian Art Program, becoming the first modern and contemporary art museum in the West to do so.