Our Spanish students visit the Guggenheim Museum

Last Thursday, 17th November at 3pm, we at the Instituto Hemingway organised a trip to the Guggenheim Museum for our Spanish students. We met up in the school and from there, wandered along the river towards the museum.

Bilbao’s famous museum of contemporary art opened in 1997, and well-known for its distinctive building design, brain-child of the Canadian architect Frank O. Gehry. It’s one of four musuems inaugurated by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, which seeks to collect, preserve and research contemporary art. It boasts an extensive and admirable collection of modern art, and has itself become one of the city’s most famous and best-loved landmarks. Since its very inauguration, the Guggenheim has been an important tourist attraction, drawing visitors from all over the world. Guggenheim regulars as much as first-time visitors to Bilbao are always left astounded by “The Matter of Time”, by Richard Serra, and by the stunning museum building itself.

The Bilbao Collection has its own clear identity, but also complements and contributes to the collections of the other Guggenheim institutions.

This visit, we saw the works of famous German artists such as Gerhard Richter, Anselm Kiefer y Georg Baselitz. Many of the paintings still bore the fingerprints and even footprints of their artists; owing to the size of the pieces, it was difficult for the artists to reach all areas of their works-in-progress, so they simply walked across them. We spent a lot of time in this part of the museum; the students particularly liked the Skin of the Titan, which looked something like the scales of a fish. We perused the works and discussed about the impressive architecture of the museum.

Although as an Instituto Hemingway becaria I have visited the Guggenheim Museum many times, I’m always pleased when I’m the one who gets to go. Each group of students interprets the works in a different way, and each individual student spots different details; it means that every time that I go, I see the musuem with a whole new pair of eyes.

All of our students are invited to visit the Guggenheim Museum with us next time we go, and enjoy an equally pleasant afternoon!