Our Spanish school visits the Guggenheim Museum

Last Wednesday, 28th February, the Instituto Hemingway Spanish students took a trip to the Guggenheim Museum. 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 is 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, and also art by Richard Serra and Constantin Brancusi. In addition to this, the Guggenheim had just installed a new exhibition on the top floor called “The Inverted Mirror”. This exhibition was made up of the “La Caixa” and MACBA collections, displayed together for the first time, and consisted of work ranging from drawings, scultures, photography and videos, dating from 1940 to the present.

Although as an Instituto Hemingway intern 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 museum with a whole new pair of eyes.

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