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GUGGENHEIM BILBAO MUSEOA · ABANDOIBARRA · LEFT BANK

The Guggenheim

Frank Gehry's museum of modern and contemporary art, a cluster of titanium curves on the left bank of the Ría, opened in 1997 on what had been the run-down edge of the city's port.

The Guggenheim curving along the river, Maman on the quay and the Iberdrola Tower behind

Photo: kallerna, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

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The Guggenheim

What you are looking at

Abando · left bank

The Guggenheim's titanium at dusk, lights glowing behind its glass atrium
The Guggenheim's titanium at dusk, lights glowing behind its glass atriumThomas Fabian, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
  1. 1
    The titanium skinAbout 33,000 thin titanium plates laid like scales over the curved galleries, changing color with the weather.
  2. 2
    The atriumA tall glass-and-steel hall that Gehry called the Flower, the hub every gallery opens from.
  3. 3
    The Matter of TimeRichard Serra's walk-through steel sculptures, the one permanent installation, filling the longest gallery.
  4. 4
    PuppyJeff Koons's terrier covered in tens of thousands of flowering plants, guarding the entrance on the city side.
  5. 5
    MamanLouise Bourgeois's giant bronze spider, standing on the riverside walk between the museum and the water.
  6. 6
    The tower at La SalveA tall stone and steel tower that ties the museum to the bridge that crosses over it.

Reading the place

The sight in full

Why it matters

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art run with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and it is the reason many visitors come to the city at all. King Juan Carlos I opened it on 18 October 1997, and since then it has averaged more than a million visitors a year. Its architect was Frank Gehry, and the building, more than any work inside it, is what people travel to see.

The titanium flank of the Guggenheim beside the river walk, the spider Maman on the quay
The titanium flank of the Guggenheim beside the river walk, the spider Maman on the quayАндрей Романенко, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

It stands on the left bank of the Ría in Abandoibarra, an area that was docks and industry until the 1990s. The museum was the first large piece of the riverfront's rebuilding, and newspapers began to call its effect on the city the Guggenheim effect. That rebuilding continued for twenty years around it, and you can follow it along the river on foot from here to the Euskalduna.

How it came to Bilbao

In 1991 the Basque Government proposed to the Guggenheim Foundation that it would pay for a museum on the decrepit port land, which had once been the city's main source of income. The Basque side agreed to fund the building, an acquisitions budget and the running costs; in exchange the foundation would manage the museum, lend works from its own collection and organize the temporary exhibitions.

The Guggenheim and its tower reflected in the river in evening light
The Guggenheim and its tower reflected in the river in evening lightHACERCANDOME, Wikimedia Commons, CC0

The foundation chose Gehry, and its director encouraged him to design something daring. The building was finished on time and on budget, which is rare for a structure this complicated. Gehry's office modeled the curves with aircraft-design software, which calculated stresses point by point and guided the cutting of stone and metal.

The building, outside

From the street the museum is fairly modest; from the river it is overwhelming, and that is the side to see it from first. The base is clad in beige limestone, the window walls in treated glass, and the curving galleries in about 33,000 titanium plates only a fraction of a millimeter thick, laid in a quilted pattern so they would not vibrate in storms. The critic Calvin Tomkins called it a dream ship in a cloak of titanium, and the plates do look like fish scales.

The Ría and the Guggenheim seen from La Salve bridge
The Ría and the Guggenheim seen from La Salve bridgeMakoki20, Wikimedia Commons, CC0

Seen from above, the plan has the shape of a flower. The galleries with stone fronts are rectangular rooms; the ones with titanium fronts are the irregular, swirling shapes. On the east side a tall tower rises beside La Salve Bridge, which passes over the edge of the site, so that road, bridge and museum read as one composition.

Two sculptures now belong to the place as much as the building. Puppy, by Jeff Koons, is a West Highland terrier about 41 feet tall, planted with tens of thousands of flowers that are replaced twice a year; it has stood at the entrance since the opening. On the river side stands Maman, Louise Bourgeois's bronze spider, more than 30 feet tall, with a sac of marble eggs under her body.

Inside

Inside the Guggenheim's atrium, its white curving walls rising to the skylight
Inside the Guggenheim's atrium, its white curving walls rising to the skylightXabier, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The main entrance is at the bottom of a broad flight of steps, so you go down into the building rather than up. You arrive in the atrium, a hall about 50 meters high under a glass and steel roof, with views of the Ría and the hills. Gehry nicknamed it the Flower, and every gallery opens from it.

The stair tower beside La Salve bridge, two tall stone slabs
The stair tower beside La Salve bridge, two tall stone slabsOlga Gairin, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

There are nineteen galleries over three floors, about 11,000 square meters of exhibition space. The largest, the long gallery once called the Fish Gallery, holds the museum's one permanent installation: Richard Serra's The Matter of Time, a series of huge curving walls of weathering steel that you walk into and around. Most of the other rooms hold temporary exhibitions that change several times a year, with installations and large works outnumbering traditional paintings.

What you actually see on a visit

A visit has two halves. Outside, walk the riverside path from the Puppy side round to Maman and under La Salve, then cross the river on the footbridge or the bridge itself and look back from the right bank, where the whole building can be seen at once. Morning and evening light on the titanium change it more than you would expect.

A boat speeding past the Guggenheim on the river, the Iberdrola Tower behind
A boat speeding past the Guggenheim on the river, the Iberdrola Tower behindKennisland, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Inside, start in the atrium, go to the Serra gallery on the ground floor, then follow whatever exhibitions are on above. The museum's own list of essentials includes Puppy, The Matter of Time, Jenny Holzer's Installation for Bilbao and Maman, which is a useful short route if time is tight.

How to visit

Allow two to three hours inside and as long again outside if the weather is kind. Tickets are sold on the museum's official website, which warns against buying from other sellers, and every ticket includes an audio guide. The museum closes on some Mondays and a few days each year, so check its calendar before planning a day around it.

The Guggenheim, La Salve bridge and the Abandoibarra towers seen from the hillside above
The Guggenheim, La Salve bridge and the Abandoibarra towers seen from the hillside aboveManuel Ramírez Sánchez, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Busy days are the summer months, holiday weekends and the opening weeks of a big exhibition; on those days a ticket bought ahead saves a queue. The building is a short walk from the Moyúa and Abando areas of the Ensanche, and the riverside tram stops beside it. The outdoor sculptures stand in public space along the riverside walk and cost nothing to see.

Honest notes

The Guggenheim effect is real but often told too simply: the museum was one part of a much larger rebuilding of the city, with the Metro, new bridges and the riverfront itself, all described on the transformation. Bilbao did not change because of one building.

Two visitors walking toward Louise Bourgeois's spider Maman beside the museum
Two visitors walking toward Louise Bourgeois's spider Maman beside the museumKennisland from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

The collection is not the reason most people come. The permanent works are few, and what you see depends on the exhibitions of the season, which can be superb or not to everyone's taste. If you mainly want the architecture, the outside, the atrium and the Serra gallery are the essentials, and the best views are from across the river.

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