| Solomon Robert Guggenheim | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 2, 1861 |
| Died | November 3, 1949 (aged 88) |
Solomon Robert Guggenheim (February 2, 1861 – November 3, 1949) was an American businessman, art collector, and philanthropist.
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He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, son of Meyer Guggenheim and brother of Simon, Benjamin, Daniel and four other siblings.
Following studies in Switzerland at the Concordia Institute in Zürich, he returned to the United States to work in the family mining business, later founding the Yukon Gold Company in Alaska. In 1891, he turned around the Compañia de la Gran Fundicion Nacional Mexicana.[1] He married Irene Rothschild in 1895. Among his children were Eleanor Guggenheim (later Lady Castle Stewart), and Gertrude Guggenheim.
He began collecting works of the old masters in the 1890's. He retired from his business in 1919 to devote more time to art collecting and in 1926, met Hilla Rebay. In 1930, they visited Vasily Kandinsky’s studio in Dessau and Guggenheim began to purchase his work. Initially, the collection was displayed at Guggenheim's apartment in the Plaza Hotel in New York City.[2]
In 1937, he established the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation to foster the appreciation of modern art and in 1939, he and Rebay opened the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, at 24 East Fifty-fourth Street.[1] In 1943, Guggenheim and Rebay commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design a new museum to hold the growing collection.[2] Construction on The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City was began in 1955 and it opened October 21, 1959. Many pieces in the museum's collection are from Solomon's personal collection.
In addition to the New York Museum, the Guggehheim Foundation opened a museum in Bilbao, Spain in 1997, and operates a museum in Venice which was established by Solomon's niece, Peggy Guggenheim. It operates another museum in cooperation with Deutsche Bank in Berlin[3] and will open the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi in 2013.[4]