Contenido

Diseñado por el gabinete de arquitectos de Frank Gehry, fue abierto al público en 1997 y alberga exposiciones de arte de obras pertenecientes a la fundación Guggenheim y exposiciones itinerantes. Muy pronto el edificio se reveló como uno de los más espectaculares edificios deconstructivistas. El diseño del museo y su construcción siguen el estilo y métodos de Frank Gehry. Como muchos de sus trabajos anteriores la estructura principal está radicalmente esculpida siguiendo contornos casi orgánicos. El museo afirma no contener una sola superficie plana en toda su estructura. Parte del edificio es cruzado por un puente elevado y el exterior está recubierto por placas de titanio y por una piedra caliza que fue muy difícil de encontrar (al final se logró encontrar en Huéscar, Granada) de un color similar a la que se utilizó para construir la Universidad de Deusto.

El edificio visto desde el río aparenta tener la forma de un barco rindiendo homenaje a la ciudad portuaria en la que se inscribe. Sus paneles brillantes se asemejan a las escamas de un pez recordándonos las influencias de formas orgánicas presentes en muchos de los trabajos de Gehry. Visto desde arriba, sin embargo, el edificio posee la forma de una flor. Para su diseño el equipo de Gehry utilizó intensamente simulaciones por ordenador de las estructuras necesarias para mantener el edificio, consiguiendo unas formas que hubieran sido imposibles de realizar unas pocas décadas antes.

Mientras que el museo domina las vistas de la zona desde el nivel del río, su aspecto desde el nivel superior de la calle es mucho más modesto por lo que no desentona con su entorno de edificios más tradicionales.

Project

The Guggenheim Foundation is the owner of a large art collection and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Thomas Krens, the director of this organization between 1988 and 2008, directed an expansion policy based on sending traveling collections in order to hold temporary exhibitions in different places. He also wanted to establish two art centers in Europe, so he chose two cities: Berlin (Germany) and Bilbao. For the latter, it was proposed to rehabilitate an old warehouse, the municipal Alhóndiga, to house the branch of its foundation there. He requested the services of Frank Gehry due to the quality he demonstrated at the Temporary Museum of Contemporary Art. This architect was then considered an expert in rehabilitation. A contest was organized, for exclusively legal reasons, in 1991 that lasted ten days; Gehry, Arata Isozaki and the Coop Himmelb(l)auau team "Coop Himmelb(l)au") participated in it.

Gehry won the competition, and it was then that it was decided not to carry out the rehabilitation intended by the Guggenheim Foundation in the aforementioned Alhóndiga (current Azkuna Zentroa). He preferred to design a new building and, together with Tomas Krens, chose its location: it would be located north of the urban center, next to the Bilbao estuary. He chose this precise location because the museum could be seen from three strategic locations in the city. Both the land and the financing of the works were provided by the Basque authorities, so that, strictly speaking, the museum does not belong to the Guggenheim Foundation, but rather collaborates with it, and uses its Guggenheim brand, in a renewable agreement similar to a franchise. On October 18, 1997, the opening gala was held, attended by very important architects and personalities such as the Kings of Spain. In addition to this party, there were many media campaigns that made this building famous even before it was finished. These campaigns continue to exist to this day.

This project received the Puente de Alcántara International Award in 1998.

Building design

Frank Gehry received the order for this museum shortly after his Walt Disney Auditorium project was canceled when it was still just an idea. This fact inspired the Guggenheim Museum in its designed auditorium, with both projects sharing a very similar approach. The soft forms present in the museum begin with the Vitra Museum and evolved in other works. Gehry made dozens of models where he tested the possible forms of the building. All of them are handmade, and since July 1995 they have been exhibited in the “Peggy Guggenheim” exhibition, located in a mansion in Venice. Gehry did not work with a computer, but his team did, whose members digitized their boss's models using an adaptation of a computer program, Catia, from Dassault Systèmes. Adapting this program to the architecture entailed enormous expenses, which were borne by the Guggenheim Foundation. This building belongs to Frank Gehry's fourth stage, framed between the years 1991 and 2000, when he made more mature works and where his own characteristics are established. In addition to this museum, at this stage he created the Museum of Pop Culture or the Dancing House. At this stage, the author proposes a more sculptural conception to his works, giving them greater monumentality and personality, as can be seen in the Guggenheim Museum. [12]​.

Exterior shapes

Within the apparent disorder of the envelope, there is a pattern that governs the volumetry. This is the use in all its elements of the maximum curvature that titanium supports. The Great Room, also called the Fish Room, extends towards the east until it is approached by a bridge that crosses the Bilbao estuary, the La Salve bridge, a structure that already crossed the site before the construction of the museum and to which it had to adapt. Behind this there is a tower that seems to be the continuation of the museum and has the side facing the bridge without covering. It has inside a large structure of inclined metal bars reminiscent of those of Coop Himmelb(l)auau "Coop Himmelb(l)au").

The museum seen from the east looks more weightless than from other places, and you can see strange curved and twisted parallelograms that make up the fish room. Typically, the building's windows have more rational shapes. Gehry is the “king” of counterpoint. This term comes from other arts, such as music, and consists of contrasting very different things by placing them together in the case of architecture. This effect, as in almost all of his works, is achieved in the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, since he places a series of blocks with straight and rational shapes in the southern area, which faces the urban center of Bilbao. The shapes of these buildings contrast spectacularly with the free, curved designs of the most famous part of the museum. The facades of the straight blocks are not metal, and their windows are rectangular. There are purple facades and others with cream-colored stone veneer.

Behind these blocks is a small plaza that leads to the main entrance of the building, and in this open space is the Puppy sculpture by Jeff Koons. It is a gigantic dog made of natural flowers. Initially it was a temporary exhibition, but it was finally decided to make it permanent. From this square the building looks more pregnant and stable than from the east. From this orientation, to the left of the museum there are some external stairs that descend to a walkway that runs parallel to the north face of the building and between the Bilbao estuary and a pond. As you go down these stairs you can see projections on the straight blocks and curved walls.

Inside

The interior of the museum is less complicated than the exterior, but also has curved elements. Although in general the interior is very open, three different floors can be distinguished: the permanent collection, the temporary collection and the collection of living artists.[13]​ The latter, the collection of living artists, is distributed throughout the museum, so that these rooms are in relation to the permanent and temporary collections. The main entrance to the museum is at the end of an external staircase that begins in the plaza described above and goes down to the ground floor level. Above the entrance doors there is a glass wall that does not cover anything. There is a part of the ground floor that is a basement and is closed to the public. From the entrance you directly access the hall, a huge room 50 meters high with a flower-shaped plant. It gives access to the Great Room, to those that are petal-shaped, to those that are rectangular and to the canopy terrace that is on the north face. This canopy has a single very tall pillar that gives slenderness to the structure. Under its thick roof there is a metal structure that holds it.

In the center of the hall there is a huge pillar. There are also elevators, walkways and stairs that connect to the upper floors. The interior shapes of the hall do not follow geometric shapes and have parts covered in stone and others glazed. The largest room in the museum is the Great Room, also known by the name of the fish room, due to its exterior shape. It is very elongated and houses artistic works of enormous size, some of which are temporary and others permanent. There are rooms with a petal-shaped floor plan. These are accessed from the hall, as is the Great Room. In one of the straight-shaped blocks there are a series of rectangular rooms arranged in a row, that is, one placed behind the other without a corridor that connects them. On each floor there are three rooms and to access the last one it is necessary to go through the first two. Almost all the museum rooms have skylights that provide very interesting overhead light.

Facade and roof covering

Frank Gehry, when choosing the covering for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, looked at the feathers and scales of many animals. He observed their fixations and the possibility of movement they give. He is very interested in animals and the systems that nature uses to cover curved surfaces, similar to those in the museum. He decided to use rigid "scales" so that they were mounted on top of each other. The difference between the covering used and the skin of the animals is that the skin of the latter is adapted to movement while that of the building is not, so both covering systems are not the same.

Gehry wanted from the first moment that these pieces were metal. He considered several possibilities that allowed the use of various materials. He decided not to use stainless steel because he said it did not correspond with the sky of Bilbao. He also ruled out the possibility of using copper and other metals. Finally he decided to make the pieces out of titanium, a rather expensive metal that contrasts with the economical materials used in his first works. The final alloy is zinc and titanium, with a much higher proportion of the second metal. It is a sheet whose thickness is one third of a millimeter and is very manageable. Being so thin, it adapts perfectly to the curve described by the building.

Each piece has a unique and exclusive shape to the place it occupies. The precise shape of each sheet metal was determined by CATIA. Each piece is lightly padded so it fits perfectly in place. This effect is known by the term boatiné. There are areas on the facades with patches, that is, sets of sheets with different colors, due to the slight variations in the metal alloy that is in each piece. There are drips on some facades, especially those facing north. They are produced by the chemical reaction between the sheets, environmental humidity and the hooks that hold the pieces, which are not titanium. In this reaction, galvanic couples are created, which look like very unaesthetic drips.

El museo alberga frecuentes exposiciones con obras procedentes de la sede Guggenheim de Nueva York, así como otras muestras de piezas prestadas por uno o múltiples museos internacionales. Esta intensa agenda expositiva es paralela a una labor de compra y exhibición de obras de arte contemporáneo que conforman su propia colección.

Collection

Since its inauguration in 1997 and through a "holding company", the Bilbao museum has been gathering relevant examples of contemporary art made by great artistic figures of the second half of the century, both local and international, with the aim of forming its own and autonomous collection; although the selection criteria for its collection are outlined in accordance with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York.

Currently, the works in his collection leave no one indifferent and, over the years, they have become references of contemporary art.

Of the permanent works with a specific location, the atrium, terraces and exterior stand out. These works, carried out by contemporary artists, make the interior and exterior spaces of the building come together. This makes it a fundamental part of the collection of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

The third floor is where the museum's permanent collection is displayed. This allows viewers to tour several of the most notable movements of the second half of the century and the beginning of the 20th century. Some of the artists that make up this collection are: Cristina Iglesias, Sol LeWitt and Mark Rothko, among others.[14]​.

Temporary exhibitions

The exhibitions in the museum change frequently and mainly contain works made throughout the century, with traditional pictorial works and sculptures being a minority part compared to other formats and artistic installations and electronic formats. Some art enthusiasts consider the building itself to be head and shoulders above the works in the museum's collection. In recent years, in accordance with the general policy of the Guggenheim centers, exhibitions of ancient art have been included, perhaps with the desire to attract a larger audience. Thus, drawings by Michelangelo, ancient paintings from the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, engravings by Dürer (2007) and a selection of ancient paintings and objects from the Kunsthistorisches in Vienna (2008) have been exhibited. On the other hand, the contemporary art exhibitions have not been left aside, being the two most visited in 2016, with Shadows by Andy Warhol[15]​ and an exhibition by Louise Bourgeois that would include Maman, the famous spider installed next to the estuary that is part of a series of bronze reproductions of the original. Also noteworthy is the exhibition Women of Abstraction, which presents the milestones of the artists of the century as co-creators of modernity.[16]​.

In 2005, The Matter of Time, a series of seven monumental sculptures created by Richard Serra,[17]​ and which join Snake, the sculpture made by the artist for the museum's inauguration, was installed as part of the museum's own permanent collection.

• - Mama "Mama (sculpture)") by Louise Bourgeois, outside the museum.

• - Puppy "Puppy (sculpture)") by Jeff Koons, at the entrance to the museum.

• - Permanent installation by Jenny Holzer.

• - The great tree and the eye. Permanent installation by Anish Kapoor.

• - Tulips by Jeff Koons.

The museum, especially during its construction, received numerous criticisms from different sectors of Basque culture, since the funds to build it came exclusively from the budgets of the Department of Culture of the Basque Government, while many demanded that they come from other areas such as Industry, since they considered that, above all, it was a business investment rather than a cultural one; and that left Basque culture devoid of funds during those years.[18]​[19]​.

One of the criticisms with the greatest impact was that of the Basque artist Jorge Oteiza, who in 1992 stated about the project that it was "a real soap opera, something typical of Disney, totally anti-Basque, and that will cause very serious damage and the paralysis of all cultural activities." Later, in 1998, Oteiza signed a collaboration agreement with the museum, thereby putting an end to previous criticism and disqualifications.[19]​[20]​[21]​.

The building has also been criticized for its high cost and the almost experimental nature of many of the innovations that were made in its construction, which have made its cleaning and maintenance more expensive and difficult, due to humidity, oxidation of the titanium (although it is not true oxidation), etc.[3]​.

However, most of the criticism was muted by the unexpected success that the building and the museum itself had worldwide, bringing enormous benefits to the city and positively dimensioning the image of Bilbao internationally.

The list of awards and distinctions awarded to the museum is extensive and lengthy.[22]​.

The building received multiple favorable reviews, such as that of the American architect Philip Johnson, who described it as "the greatest building of our times."[23]

The Guggenheim Museum project also received the IV International Prize “Puente de Alcántara”, 1999.

In 2000, the European Museum Forum awarded it the European Museum of the Year Award, an award that each year recognizes new museums that have made advances and innovations in the museum field. The award-winning museum houses Henry Moore's statue The Egg, which symbolizes the award, for one year. Together with the Provincial Archaeological Museum of Alicante (2004), CosmoCaixa of Barcelona (2006) and the Medina Azahara Museum (2012), they are the only four museums in Spain that have received the award.

In 2017, it received the cultural brand of the year award from the German website culturalbrands.com. [24]​.

In 2018 he received the gold AMPE award for an advertisement titled “I am from Bilbao”. [25]​.

In 2023 it would receive two new awards: the Twenty-Five Years Award granted by the American Institute of Architects[26]​ and the Webby Award for its website, chosen by popular vote.[27]​.

It has also been one of the 12 Treasures of Spain since 2007.[28]​.

In December 2017, the Guggenheim Foundation approved a strategic plan for the years 2018-2020 in order to find a location for a future expansion of the museum outside of Bilbao, considering Urdaibai, Guernica and other areas of Vizcaya.[29][30][31]​.

At the end of December 2020, it was reported that of the total of 25 projects in the Territory of Vizcaya that were eligible to benefit from the distribution of Next Generation European funds, the Guggenheim Gernika, a green extension of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, was included, with 127 million euros, 81 from the EU:[32]​[33][34]​.

On June 7, 2021, it was announced that the Guggenheim aspired to grow in Urdaibai in two locations linked by a greenway: the old Dalia cutlery factory in Gernika and the Murueta Shipyard would host the expansion if the project obtained funding from Next Generation European funds.[35]​[36]​[37][38]​.

On May 8, 2022, it was notified that the Provincial Council had already begun the administrative procedures to build the expansion of the Guggenheim in two separate locations (Gernika and Murueta) linked by a five-kilometer ecological path through the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve. To this end, it activated the first procedure to change the urban planning regulations and make room for the future cultural center in the reserve.[39]​[40]​[41]​.

On July 26 of the same year, it was reported that the Provincial Council had allocated 40 million euros as a first investment and a protocol had been signed with the central government, which would provide European funds to the future museum.[42][43]​ On September 28, it announced that it had hired a prestigious international team for the architectural project, which would establish its architectural and environmental bases by the beginning of 2023. The Guggenheim Urdaibai would open only a few months a year with a maximum number of visitors.[44]​[45]​[46][47]​ On October 8, it was specified that the central government would join the operation to execute the Guggenheim in Urdaibai activated by the Provincial Council. The preliminary draft of the General State Budgets (PGE) for 2023 contemplated an item of 14.67 million allocated to "single sustainable development actions" in the biosphere reserve.[48]​.

On October 18, 2022, in full celebration of the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the Basque Government recognized that the project for the Guggenheim in Urdaibai was "complex" and presented "difficulties". On November 4, it was learned that the Basque Government was leaving the Urdaibai Guggenheim out of the Culture budget, considering that the project "is not sufficiently developed" to include it in the 2023 Accounts.[53] On the 10th of the same month, it was published that the Provincial Council "shielded" 40 million to execute the Urdaibai Guggenheim "whenever", reserving the allocation even knowing that it would not be used in 2023 and allocating another 10 million to study the potentially contaminated soils where the art gallery will be located.[54]​ Two days later it was known that the central government would contribute 40 million euros to the Guggenheim of Urdaibai by accepting an amendment from the PNV to the General State Budgets to add another 25 million to the 15 already planned, equaling the amount reserved by the Provincial Council.[55]​ On November 22 It was learned that the central government revised the Costa law in Urdaibai to accommodate the Guggenheim.[56]​.

On December 12, 2022, the Board of Trustees of the Guggenheim Museum reaffirmed its willingness to promote the opening of a headquarters in Urdaibai as a "strategic" project for the future,[57]​ and a day later it was learned that the Manhattan-based architecture studio Cooper Robertson had been hired by the Guggenheim Foundation in New York to lay the foundations for the new museum, whose team of experts would complete its work during the first quarter of 2023.[58]​.

At the beginning of 2023, Richard Armstrong, director of the Guggenheim Foundation in New York, expressed his "total confidence" in Urdaibai's project, while Vidarte clarified in a joint presentation that the project still required "full confirmation" by the board.[59]​.

On May 19, 2023, the Provincial Council announced in the middle of the electoral campaign the start of work on the Guggenheim in Urdaibai, with the demolition works of the old Dalia factory in Gernika, one of the two future headquarters of the complex, after the summer.[60][61]​.

On June 18, 2023, it was announced that the New York architecture studio Cooper Roberston estimated the Guggenheim Urdaibai at 130 million and that the detailed content of the report was made known to the members of the Board of Trustees of the Guggenheim Bilbao Foundation at their meeting on June 14.[62] The first sketch of Urdaibai's Guggenheim projected a large auditorium and two restaurants, the entrance would have in Gernika and would occupy 60,000 square meters. The Provincial Council received the first sketch of the new museum and reported that it would call a competition of ideas for its final design.[63]​[64]​[65]​.

On July 4, 2023, the Council of Ministers approved a subsidy of 40 million that definitively launched the Urdaibai Guggenheim project.[66][67]​ The Basque Government confirmed its support for the project.[68][69]​.

On August 1, 2023, it was announced that a report by Costas paved the way to build the Guggenheim in Urdaibai. The central government would thus approve the change requested by the Provincial Council to give legal accommodation to the cultural center in the marsh.[70]​ However, in November 2023 it was learned that the Basque Government was postponing its adhesion to the project until after the regional elections so as not to generate territorial tensions.[71]​.

On January 22, 2024, it was reported that the Basque Government and the Provincial Council were giving themselves two years to decide whether the Guggenheim in Urdaibai was "viable".[72]​[73]​ The following day, the PNV clarified that the new Guggenheim would be carried out despite the doubts, denying that the project was delayed for two years for electoral reasons and ratifying its "firm commitment" to build it in Urdaibai.[74]​[75][76][77][78] Subsequently, the Lehendakari responded to the PNV and insisted that he was "in favor" of a period of reflection on Urdaibai's Guggenheim, opting to take two years to analyze the viability of the project but recognizing that his own Government was in favor of building the art gallery.[79]​ He defended that the expansion of the Museum Guggenheim in Urdaibai could be an element of socioeconomic reactivation of Busturialdea and that "could fit" among the measures proposed within the revitalization plan for the region. Furthermore, he made it clear that he "has not confirmed, denied or questioned anything" in relation to this project promoted by the Provincial Council of Bizkaia.[80]​.

On June 15, 2024, it was announced that the Provincial Council planned to undertake "in a few weeks", foreseeably before August, the first demolitions on the Gernika plot that would in the future occupy one of the two headquarters that the Guggenheim in Urdaibai will have.[81][82][83]​.

More than a year later, on November 30, 2025, it was reported that the institutions were considering not going ahead with the project due to the avalanche of technical demands and the social uproar.[84]​.

Finally, on December 16, 2025, the Board of Trustees decided to paralyze and park the Guggenheim in Urdaibai, announcing that in the coming years they would look for "other places" to carry out the expansion.[85][86][87][88][89]​.

• - Wikimedia Commons hosts a multimedia category on Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

• - Official website.

• - Tourist information about Bilbao.

Contenido

Diseñado por el gabinete de arquitectos de Frank Gehry, fue abierto al público en 1997 y alberga exposiciones de arte de obras pertenecientes a la fundación Guggenheim y exposiciones itinerantes. Muy pronto el edificio se reveló como uno de los más espectaculares edificios deconstructivistas. El diseño del museo y su construcción siguen el estilo y métodos de Frank Gehry. Como muchos de sus trabajos anteriores la estructura principal está radicalmente esculpida siguiendo contornos casi orgánicos. El museo afirma no contener una sola superficie plana en toda su estructura. Parte del edificio es cruzado por un puente elevado y el exterior está recubierto por placas de titanio y por una piedra caliza que fue muy difícil de encontrar (al final se logró encontrar en Huéscar, Granada) de un color similar a la que se utilizó para construir la Universidad de Deusto.

El edificio visto desde el río aparenta tener la forma de un barco rindiendo homenaje a la ciudad portuaria en la que se inscribe. Sus paneles brillantes se asemejan a las escamas de un pez recordándonos las influencias de formas orgánicas presentes en muchos de los trabajos de Gehry. Visto desde arriba, sin embargo, el edificio posee la forma de una flor. Para su diseño el equipo de Gehry utilizó intensamente simulaciones por ordenador de las estructuras necesarias para mantener el edificio, consiguiendo unas formas que hubieran sido imposibles de realizar unas pocas décadas antes.

Mientras que el museo domina las vistas de la zona desde el nivel del río, su aspecto desde el nivel superior de la calle es mucho más modesto por lo que no desentona con su entorno de edificios más tradicionales.

Project

The Guggenheim Foundation is the owner of a large art collection and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Thomas Krens, the director of this organization between 1988 and 2008, directed an expansion policy based on sending traveling collections in order to hold temporary exhibitions in different places. He also wanted to establish two art centers in Europe, so he chose two cities: Berlin (Germany) and Bilbao. For the latter, it was proposed to rehabilitate an old warehouse, the municipal Alhóndiga, to house the branch of its foundation there. He requested the services of Frank Gehry due to the quality he demonstrated at the Temporary Museum of Contemporary Art. This architect was then considered an expert in rehabilitation. A contest was organized, for exclusively legal reasons, in 1991 that lasted ten days; Gehry, Arata Isozaki and the Coop Himmelb(l)auau team "Coop Himmelb(l)au") participated in it.

Gehry won the competition, and it was then that it was decided not to carry out the rehabilitation intended by the Guggenheim Foundation in the aforementioned Alhóndiga (current Azkuna Zentroa). He preferred to design a new building and, together with Tomas Krens, chose its location: it would be located north of the urban center, next to the Bilbao estuary. He chose this precise location because the museum could be seen from three strategic locations in the city. Both the land and the financing of the works were provided by the Basque authorities, so that, strictly speaking, the museum does not belong to the Guggenheim Foundation, but rather collaborates with it, and uses its Guggenheim brand, in a renewable agreement similar to a franchise. On October 18, 1997, the opening gala was held, attended by very important architects and personalities such as the Kings of Spain. In addition to this party, there were many media campaigns that made this building famous even before it was finished. These campaigns continue to exist to this day.

This project received the Puente de Alcántara International Award in 1998.

Building design

Frank Gehry received the order for this museum shortly after his Walt Disney Auditorium project was canceled when it was still just an idea. This fact inspired the Guggenheim Museum in its designed auditorium, with both projects sharing a very similar approach. The soft forms present in the museum begin with the Vitra Museum and evolved in other works. Gehry made dozens of models where he tested the possible forms of the building. All of them are handmade, and since July 1995 they have been exhibited in the “Peggy Guggenheim” exhibition, located in a mansion in Venice. Gehry did not work with a computer, but his team did, whose members digitized their boss's models using an adaptation of a computer program, Catia, from Dassault Systèmes. Adapting this program to the architecture entailed enormous expenses, which were borne by the Guggenheim Foundation. This building belongs to Frank Gehry's fourth stage, framed between the years 1991 and 2000, when he made more mature works and where his own characteristics are established. In addition to this museum, at this stage he created the Museum of Pop Culture or the Dancing House. At this stage, the author proposes a more sculptural conception to his works, giving them greater monumentality and personality, as can be seen in the Guggenheim Museum. [12]​.

Exterior shapes

Within the apparent disorder of the envelope, there is a pattern that governs the volumetry. This is the use in all its elements of the maximum curvature that titanium supports. The Great Room, also called the Fish Room, extends towards the east until it is approached by a bridge that crosses the Bilbao estuary, the La Salve bridge, a structure that already crossed the site before the construction of the museum and to which it had to adapt. Behind this there is a tower that seems to be the continuation of the museum and has the side facing the bridge without covering. It has inside a large structure of inclined metal bars reminiscent of those of Coop Himmelb(l)auau "Coop Himmelb(l)au").

The museum seen from the east looks more weightless than from other places, and you can see strange curved and twisted parallelograms that make up the fish room. Typically, the building's windows have more rational shapes. Gehry is the “king” of counterpoint. This term comes from other arts, such as music, and consists of contrasting very different things by placing them together in the case of architecture. This effect, as in almost all of his works, is achieved in the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, since he places a series of blocks with straight and rational shapes in the southern area, which faces the urban center of Bilbao. The shapes of these buildings contrast spectacularly with the free, curved designs of the most famous part of the museum. The facades of the straight blocks are not metal, and their windows are rectangular. There are purple facades and others with cream-colored stone veneer.

Behind these blocks is a small plaza that leads to the main entrance of the building, and in this open space is the Puppy sculpture by Jeff Koons. It is a gigantic dog made of natural flowers. Initially it was a temporary exhibition, but it was finally decided to make it permanent. From this square the building looks more pregnant and stable than from the east. From this orientation, to the left of the museum there are some external stairs that descend to a walkway that runs parallel to the north face of the building and between the Bilbao estuary and a pond. As you go down these stairs you can see projections on the straight blocks and curved walls.

Inside

The interior of the museum is less complicated than the exterior, but also has curved elements. Although in general the interior is very open, three different floors can be distinguished: the permanent collection, the temporary collection and the collection of living artists.[13]​ The latter, the collection of living artists, is distributed throughout the museum, so that these rooms are in relation to the permanent and temporary collections. The main entrance to the museum is at the end of an external staircase that begins in the plaza described above and goes down to the ground floor level. Above the entrance doors there is a glass wall that does not cover anything. There is a part of the ground floor that is a basement and is closed to the public. From the entrance you directly access the hall, a huge room 50 meters high with a flower-shaped plant. It gives access to the Great Room, to those that are petal-shaped, to those that are rectangular and to the canopy terrace that is on the north face. This canopy has a single very tall pillar that gives slenderness to the structure. Under its thick roof there is a metal structure that holds it.

In the center of the hall there is a huge pillar. There are also elevators, walkways and stairs that connect to the upper floors. The interior shapes of the hall do not follow geometric shapes and have parts covered in stone and others glazed. The largest room in the museum is the Great Room, also known by the name of the fish room, due to its exterior shape. It is very elongated and houses artistic works of enormous size, some of which are temporary and others permanent. There are rooms with a petal-shaped floor plan. These are accessed from the hall, as is the Great Room. In one of the straight-shaped blocks there are a series of rectangular rooms arranged in a row, that is, one placed behind the other without a corridor that connects them. On each floor there are three rooms and to access the last one it is necessary to go through the first two. Almost all the museum rooms have skylights that provide very interesting overhead light.

Facade and roof covering

Frank Gehry, when choosing the covering for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, looked at the feathers and scales of many animals. He observed their fixations and the possibility of movement they give. He is very interested in animals and the systems that nature uses to cover curved surfaces, similar to those in the museum. He decided to use rigid "scales" so that they were mounted on top of each other. The difference between the covering used and the skin of the animals is that the skin of the latter is adapted to movement while that of the building is not, so both covering systems are not the same.

Gehry wanted from the first moment that these pieces were metal. He considered several possibilities that allowed the use of various materials. He decided not to use stainless steel because he said it did not correspond with the sky of Bilbao. He also ruled out the possibility of using copper and other metals. Finally he decided to make the pieces out of titanium, a rather expensive metal that contrasts with the economical materials used in his first works. The final alloy is zinc and titanium, with a much higher proportion of the second metal. It is a sheet whose thickness is one third of a millimeter and is very manageable. Being so thin, it adapts perfectly to the curve described by the building.

Each piece has a unique and exclusive shape to the place it occupies. The precise shape of each sheet metal was determined by CATIA. Each piece is lightly padded so it fits perfectly in place. This effect is known by the term boatiné. There are areas on the facades with patches, that is, sets of sheets with different colors, due to the slight variations in the metal alloy that is in each piece. There are drips on some facades, especially those facing north. They are produced by the chemical reaction between the sheets, environmental humidity and the hooks that hold the pieces, which are not titanium. In this reaction, galvanic couples are created, which look like very unaesthetic drips.

El museo alberga frecuentes exposiciones con obras procedentes de la sede Guggenheim de Nueva York, así como otras muestras de piezas prestadas por uno o múltiples museos internacionales. Esta intensa agenda expositiva es paralela a una labor de compra y exhibición de obras de arte contemporáneo que conforman su propia colección.

Collection

Since its inauguration in 1997 and through a "holding company", the Bilbao museum has been gathering relevant examples of contemporary art made by great artistic figures of the second half of the century, both local and international, with the aim of forming its own and autonomous collection; although the selection criteria for its collection are outlined in accordance with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York.

Currently, the works in his collection leave no one indifferent and, over the years, they have become references of contemporary art.

Of the permanent works with a specific location, the atrium, terraces and exterior stand out. These works, carried out by contemporary artists, make the interior and exterior spaces of the building come together. This makes it a fundamental part of the collection of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

The third floor is where the museum's permanent collection is displayed. This allows viewers to tour several of the most notable movements of the second half of the century and the beginning of the 20th century. Some of the artists that make up this collection are: Cristina Iglesias, Sol LeWitt and Mark Rothko, among others.[14]​.

Temporary exhibitions

The exhibitions in the museum change frequently and mainly contain works made throughout the century, with traditional pictorial works and sculptures being a minority part compared to other formats and artistic installations and electronic formats. Some art enthusiasts consider the building itself to be head and shoulders above the works in the museum's collection. In recent years, in accordance with the general policy of the Guggenheim centers, exhibitions of ancient art have been included, perhaps with the desire to attract a larger audience. Thus, drawings by Michelangelo, ancient paintings from the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, engravings by Dürer (2007) and a selection of ancient paintings and objects from the Kunsthistorisches in Vienna (2008) have been exhibited. On the other hand, the contemporary art exhibitions have not been left aside, being the two most visited in 2016, with Shadows by Andy Warhol[15]​ and an exhibition by Louise Bourgeois that would include Maman, the famous spider installed next to the estuary that is part of a series of bronze reproductions of the original. Also noteworthy is the exhibition Women of Abstraction, which presents the milestones of the artists of the century as co-creators of modernity.[16]​.

In 2005, The Matter of Time, a series of seven monumental sculptures created by Richard Serra,[17]​ and which join Snake, the sculpture made by the artist for the museum's inauguration, was installed as part of the museum's own permanent collection.

• - Mama "Mama (sculpture)") by Louise Bourgeois, outside the museum.

• - Puppy "Puppy (sculpture)") by Jeff Koons, at the entrance to the museum.

• - Permanent installation by Jenny Holzer.

• - The great tree and the eye. Permanent installation by Anish Kapoor.

• - Tulips by Jeff Koons.

The museum, especially during its construction, received numerous criticisms from different sectors of Basque culture, since the funds to build it came exclusively from the budgets of the Department of Culture of the Basque Government, while many demanded that they come from other areas such as Industry, since they considered that, above all, it was a business investment rather than a cultural one; and that left Basque culture devoid of funds during those years.[18]​[19]​.

One of the criticisms with the greatest impact was that of the Basque artist Jorge Oteiza, who in 1992 stated about the project that it was "a real soap opera, something typical of Disney, totally anti-Basque, and that will cause very serious damage and the paralysis of all cultural activities." Later, in 1998, Oteiza signed a collaboration agreement with the museum, thereby putting an end to previous criticism and disqualifications.[19]​[20]​[21]​.

The building has also been criticized for its high cost and the almost experimental nature of many of the innovations that were made in its construction, which have made its cleaning and maintenance more expensive and difficult, due to humidity, oxidation of the titanium (although it is not true oxidation), etc.[3]​.

However, most of the criticism was muted by the unexpected success that the building and the museum itself had worldwide, bringing enormous benefits to the city and positively dimensioning the image of Bilbao internationally.

The list of awards and distinctions awarded to the museum is extensive and lengthy.[22]​.

The building received multiple favorable reviews, such as that of the American architect Philip Johnson, who described it as "the greatest building of our times."[23]

The Guggenheim Museum project also received the IV International Prize “Puente de Alcántara”, 1999.

In 2000, the European Museum Forum awarded it the European Museum of the Year Award, an award that each year recognizes new museums that have made advances and innovations in the museum field. The award-winning museum houses Henry Moore's statue The Egg, which symbolizes the award, for one year. Together with the Provincial Archaeological Museum of Alicante (2004), CosmoCaixa of Barcelona (2006) and the Medina Azahara Museum (2012), they are the only four museums in Spain that have received the award.

In 2017, it received the cultural brand of the year award from the German website culturalbrands.com. [24]​.

In 2018 he received the gold AMPE award for an advertisement titled “I am from Bilbao”. [25]​.

In 2023 it would receive two new awards: the Twenty-Five Years Award granted by the American Institute of Architects[26]​ and the Webby Award for its website, chosen by popular vote.[27]​.

It has also been one of the 12 Treasures of Spain since 2007.[28]​.

In December 2017, the Guggenheim Foundation approved a strategic plan for the years 2018-2020 in order to find a location for a future expansion of the museum outside of Bilbao, considering Urdaibai, Guernica and other areas of Vizcaya.[29][30][31]​.

At the end of December 2020, it was reported that of the total of 25 projects in the Territory of Vizcaya that were eligible to benefit from the distribution of Next Generation European funds, the Guggenheim Gernika, a green extension of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, was included, with 127 million euros, 81 from the EU:[32]​[33][34]​.

On June 7, 2021, it was announced that the Guggenheim aspired to grow in Urdaibai in two locations linked by a greenway: the old Dalia cutlery factory in Gernika and the Murueta Shipyard would host the expansion if the project obtained funding from Next Generation European funds.[35]​[36]​[37][38]​.

On May 8, 2022, it was notified that the Provincial Council had already begun the administrative procedures to build the expansion of the Guggenheim in two separate locations (Gernika and Murueta) linked by a five-kilometer ecological path through the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve. To this end, it activated the first procedure to change the urban planning regulations and make room for the future cultural center in the reserve.[39]​[40]​[41]​.

On July 26 of the same year, it was reported that the Provincial Council had allocated 40 million euros as a first investment and a protocol had been signed with the central government, which would provide European funds to the future museum.[42][43]​ On September 28, it announced that it had hired a prestigious international team for the architectural project, which would establish its architectural and environmental bases by the beginning of 2023. The Guggenheim Urdaibai would open only a few months a year with a maximum number of visitors.[44]​[45]​[46][47]​ On October 8, it was specified that the central government would join the operation to execute the Guggenheim in Urdaibai activated by the Provincial Council. The preliminary draft of the General State Budgets (PGE) for 2023 contemplated an item of 14.67 million allocated to "single sustainable development actions" in the biosphere reserve.[48]​.

On October 18, 2022, in full celebration of the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the Basque Government recognized that the project for the Guggenheim in Urdaibai was "complex" and presented "difficulties". On November 4, it was learned that the Basque Government was leaving the Urdaibai Guggenheim out of the Culture budget, considering that the project "is not sufficiently developed" to include it in the 2023 Accounts.[53] On the 10th of the same month, it was published that the Provincial Council "shielded" 40 million to execute the Urdaibai Guggenheim "whenever", reserving the allocation even knowing that it would not be used in 2023 and allocating another 10 million to study the potentially contaminated soils where the art gallery will be located.[54]​ Two days later it was known that the central government would contribute 40 million euros to the Guggenheim of Urdaibai by accepting an amendment from the PNV to the General State Budgets to add another 25 million to the 15 already planned, equaling the amount reserved by the Provincial Council.[55]​ On November 22 It was learned that the central government revised the Costa law in Urdaibai to accommodate the Guggenheim.[56]​.

On December 12, 2022, the Board of Trustees of the Guggenheim Museum reaffirmed its willingness to promote the opening of a headquarters in Urdaibai as a "strategic" project for the future,[57]​ and a day later it was learned that the Manhattan-based architecture studio Cooper Robertson had been hired by the Guggenheim Foundation in New York to lay the foundations for the new museum, whose team of experts would complete its work during the first quarter of 2023.[58]​.

At the beginning of 2023, Richard Armstrong, director of the Guggenheim Foundation in New York, expressed his "total confidence" in Urdaibai's project, while Vidarte clarified in a joint presentation that the project still required "full confirmation" by the board.[59]​.

On May 19, 2023, the Provincial Council announced in the middle of the electoral campaign the start of work on the Guggenheim in Urdaibai, with the demolition works of the old Dalia factory in Gernika, one of the two future headquarters of the complex, after the summer.[60][61]​.

On June 18, 2023, it was announced that the New York architecture studio Cooper Roberston estimated the Guggenheim Urdaibai at 130 million and that the detailed content of the report was made known to the members of the Board of Trustees of the Guggenheim Bilbao Foundation at their meeting on June 14.[62] The first sketch of Urdaibai's Guggenheim projected a large auditorium and two restaurants, the entrance would have in Gernika and would occupy 60,000 square meters. The Provincial Council received the first sketch of the new museum and reported that it would call a competition of ideas for its final design.[63]​[64]​[65]​.

On July 4, 2023, the Council of Ministers approved a subsidy of 40 million that definitively launched the Urdaibai Guggenheim project.[66][67]​ The Basque Government confirmed its support for the project.[68][69]​.

On August 1, 2023, it was announced that a report by Costas paved the way to build the Guggenheim in Urdaibai. The central government would thus approve the change requested by the Provincial Council to give legal accommodation to the cultural center in the marsh.[70]​ However, in November 2023 it was learned that the Basque Government was postponing its adhesion to the project until after the regional elections so as not to generate territorial tensions.[71]​.

On January 22, 2024, it was reported that the Basque Government and the Provincial Council were giving themselves two years to decide whether the Guggenheim in Urdaibai was "viable".[72]​[73]​ The following day, the PNV clarified that the new Guggenheim would be carried out despite the doubts, denying that the project was delayed for two years for electoral reasons and ratifying its "firm commitment" to build it in Urdaibai.[74]​[75][76][77][78] Subsequently, the Lehendakari responded to the PNV and insisted that he was "in favor" of a period of reflection on Urdaibai's Guggenheim, opting to take two years to analyze the viability of the project but recognizing that his own Government was in favor of building the art gallery.[79]​ He defended that the expansion of the Museum Guggenheim in Urdaibai could be an element of socioeconomic reactivation of Busturialdea and that "could fit" among the measures proposed within the revitalization plan for the region. Furthermore, he made it clear that he "has not confirmed, denied or questioned anything" in relation to this project promoted by the Provincial Council of Bizkaia.[80]​.

On June 15, 2024, it was announced that the Provincial Council planned to undertake "in a few weeks", foreseeably before August, the first demolitions on the Gernika plot that would in the future occupy one of the two headquarters that the Guggenheim in Urdaibai will have.[81][82][83]​.

More than a year later, on November 30, 2025, it was reported that the institutions were considering not going ahead with the project due to the avalanche of technical demands and the social uproar.[84]​.

Finally, on December 16, 2025, the Board of Trustees decided to paralyze and park the Guggenheim in Urdaibai, announcing that in the coming years they would look for "other places" to carry out the expansion.[85][86][87][88][89]​.

• - Wikimedia Commons hosts a multimedia category on Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

• - Official website.

• - Tourist information about Bilbao.