Guggenheim Abu Dhabi’s pre-opening exhibition
(05.11.2014 – 19.01.2015) at Manarat Al Saadiyat will introduce the future
museum’s curatorial vision through a theme-based collection presentation. This
vision endeavors to foster a transcultural perspective on the history of art,
intended to encompass various legacies of modernism and the emergence of
contemporary cultural thought in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent
world.
Comprising 16
artworks acquired specifically for Guggenheim Abu Dhabi collection, as well as
two key loans from its partner institution, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in
New York, Seeing through Light: Selections from the
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Collection examines the theme of light as
a primary aesthetic principle in art. This unifying thesis offers many avenues
for interpretation, whether natural or artificial, directed or reflected,
interior or exterior, transcendent or celestial. The theme’s richness and
flexibility also has particular relevance across cultures and time periods.
The exhibition unfolds through five sections that
examine light in various iterations: Activated, Celestial, Perceptual,
Reflected, and Transcendent. While the exhibition begins chronologically in the
1960s (which aligns with the start date for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
collection), it quickly blends time and mixes established and mid-career
artists, as well as assembling a diversity of media within each section. From immersive
environments that visitors can move around in and even through to video,
painting, and sculpture, one will be able to experience light in all of its
spatial, sensory, and perceptual phenomena. Some of the artists included are
Angela Bulloch, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Robert Irwin, Y.Z. Kami, Bharti
Kher, Rachid Koraïchi, Yayoi Kusama, Otto Piene, and Douglas Wheeler. (Text: Guggenheim Abu
Dhabi)