A Guggenheim Treasure Hunt

Can you find these masterpieces in Bilbao's iconic Guggenheim gallery?

By Google Arts & Culture

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (1994/1997) by Frank GehryGuggenheim Bilbao

Below we'll focus on five famous works of modern art that are all located in Frank Gehry's stunning modernist masterpiece. Learn a little about each artwork, then see if you can locate it in the gallery as part of a virtual tour...

Untitled (1952/1953) by Mark RothkoGuggenheim Bilbao

'Untitled' - Mark Rothko

Untitled is unusual for a Rothko in that the painting features horizontal rather than the vertical colour patterns, common to most of his other work. This is one of the artist's first true murals and was designed to be viewed up close so that the scale of the art work expands. 

Scale was always very important to Rothko, who said: 'To paint a small picture is to place yourself outside your experience, to look upon an experience as a stereopticon view or with a reducing glass. However you paint the larger picture, you are in it.'

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Can you find this giant in the museum?

Metaphysical Box by Conjuction of Two Trihedrons. Homage to Leonardo (1958) by Jorge OteizaGuggenheim Bilbao

'Metaphysical Box' - Jorge Oteiza

This 1958 work's full name is actually Metaphysical Box by Conjunction of Two Trihedrons. Homage to Leonardo. It sees the artist experimenting with geometrical shapes, creating dark and mysterious spaces that are partially hidden from view. 

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Click and drag to have a look around the Guggenheim and see if can spot it.

Man from Naples (1982) by Jean-Michel BasquiatGuggenheim Bilbao

'Man from Naples' - Jean-Michel Basquiat

This painting was inspired by the artist's visit to Italy and demonstrates his feelings of resentment toward his wealthy patron. The work features multiple unflattering epithets and partially obscured insults.

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Can you find this controversial work?

Seascape (1998) by Gerhard RichterGuggenheim Bilbao

'Seascape' - Gerhard Richter

This multimedia work blurs the lines between photographic reality and artistic interpretation using paint pigments to render much of the imagery slightly out of focus. As such, it plays with the ideas of visual perception. 

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Take a look around and see if you can locate this visual conundrum.

Barge (1962/1963) by Robert RauschenbergGuggenheim Bilbao

'Barge' - Robert Rauschenberg

Barge features many of the themes which Rauschenberg repeatedly focused on in his 79 Silkscreened Paintings. These included urban environments, space exploration and flight. This particular work was completed in less than 24 hours and is one of the most dynamic examples of his work.

Reflecting the turbulent decade of the 1960s when it was created, it straddles the line between the consumerist pastiche of Pop Art and the more satirical and critical work of the German Capitalist Realism movement. 

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See if you can spot it. 

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2017-09-19) by TrashhandGuggenheim Bilbao

Want to see more?

If you would like to know more about the iconic Guggenheim gallery in Bilbao, this closer look at a film about how people interact with the building will give you a fascinating insight.

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.

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