A photograph looking up at the multiple floors of a museum, with the buildings glass ceiling at the top

Artwork Details

Jan Dibbets
Dutch, 

b. 1941

New York, Guggenheim
1986
Medium
Chromogenic print on Kodak Ektacolor Ultra II paper
Dimensions
23 5/8 x 23 5/8 inches
Location
Not on view
Accession Number
2004.58.
Credit
Museum Purchase, Fred and Lena Meijer
Image Copyright
© Jan Dibbets

About the Artwork

This photograph by Jan Dibbets shows the iconic rotunda and skylight of the Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. When the building opened in 1959, its architecture was unlike any other museum in the world. Wright conceived of the museum as an airy, open place inspired by the organic forms of nature. The spiral ramp is thought to be inspired by a nautilus shell, and the skylight inspired by the radial pattern of a spider web.