1 Annual Report 2015 Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Introduction 4 Art Program 6 Education and Interpretation 22 Visitors 28 Individual Members 29 Corporate Members 31 Press 34 Store/Bookstore 38 Publications 39 Management Model 40 Impact 41 Code of Ethics 42 Awards & Distinctions 43 VIP Visitors 44 Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Foundation 47 CONTENTS 4 5 developed by the Museum, which also launched this year the internship program and the artist program in New York directed at students and emerging artists from the Basque Country within the alliance with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. In addition, the number of Individual Members rose to 16,734, and corporate participation grew as well, with 113 Corporate Members now supporting the Museum as an essential pillar of our financing. In the digital realm, the website received a total of 1,797,238 visits (a 41% increase from last year), with 7,161,266 pages viewed (90% more than 2014). Furthermore, the Museum continues to expand its community on social media, with 206,510 followers on Facebook and 172,350 on Twitter, a 15% and 142% increase from last year, respectively. As in previous years, the Museum carried out a survey to gauge the impact of the Museum’s activities on the economy of the Basque Country, which revealed that Museum operations generated a total expenditure of 363.9 million euros in the Basque Country, garnering the Basque treasuries an additional 49.3 million euros in tax revenue, and contributing to maintain 6,893 jobs. The Museum remains one of the top European cultural institutions in terms of self-financing, which reached 67% in 2015. In 2015, as part of the Strategic Plan and in celebration of the Museum’s coming of age, the exhibition spaces were conceptually redesigned. In response to the need to have a wider selection of the works from the Museum Collection permanently on view, the organic galleries of the third floor will offer a sample of those holdings. These works will be complemented by exhibitions of art from the first half of the 20th century that will be shown in the classical galleries, as a prologue to the contemporary collection. Thus, the third floor will house the Foundations of Today’s Art. The second floor will continue to show special, temporary exhibitions of great curatorial importance and public impact. And the first floor will be dedicated to the Views of Contemporary Art, which will include the works shown in the Film & Video gallery; some of the most iconic pieces from the Collection presented on this floor like Jenny Holzer’s Installation for Bilbao or Richard Serra’s The Matter of Time; and the contents of gallery 105, which will feature exhibitions of a more experimental nature and will also showcase specific periods or aspects in the work of the artists in the Collection. This year’s review closes with our unwavering commitment to transparency, which the Museum has maintained from the very beginning and was rewarded in 2015 with an important public distinction as the most transparent museum in Spain, according to a ranking by the Fundación Compromiso y Transparencia, in association with the Foro de Cultura y Buenas Prácticas. Although a private institution, the Museum has always been committed to responsible management. This effort has been In 2015, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao turned 18, and its coming of age was met with the second highest number of manifested through the corporate website (a rare resource among museums), which offers important information related visitors since the Museum’s inauguration in 1997: 1,103,211 people toured the exhibitions that comprised an outstanding to the Museum’s corporate activities, and by the creation of a Code of Ethics and Best Practices at the end of 2015, which art program. Two of the shows (those dedicated to Jeff Koons and Jean-Michel Basquiat) took third and fourth place, reflects the Museum’s dedication to transparency. This self-regulation is an honest response to the public’s genuine concern respectively, in the ranking of the most visited modern and contemporary art exhibitions in the world, as published by the about the proper functioning and use of public funds and services. prestigious magazine The Art Newspaper. The commitment to our mission to collect, preserve, exhibit, and research contemporary art for a diverse audience continues Prominent names from the contemporary art world were featured in the exhibitions of 2015, including Niki de Saint Phalle, to be one of our highest priorities in this new era of an ever-changing world. The future is full of challenges that the Museum Jeff Koons, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Alex Katz; Kimsooja, Shahzia Sikander, and Ho Tzu Nyen, three artists from Southeast will face with responsibility and also with a considerable measure of hope. Asia who presented their works in the Film & Video gallery; and the artists in the group exhibitions Making Africa—A Continent of Contemporary Design and Masterpieces from the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Collection. Juan Ignacio Vidarte In addition to the record number of visitors, the 2015 Annual Report contains many positive milestones that exceeded Director General, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao expectations and rewarded the year’s hard work. For example, 577,266 people participated in the educational initiatives INTRODUCTION 6 7 A moment from the screening of Shahzia Sikander’s Parallax, 2013, presented in the Film & Video gallery View of gallery 206 during the exhibition Making Africa—A Continent of Contemporary Design, fall/winter of 2015 Landscape is one of the main themes in the work of Alex Katz, one of the most unique voices in American art. The Museum showcased the artist’s approach to this subject over different phases in his career, spanning from the 1980s to his latest paintings of monumental landscapes. The works included in the exhibition revealed Katz’s mastery over the pictorial medium, In the course of 2015, the Museum galleries held exhibitions dedicated to prominent figures of international art from the 20th as well as the absolute clarity and power of his vision. century and present day. Making Africa—A Continent of Contemporary Design unveiled new directions that design, in its broadest sense, is taking in Niki de Saint Phalle (b. 1930; d. 2002) is one of the most renowned artists of the second half of the 20th century. Throughout Africa, encompassing all creative activities used to “build” a new, different continent. The exhibition revealed how design is her prolific career, Saint Phalle created a complex body of work in various mediums, which was deeply embedded with socio- accompanying, and even accelerating, political and economic change on the African continent through close dialogue with political issues. The Museum presented one of the most ambitious exhibitions devoted to the art of Saint Phalle thus far. disciplines like art, illustration, cinema, photography, architecture, and urban design. As in past years, the program Learning Through Art culminated in an exhibition of the most important works of the 143 participating schoolchildren, between the The unique, unmistakable, ground-breaking work of Jeff Koons has made him one of the most prominent figures of the art ages of 6 and 12. The collaboration between Museum educators, schoolteachers, and artists Elssie Ansareo, Naia del Castillo, of our time. The exhibition dedicated to Koons allowed the public to enjoy, for the first time, a comprehensive retrospective Maider López, Iñaki Gracenea, Ainhoa Ortells, and Jorge Rubio resulted in the works displayed during the summer in the survey of his coherent, structured, profoundly innovative, awe-inspiring oeuvre. new educational space. Jean-Michel Basquiat (b. 1960; d. 1988) quickly became a prolific artist and a cultural celebrity. His fame grew with exhibitions Additionally, the Film & Video gallery showcased audiovisual works from contemporary artists, namely Kimsooja’s Thread throughout North America and Europe. Using a novel approach, the Museum offered an exhibition focused on the diverse Routes (2010—), Shahzia Sikander’s Parallax (2013), and Ho Tzu Nyen’s The Cloud of Unknowing (2011). Since November, the themes explored by the artist, including works created by Basquiat together with other artists, like Andy Warhol, with whom third-floor galleries have housed an exhibition dedicated to the most noteworthy holdings from the Museum’s Collection, he had a deep friendship. which as of this year, will have a permanent presence in the Museum, as explained elsewhere in this Annual Report. ART PROGRAM 8 ART PROGRAM 9 Mark Rothko, Untitled, 1952–52. Oil on canvas, 299.5 x 442.5 cm. Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa PERMANENT COLLECTION TOP: Two of the panels comprising Francesco Clemente’s cycle Masterpieces from the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Collection La Stanza della Madre, 1995–97. BOTTOM, LEFT: Three canvases From November 27, 2015 from Georg Baselitz’s Mrs Lenin and The Nightingale, 2008. Third-floor galleries BOTTOM, RIGHT: Sculptures by Jorge Oteiza Metaphysical Box by Conjuction of Two Trihedrons. Homage to Leonardo (Caja CURATED BY Lucía Agirre metafísica por conjunción de dos triedros. Homenaje a Leonardo) NO. OF WORKS: 31 and Empty Box with Large Opening (Caja vacía con gran NO. OF VISITORS [as of Dec. 31, 2015]: 78,189 apertura), both 1958 10 ART PROGRAM 11 View of gallery 303, with several Nanas by Niki de Saint Phalle; in the foreground, Nana with her Leg in the Air (Nana jambe en l’air, ca. 1966). TEMPORARY EXHIBITION Niki de Saint Phalle February 27–June 7, 2015 Third-floor galleries TOP: View of gallery 206, with works by Niki de Saint Phalle. RIGHT PAGE, TOP: in the center, O.A.S. Altar (Autel O.A.S., CURATED BY Camille Morineau and Álvaro Rodríguez Fominaya 1962–92), in bronze. BOTTOM LEFT: Two pieces made in NO.