The Didaktika project includes educational spaces that facilitate appreciation and understanding of the exhibitions on view. This Did you know that…? section accompanying the exhibition Works from the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Collection Works highlights several collecting practices based on the dialogue forged in the Museum’s third-floor galleries between the Museum’s recent acquisitions, the artworks from corporate or private holdings—like the long-term loan from the Inge Rodenstock Collection and The D.Daskalopoulos Collection gift—and the loans from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.

The involvement of different agents was crucial in the birth of modern art. The existence of works that we consider important today was largely possible thanks to gallery owners who put their trust on an innovative aesthetic; the dissemination and promotion efforts of critics; and the vision and unconditional support of collectors, businesspeople, and industry magnates who acquired these new pieces. Artists achieved greater economic stability with their backing and were able to develop their creativity more freely. The role of collectors and gallery owners was essential, even at times of upheaval, as they safeguarded works or provided certain artists with safe conduct during the wars that besieged Europe.

What is the process whereby these artworks left the private sphere and became available for the public at large to enjoy, like today at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao?

Each collection—with its own personality stemming from the taste of the person who treasured it, or the symbol of a corporate identity—is usually put together over decades. Over time, some of them will become the seed of a museum that will eventually house them, while others will be donated to major museums or galleries.

Thus, these pieces have fed museum collections and created some of the most important artistic institutions in the world, which today allow a broad public to see them unlike in the past, when only a few could actually enjoy them.