A day at the Museum

1st floor, Atrium

The Atrium is the beating heart of the building, connecting the interior to the exterior. The walkways pumping visitors into or out of it offer new standpoints to observe the artwork on view.

1st floor, gallery 104

You can experience and activate time and space by wondering about The Matter of Time, an installation by Richard Serra (1994-2005).

1st floor, Atrium

Standing in dialogue with the interior and the exterior of the building designed by Frank Gehry, site-specific works by contemporary artists make a significant part of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Collection.

Plaza

If you need a break or a snack, go to the Bar Guggenheim Bilbao, next to the Bistró, in the Museum plaza.

1st floor, terrace

From the riverfront terrace you can see how the Museum is seamlessly integrated into the surrounding cityscape in terms of materials (glass, titanium, limestone) and how it connects with the surrounding buildings and structures.

3rd floor

The third floor houses Works from the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Collection, a journey through some of the leading art movements in the second half of the 20th century and the early years of the 21st, including works by renowned artists like Cristina Iglesias, Sol LeWitt, or Mark Rothko belonging to the Museum Collection.

Restaurants

The Museum affords two spaces with different culinary experiences: Nerua Guggenheim Bilbao, an haute cuisine restaurant, and the Bistró Guggenheim Bilbao, a restaurant wrapped in a more informal atmosphere.

1st floor

The Museum Store/Bookstore offers a wide range of items, including design objects, exhibition catalogues, books, and all kinds of gifts. Discounts available for Museum Members. You can also buy from home visiting our online Store.

The exhibition Signs and Objects. Pop Art from the Guggenheim Collection can be seen in galleries 201, 202, 203, and 208.

In the 1960s, some of the artists living in the US began to show the interests and tastes of the emerging consumer culture in their work. James Rosenquist, Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, and others drew on advertising, its elements and methods—bright colors, materials like vinyl, mass-reproduction techniques like screen-printing, etc. Other artists, such as Chryssa and Roy Lichtenstein, took signs and simplified graphic elements from comic strips and placed them in a new context, giving rise to different interpretations. Finally, the contemporary artists included in this exhibition offer current looks at such issues as advertising strategies, identity, and the material resources of art, updating some of the keys of Pop art.

The exhibition dedicated to Austrian artist Martha Jungwirth (b. 1940) takes galleries 205, 206, 207, and 209 on level 2 of the Museum.

Hovering between figuration and abstraction, Jungwirth’s works are based on visual stimuli: portraits, press images, landscapes from her trips, and even works by the old masters – Frans Hals, Francisco de Goya, Édouard Manet, and others.

Using colored pencils, graphite, pastel crayons, charcoal, ink and pen, watercolors, and oil paints, Jungwirth transforms figurative images into controlled brushstrokes and blotches. She also picks unusual media, including backing boards from photo frames, old paper rolls, and old account books.

Go to gallery 209 to take a look at Jungwirth’s latest monumental works.

The exhibition focusing on Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara (b. 1959) gathers a selection of his paintings, drawings, sculptures, and ceramics, to which we should add My Drawing Room, an installation recreating the artist’s studio.

During his training in Germany, in the 1990s, Nara developed a new style, turning to cartoonish representations of children and animals. Far from being kawaii (Japanese for “cute”), his characters look naughty – at times, even threatening.

Unruly and rebellious, Nara’s works evoke the lyrics and the tunes of the folk and rock songs from the 1950s and 1960s, which accompanied historical events like the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. As a matter of fact, some of his characters carry anti-war or anti-nuclear messages.

Nara’s paintings are the result of several layers of paint in subtly varied pigments, which the artist applies meticulously throughout the painting process.