Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
The Guggenheim Circular
The Guggenheim Museum was founded on a belief in the transformative power of art. In this series, Guggenheim curators share themes that have gained heightened resonance in this unprecedented time.
Community
The current pandemic—and the social distancing it has necessitated—has dramatically altered what it means to be together, to live together, and to coexist on this planet. As people discover new ways to connect with one another, art can help articulate collective experience and celebrate the cultural differences at the core of our shared humanity.
In this edition of the Guggenheim Circular, we reflect on the power of cooperation and how art can illuminate the influence of personal actions on society. The works we examine here range from an early painting by Vasily Kandinsky, who pursued a unifying and transcendent language in art, to a recent installation by the Yangjiang Group, whose projects reposition rituals of everyday life as experiments in audience engagement.
Made or enacted prior to the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19), these artworks have gained new resonance as people everywhere reckon with radical shifts in the relation between individuals and society. Alarmingly, these changes include a marked rise of xenophobic retaliation in the United States against those considered “foreign” or “other.” We hope these resources will offer a mix of inspiration and solace as these global transformations continue to unfold.
—Megan Fontanella, Nat Trotman, and Xiaoyu Weng (May 2020)
New installments of the Guggenheim Circular will be released regularly.