The Roaring Twenties at Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, through September 19, 2021
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“The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents The Roaring Twenties, a stimulating tour through the groundbreaking 1920s through more than 300 objects representing the most important artistic disciplines of the time, from painting, sculpture, and drawing to photography, film, collage, architecture, fashion and furniture design.
The exhibition introduces visitors to European cities like Berlin, Paris, Vienna, and Zurich, where major changes and progress were occurring in all spheres, many of which can still be felt today. Even though we cannot compare 1:1 our decade with the 1920s, there surprisingly a lot of parallels, dominated by the trauma of a pandemic and a major recession due to World War I. Yet at the same time it was a decade of progress, with an explosion of creativity and freedom, so this glimpse into the past offers encouraging ideas and inspiration for the future.” — Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
In the words of Bilbao curator Petro Joos, “The 1920s witnessed an explosion of creativity, erotic freedom, sexual urges, and feminism, yet also trauma, struggle, and unbridled, merciless economy. And all of this is reflected in the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in a very special way thanks to the exhibition design by Calixto Bieito.”
I Wonder Where My Baby Is To-Night!, 1926. Music by Walter Donaldson, lyrics by Gus Kahn, cover by Fabien Loris Francis-Day, Paris (ed.). Dora and Walter Labhart Collection
The exhibition is a cooperation between the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and Kunsthaus Zürich. It was curated by Cathérine Hug, Kunsthaus Zürich, and Petra Joos, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
