“One of the most salient features of modern and contemporary art is the tendency, and desire, to abandon traditional creative practice, enacting both literal and figurative experimentations beyond the studio. In spring of 2024, the Guggenheim Museum will present By Way Of: Material and Motion in the Guggenheim Collection, an exhibition that will examine artists on the move, demonstrating how saturated contemporary art has become with extramural modes of thinking and working. Spanning the 1960s to the present day, the exhibition will offer a suite of artworks from the museum’s permanent collection and is particularly inspired by the D.Daskalopoulos Collection Gift

For centuries, the studio possessed almost sacred significations around the act of creation: a site for making art, a place of inspiration, invention, experimentation, and technical virtuosity. While studio practice subsists, art-making’s reputation has undeniably transformed. From the twentieth century onward, especially after World War II, contemporary artists became more invested in the potentials of the world outside and began to work in plein air, entrusting their eye over their formal training. Some artists located their inspiration in the street rather than in the academy; others depicted the responsibility of encapsulating memory and identity in a mobile form; while others pushed the boundaries of traditional art materials. By Way Of will encompass the scale and spirit of these investigations in artworks that cross media—video embedded in sculpture, tapestry as experimental painting, sound art housed inside found objects—all within the Guggenheim’s iconic building.” — Guggenheim Museum

Installation views, By Way Of: Material and Motion in the Guggenheim Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, March 15, 2024–January 12, 2025. Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York.

By Way Of: Material and Motion in the Guggenheim Collection is organized by Naomi Beckwith, Deputy Director and Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator.

Images courtesy Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.