The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, more commonly referred to as The Guggenheim, is permanent home to paintings by artists such as Van Gogh, Picasso, Pollock, Chagall, Degas, Cezanne – the list goes on – and the building itself is a landmark in New York City and an American cultural icon. If you are unable to travel all the way to the Big Apple to visit the museum, fret not – the Guggenheim has come to your doorstep. Well, almost.
The Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative is a five-year programme which stretches across three regions: South and South-East Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa. Featuring recent acquisitions in painting, sculpture, video, film, work on paper and installation, it attempts to engage critically with the region on its own terms, at the same time aiming to foster cross-cultural interaction between artists, curators and audiences through educational programmes, online activities and collection building.
The initiative kicks off with the South and South-East Asia region, and from May to July, it lands near home in Singapore at Nanyang Technological University’s Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA). We speak to Guggenheim UBS MAP curator June Yap about the exhibit, and the director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation himself, Richard Armstrong.
