Brancusi and Serra at the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao - October 2011 - February 2012

Sitting in my little pea pod in the sea of ART and ABSTRACTION, I ponder once more the great question...what IS art? At the Guggenheim Bilbao, art is cargo in the huge belly of the Frank Gehry designed museum/ship.

The ship-like Guggenheim is the first thing you see when you enter Bilbao from the east, rounding a mountainside and crossing a bridge. Seemingly docked, back lit, and momentous, it creates an unforgettable first impression of Bilbao.
Louise Bourgeois' spider sculpture Maman (mother) stands poised in awesome magnitude on the pier-like walkway. Is this a reference to fertility and the carrying belly, or industry, or something more sinister? http://www.centrepompidou.fr/education/ressources//ENS-bourgeois-EN//ENS-bourgeois-EN.html

The exhibit guide describes the permanent installation of Richard Serra's The Matter of Time sculptures as follows: "Shifting in unexpected ways as the viewers walk in and around them, these sculptures create a dizzying, unforgettable sensation of space in motion." Agreed! There is an intense physicality to the sculptures - heaving, towering, narrowing spaces, echoing, they close toward a center like a nautilus shell or slosh like a wave pouring into a cave. It is not clear to me how they are stand up, or exactly what is meant by the description of the material "weathered rolled steel." The metal has a rough organic patina that is so much more than sheets of rusted steel...you want very much to touch them, but is it allowed? Photographs are not allowed but there are a lot of clicks and flashes going on. Children are running through the tunnels, far from the hushed  circumspection of the exhibits on the upper floors, but no one seems to object. Is this steerage?


Most of the Brancusi sculptures in this exhibit are  carved in wood, having a bold sensuality that draws you close, where the Serra sculptures press toward you. My daughter pointed out that Brancusi and many of his contemporary artists were influenced by African art - visible here in the carvings in the background of his self portrait. 
Bird in Space (L'Oiseau dans l'espace) was in the exhibit - now I understand its iconic status. It is a joy to see art at this level, a privilege to travel to places where museums like this exist, and hopefully a continuing option to visit the library and read about artists like Constantin Brancusi.