The Guggenheim Museum

Wright spent sixteen years on this building and did not live to see it open in 1959. Instead of a series of rooms he made one continuous ramp spiralling up around a skylit void, so a visitor takes the lift to the top and walks down through the exhibition without ever retracing a step, and the building is as much the exhibit as anything hung on it. Critics complained that the sloping floors and curved walls fought the art, an argument that has never entirely stopped. It is one of eight Wright buildings inscribed together as World Heritage in 2019. The permanent collection is strong in early modernism, with Kandinsky in depth and the Thannhauser holdings of Picasso, Van Gogh and Cézanne.

What you actually see

• The rotunda - the spiral ramp and skylight, best seen from the top down.
• The Kandinsky holdings - one of the deepest collections anywhere.
• The Thannhauser collection - Picasso, Van Gogh, Cézanne and Manet.
• The exterior - the white coil against the Fifth Avenue street wall.

When to go

Year-round; weekday mornings are quietest and weekend afternoons are shoulder to shoulder on the ramp. Pay-what-you-wish evenings are popular and queue early. Check what is installed, since major exhibitions sometimes occupy the entire rotunda and close the permanent galleries.

Honest expectations

The building often overshadows the art, and large works sit awkwardly against curved walls under a sloping floor. Gallery space is smaller than the exterior suggests, so two hours is usually enough. Ticket prices are among the highest in the city, and during a full rotunda installation there may be far less on show than you expect.

Nearby

The Metropolitan Museum is ten minutes down Fifth Avenue; Central Park is opposite.