With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
Hilla Rebay
Education/Curation, Painting/Drawing, Patronage
1890 – 1967
An abstract artist and collector, Rebay’s greatest legacy is in her role as adviser to collector and patron Solomon R. Guggenheim, as first director of his museum of Non Objective Painting, and her influence in the design for the “new” modernist Guggenheim Museum by Frank Lloyd Wright.
- Biography/Description of Work
Hilla Rebay was born into an aristocratic German family in Strasbourg (now France). She studied art and exhibited in Cologne, Paris, and Munich. Her early work is comprised of portraits and figurative painting, but around 1910 she became interested in modern art forms and expressions, an interest that focused in on ‘non-objective’ or abstract art with her introduction to Jean Arp and his European avant garde circle in 1915. In 1927, Rebay immigrated to the US and met Solomon R. Guggenheim. A lasting friendship was forged after he commissioned her to paint his portrait. Rebay exposed Guggenheim and his wife to the works of Rudolph Bauer and Wassily Kandinsky and encouraged them to begin collecting modern nonobjective paintings. Guggenheim’s collection included works by Piet Mondrian, Fernand Leger, Marc Chagall, Paul Klee, Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, and Georges Seurat. Rebay helped Guggenheim open his Museum of Non-Objective Painting in New York City in 1939 to house his extensive art collection, and became the first director and curator. In 1943, Rebay and Guggenheim hired Frank Lloyd Wright to design a permanent structure for the museum, renamed the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1952 (Guggenheim died in 1949), which was completed in 1959. Rebay resigned as director and curator in 1952, but remained connected to the institution as director emeritus. When she died in 1967, Hilla Rebay’s own collection, which included pieces by Alexander Calder, Paul Klee, and Piet Mondrian, was donated to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
- Sources view
- Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilla_von_Rebay; Sorensen, Lee. “Wittkower, Rudolf.” Dictionary of Art Historians (website). www.dictionaryofarthistorians.org/wittkowerr.htm; Guggenheim Museum. The Hilla Rebay Collection. Accessed 3/16/2016 http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/about-the-collection/new-york/hilla-rebay-collection/1652
- Associated Resource(s)