Following 20 years marked by delays, allegations, and revisions, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation will open its Frank Gehry-designed Abu Dhabi branch on December 11.
The 30-gallery museum will be part of a broader cultural cluster on Saadiyat Island, joining seven other institutions there, among them the Zayed National Museum and Berklee Abu Dhabi.
“The museum’s art collection is uniquely local and global, centred in the region but with works from all continents,” Guggenheim Director and CEO Mariët Westermann said in a statement. She added that the museum will highlight the “experimental character of art since 1960,” including abstractions, storytelling, painting, and moving images.
For the past 16 years, the art activism group Gulf Labor Coalition (GLC) has drawn attention to allegations of abuse involving migrant workers and to violations of local and international labor laws connected to the new museum. In 2015, an offshoot known as Gulf Ultra Luxury Faction (G.U.L.F.) staged a May Day occupation of the Guggenheim Museum in New York and a May 8 occupation of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice during the Venice Biennale.
“None of the initial reasons for this action have been adequately resolved over the years, despite Gulf Labor’s strident efforts, and the art world’s generally sympathetic response,” GLC Co-Founder Andrew Ross told Hyperallergic following this week’s announcement of the December opening. The Guggenheim Museum and Foundation has not yet responded to Hyperallergic’s request for comment.
