In 2006, the Guggenheim Museum became the first international modern and contemporary art museum in the west to establish a curatorial position for Asian art. The museum’s new Asian art initiative has a three-dimensional strategy: exhibitions, acquisitions, and educational programs. Working with leading museums, academic institutions, cultural organizations and galleries, we aim to stimulate top-level critical discourse, scholarship, and curatorial activity, and to expand the parameters of what defines Asian art today across two related but distinct arenas: the international and the local/ regional. We are working now to bring “the Asian dimension” across virtually all of the Guggenheim’s programs. Geographically, we are focused on the primary centers of contemporary art in East Asia (China, Japan and Korea); Southeast Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore); and South Asia (India and Pakistan). Our interest also extends to Iran, whose traditional Persian culture is historically aligned with South Asia, and to artists in Iran and across South and Southeast Asia who are engaged in issues surrounding their Islamic culture and identity. Our focus also includes artists of Asian heritage who live and work anywhere in the world. 

Museum Hours:
Sat – Wed 10 a.m.–5.45 pm Friday 10 a.m.–7:45 p.m. Closed Thursdays, Christmas, and Thanksgiving Day.