A day at the Museum

1st floor, Atrium

The Atrium is the beating heart of the building, connecting the interior to the exterior. The walkways pumping visitors into or out of it offer new standpoints to observe the artwork on view.

1st floor, gallery 104

You can experience and activate time and space by wondering about The Matter of Time, an installation by Richard Serra (1994-2005).

1st floor, Atrium

Standing in dialogue with the interior and the exterior of the building designed by Frank Gehry, site-specific works by contemporary artists make a significant part of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Collection.

Plaza

If you need a break or a snack, go to the Bar Guggenheim Bilbao, next to the Bistró, in the Museum plaza.

1st floor, terrace

From the riverfront terrace you can see how the Museum is seamlessly integrated into the surrounding cityscape in terms of materials (glass, titanium, limestone) and how it connects with the surrounding buildings and structures.

3rd floor

The third floor houses Works from the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Collection, a journey through some of the leading art movements in the second half of the 20th century and the early years of the 21st, including works by renowned artists like Cristina Iglesias, Sol LeWitt, or Mark Rothko belonging to the Museum Collection.

Restaurants

The Museum affords two spaces with different culinary experiences: Nerua Guggenheim Bilbao, an haute cuisine restaurant, and the Bistró Guggenheim Bilbao, a restaurant wrapped in a more informal atmosphere.

1st floor

The Museum Store/Bookstore offers a wide range of items, including design objects, exhibition catalogues, books, and all kinds of gifts. Discounts available for Museum Members. You can also buy from home visiting our online Store.

04.11.2025–09.28.2025

Helen Frankenthaler: Painting Without Rules, in gallery 105, is an exhibition focusing on one of the leading figures of American abstract art in the twentieth century: Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011). Structured to mirror the stages in her life and artistic career, the exhibition shows how Frankenthaler’s free, boundless creativity opened up new avenues for abstract painting.

The exhibition begins in the 1950s, when the young artist, inspired by Jackson Pollock, popularized a new painting technique: soak-stain, which involves pouring thinned-down paint onto a flat, unprimed canvas, allowing the paint to soak into the fabric and create soft, fluid washes of color. In the 1960s, her paintings become clearer and more structured, as shown in the big canvas where color seems to float at its own pace. In the 1970s and 1980s, her work becomes more lyrical and atmospheric, her landscapes – like Eastern Light (1982) – capturing light, calm, and the ocean.

The exhibition also follows her personal and creative ties with other artists, including Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, David Smith, and Anthony Caro, whose works are shown as well. Frankenthaler shared ideas, friendship, and admiration with them all. In her final years, Frankenthaler’s works on paper became more essential and intimate, as a response to her creative principle: painting without rules.

Living Architecture: Gehry

March 7–October 19, 2025

The exhibition in gallery 208 marks the launch of in situ, a new series of site-specific installations that push the boundaries of contemporary practices in dialog with the Museum’s architecture.

in situ: Refik Anadol presents Living Architecture: Gehry (2025), a groundbreaking audiovisual installation by Turkish-American media artist Refik Anadol, a pioneer in the aesthetics of data visualization and AI art. Anadol reimagines Frank Gehry’s architectural legacy in a unique immersive experience in which the latter’s designs are reinterpreted and reimagined with the help of AI.

Using a custom-built AI model developed by Refik Anadol Studio that feeds on a vast archive of ethically sourced, open-access imagery, sketches, and blueprints, Anadol explores machines’ ability to “dream”, transforming Gehry’s architectural language into ever-changing landscapes with stunning abstract configurations. Living Architecture: Gehry unfolds across six interconnected chapters, surrounding visitors within the walls of the vast gallery 208, challenging their perceptions, and encouraging them to think about the impact of AI on the future of creativity and the way in which we understand the world through technology.

In the Didaktika educational area in gallery 204, we will find audio and video resources that will help you understand the creative process behind Refik Anadol and his multidisciplinary team’s works.

February 28–June 1

Masterpieces on Paper from Budapest spans seven centuries of European art while revealing the history of the holdings of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest. It shows a selection of works that are rarely on display because they are fragile, following the evolution of drawing and printmaking techniques over the centuries.

Gallery 205 shows drawings by the old masters, including Raphael and Rubens, always in search of anatomical accuracy and dramatic compositions. Their sketches and studies enable us to take a peek at the creative process behind their masterpieces.

Gallery 206 introduces the eighteenth century, with paper as a medium for experimentation in the delicate depiction of nature and everyday life. The landscapes and travel scenes on view reveal the curious and sympathetic eyes of artists looking at the world around them.

In gallery 207, artists like Vincent Van Gogh and Egon Schiele resort to free-hand strokes and expressive lines to explore human emotions, with unprecedented insight into the human psyche.

The exhibition comes to a close in gallery 209, where twentieth-century artists break away from tradition. Victor Vasarely, Gerhard Richter, and others explore abstraction, freeing lines and forms to find new avenues for artistic expression ‒ avenues that have led us to where we stand now.

February 21–June 1, 2025

Galleries 202 and 203 (level 2) host the retrospective dedicated to Tarsila do Amaral (1886-1973), one of the pioneers of Brazilian Modernism.

The exhibition follows her career, from the early works – academic sketches and landscapes under the influence of Impressionism – to the vibrant depictions of rural Brazil and scenes of urbanization from the 1920s.

Tarsila lived, studied, and worked in Europe for long periods of time. She spent a few years in avant-garde Paris, surrounded by experimentation and innovation in art, and embracing Cubism. Fragmenting forms to reframe her roots, she struggled to meet the expectations of the Parisian art scene while building a modern Brazilian identity rooted in a melting pot of cultures.

Back in Brazil, she strengthened her ties to the land and this inspired works like Carnaval in Madureira (1924), showing pre-colonial traditions and popular scenes in bright colors with geometric shapes. Later, her work became more critical and lyrical. Paintings like Workers (1933) depict the Brazilian reality in more sober shades, associated with the world of labor.