Two Guggenheim publications were recently selected as winning entries in the 51st annual Communication Arts Design Competition. From among 4564 submissions, a panel of judges named The Guggenheim: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Making of the Modern Museum and Anish Kapoor: Memory as standouts in the Catalog category.
Published in conjunction with the Guggenheim’s 50th Anniversary, The Guggenheim examines the history, design, and construction of Wright’s masterwork, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Designed by Abbott Miller and Susan Brzozowski, of the design firm Pentagram, the book is fully illustrated with preliminary drawings, models, and photographs. It includes three major essays and several shorter texts that discuss the obstacles Wright faced in getting the Guggenheim built as well as the impact the building has had on museum architecture and influence on future architects. The book design takes cues from Wright’s building and from 1950s architectural journals, while the cover translates the famous Guggenheim spiral into an iconic typographic composition, its distinctive rusty red color inspired by Wright’s palette.
The catalogue Anish Kapoor: Memory accompanied the exhibition of a site-specific work by Anish Kapoor that was conceived to engage two different locations at the Guggenheim museums in Berlin and New York. Designed by Takaaki Matsumoto and Hisami Aoki, of Matsumoto Incorporated, the catalogue provides an in-depth analysis of Kapoor’s creative intellectual process, and offers glimpses into the development of Memory from the initial models to the final installation in Berlin. Commenting on the book design, the Matsumoto and Aoki said, “This catalogue for Anish Kapoor: Memory is the same proportion as the long, narrow, exhibition gallery where the sculpture was first shown. A piece of the steel Kapoor used was scanned and printed on paper that was wrapped around the cover. A square was die-cut into the front. Black board was used for the cover and the end leaves are black, so the hole is surrounded by black when the book is closed, alluding to the viewer’s experience of looking at the work.”