UP IN THE SKY: Cai Guoqiang's art piece I Want to Believe is exhibited at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (DAVID HEALD © SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION)

Work to be done

The museum will commission major works from at least three artists or collectives under the initiative, and plans three exhibitions by 2017 with accompanying lectures, educational programs and public events. It is the third project between the museum and the foundation. Their first collaboration in 2008 was for Cai's explosive I Want to Believe. Another project—The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia—followed a year later.

"These were two smaller programs that really set the basis for long-term collaboration and initiated a discussion that has been going on between the foundation and the Guggenheim for a few years now," Lipman told Beijing Review. "The outcome of which is the project we are embarking on."

Like the "love story" described by Cai, "certainly there is a great deal of love and admiration between the museum and ourselves. I think they realize that the foundation has made a difference in the world of Chinese contemporary art—indeed, in the world of contemporary art in general. One the objectives of this project is to have Chinese contemporary art become more integrated and part of the global art culture today," Lipman said.

The two organizations share a view that contemporary art plays a "positive and transformative" role in the world, he said.

"Contemporary art can open people's minds to new possibilities and change the world," said Richard Armstrong, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation.

"We want to spark new activity and collaboration," he said, adding that the partnership fosters an increase in "depth, engagement and meaning."

The new focus on commissioning works for the museum's permanent collection builds the DNA of the institution, said Alexandra Munroe, Samsung Senior Curator of Asian Art for the Guggenheim.

"The museum sees the continuing augmentation of its holdings as the cornerstone of its Asian Art Program. In order to establish a truly global collection in the 21st century, the Guggenheim must nourish its current holdings of American and European art with masterworks of modern and contemporary Asian artists," she said in a museum release.

Munroe and Thomas J. Berghuis, newly appointed Chinese art curator for the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation, will head up the curatorial direction. Berghuis is a distinguished scholar of Asian art and archeology.

"I am looking forward to working with artists, critics, and museum colleagues in China to further the understanding and appreciation of contemporary Chinese art within a broad global context," Berghuis said in a statement. "The Guggenheim offers a tremendous platform to advance the most innovative practices in greater China today."

From a curatorial perspective, Berghuis aims to "reorient the collection to an artistic medium in and of itself," he said, with interactive pieces and performances. The art will not be limited to paintings on the wall. A series of lectures and publications is aimed to enhance and broaden the educational offerings of exhibitions.

"Education really underlies everything our foundation does," Lipman said. "The Guggenheim serves as a good platform to reach out to a broader community. It's a single museum in New York, but it's really an institution which presents us with a global platform. Visitors are usually from all over the world."

As China evolves, so too does its artists and the emerging vanguard has discovered a global audience eager to see what's next.

The author is a freelance writer living in New York City

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