New York’s museum was renamed the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1952.
The institution had opened in 1939 as the Museum of Non-Objective Painting. That name reflected the original emphasis on abstract art, particularly works associated with Vasily Kandinsky and other European modernists. The later name recognized Solomon R. Guggenheim, whose collection and foundation made the museum possible.
The 1952 renaming occurred before the museum moved into its celebrated Frank Lloyd Wright building on Fifth Avenue. The building opened in 1959 and quickly became one of New York’s most recognizable landmarks, but the museum already had a thirteen-year history under earlier premises.
A common mix-up is to treat 1952 as the building’s opening year. It was instead the year of the institutional renaming. The museum’s official name today remains the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, although “the Guggenheim” is the common shorthand.