Few people are familiar with the name, Hilla Rebay; Baroness Hildegard Anna Augusta Elizabeth Rebay von Ehrenwiesen, to be exact, but it was, in fact Baroness Hilla Rebay who originated the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the one we love to hate, the one that spirals down, down, down so that you are slightly off balance, the one that has a tiny bathroom on every ramp, the one we all know was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright who must have had a rather low opinion of art to create such an awkward environment to show paintings and sculpture.

Aside from all that, which is another topic entirely, before the museum was the Solomon R.Guggenheim Museum, and before it was uptown on 89th Street and Fifth Avenue, it was called, "The Museum of Non-Objective Art," located at 24 East 54th Street.

The story goes something like this -- As a young girl from an aristocratic family Hilla Rebay, born in 1890 in Strassburg, Alsace, was trained in art, attending various art academies in Berlin, Munich and the Academie Julian in Paris. She was particularly gifted in portrait painting and received numerous commissions.

After meeting artists Jean Arp, Rudolf Bauer, Paul Klee and Vasily Kandinsky in Europe, Rebay was converted to a new art form that Kandinsky called Non-Objective painting, which she embraced with great passion and fervor. Bauer, whose paintings she was obsessed with, was also her lover and mentor. From then on, Rebay would proselitize for Non-Objective painting until her death in 1967.

Leaving Europe, she arrived in the United States in 1927, a young, gifted, beautiful redhead with enough charisma for ten women, plus the ability to articulate her views about Non-Objective painting. She brought with her numerous letters of introduction and with her personal charm plus her aristocratic lineage, she had no trouble obtaining exhibitions in New York. During one of her early shows, Rebay sold a painting to Irene Guggenheim, wife of Solomon Guggenheim. This meeting gave her entry into the Guggenheim family.

Within a year, the great industrialist and philanthropist, Solomon R.Guggenheim was sitting for his portrait in Rebay's studio. It didn't take long for him to appreciate her good looks, dynamic personality and intelligence, as well as Non-Objective painting which he began to collect big time under her guidance.

The work of Bauer, Klee, Kandinsky, Moholy-Nagy and later the Canadian artist, Rodolph Scarlett made up the original Guggenheim collection that was exhibited in their museum in 1939, called, "The Art of Tomorrow -- The Museum of Non-Objective Art," with the Baroness as Director. By then, Solomon Guggenheim had purchased over 415 paintings from Rebay's group of artists, in addition to over 300 other modern pictures by artists such as Chagall, Leger and Mondrian. Later, paintings by Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh and others were included.

During those years, Guggenheim who lived with his wife at the Plaza Hotel, kept a second apartment at the Plaza where he and the Baroness entertained artists, friends, critics and anyone who they felt was sympathetic to their cause for Non-Objective painting. In addition, Guggenheim bought Hilla Rebay a country home in Green Farms, Connecticut.

Was the Baroness Guggenheim's mistress? It would seem likely, but there is no proof of a love affair, no letters, no witnesses to any romantic behavior. For sure, they were deeply involved in a cause to promote Non-Objective painting, as well as giving financial aid to artists who were working in that style. Indeed, Hilla Rebay, financed by Guggenheim, was extremely generous and sensitive to the artists' needs. She not only bought a great deal of paintings for the collection, but gave money outright to artists in difficult circumstances, inclucing sending checks on a regular basis to artists whether in America or Europe for art supplies.

Non-Objective art for Rebay was not only a new aesthetic that she believed was the only way to paint, but as a spiritual person, she felt Non-Objective painting held within a spiritual dimension. She made it quite clear that there was a difference between abstract art and Non-Objective art. According to her belief, abstract art was an abstraction of something: nature, an object, a figure, while Non-Objective painting was completely pure, devoid of any connection or association with what is seen in the world.

Hilla Rebay was a strong, controversial, outspoken personality. Being of German origin and living in America between the two World Wars didn't help either, nor did her heavy German accent. However, she did become an American citizen in 1947. Regardless of her detractors, and there were many, Rebay forged ahead with plans for a major museum that would exhibit the entire Guggenheim collection.

For her "temple" of art, she envisioned a circular building with no stairs where the paintings especially of Bauer and Kandinsky would be shown to their best advantage. In addition, she wanted space for lectures and publications about Non-Objective art.

In 1943, Frank Lloyd Wright was hired to create an outstanding museum on Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Streets. Meetings and correspondence between Rebay and Wright went back and forth for years. The central problem all along was Rebay's concern that the building was more an architectural structure to enhance Frank Lloyd Wright's reputation and presence in New York, and less a "temple" for the paintings that she and Solomon Guggenheim were profoundly dedicated to and had spent years collecting.

When Guggenheim died in 1949, construction of the museum had not even begun, but he left explicit directions that Hilla Rebay continue as Director with total control of every aspect of the building and the museum. After his death, his nephew, Harry Guggenheim became President of the Board of Trustees. It was now time for Harry and Solomon Guggenheim's wife, Irene and her daughters to get back at the Baroness for all the years they took second place while Hilla ran the show with Solomon Guggenheim as her partner and patron.

The fact is, the family intensely disliked the Baroness because of her power and close connection to Sol, as she called him. More and more duties were taken away from Hilla, as the family pushed her into the background. By 1952, she resigned as Director of the Museum. In 1957 construction of the museum began, opening in 1959.

There was no mention of Non-Objective art. The term was completely erased from any catalogs, lectures or history of the museum, as was the name of Hilla Rebay. Her achievements, persistence and single-mindedness in forming a unique museum, plus her assistance in helping artists in any way she could, including sending CARE packages to needy artists in Europe, was eliminated from the literature, as her paintings, the paintings of Bauer and others from the original group were put in storage.

But, in 1968, the new Director, Thomas Messer, did present a small Memorial Exhibition for Hilla Rebay which included her paintings, as well as Bauer, Kandinsky and other Non-Objective artists. Nontheless, a number of supporters of the Baroness, in particular Rolph Scarlett, felt that both the selection of paintings and the literature about Rebay's primary importance in establishing the Guggenheim's collection from its inception was given short shrift.

In an attempt to set the record straight about the significance of Baroness Rebay and the Non-Objective artists, the Gary Snyder Fine Art gallery, 601 West 29th Street, New York, NY exhibited the paintings of Hilla Rebay, Rudolf Bauer and Rolph Scarlett from April 4 to May 31, 2003.

Copyright © 2005 Hedy O'Beil