Hildegard Anna Augusta Elisabeth Freiin Rebay von Ehrenwiesen, known as Baroness Hilla von Rebay or simply Hilla Rebay (31 May 1890 – 27 September 1967), was an abstract artist in the early 20th century and co-founder and first director of the

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...

."The Hilla Rebay Collection"
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Retrieved 25 March 2018. She was a key figure in advising

Solomon R. Guggenheim Solomon Robert Guggenheim (February 2, 1861 – November 3, 1949) was an American businessman and art collector. He is best known for establishing the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Guggen ...

to collect

non-objective art Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19t ...

, a collection that would later form the basis of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum collection. She was also influential in selecting

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

to design the current Guggenheim museum, which is now known as a

modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

icon in New York City.

Early life and education

Hilla von Rebay was born into a German

aristocratic Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'. At the time of the word' ...

family in Strasbourg, Alsace–Lorraine, then part of the German Empire."Art of Tomorrow: Hilla Rebay and Solomon R. Guggenheim"
. Deutsche Guggenheim. Retrieved 29 January 2014. She was the second child of Baron Franz Josef Rebay von Ehrenwiesen, an officer in the Prussian Army, and his wife, Antonie von Eicken. She showed an early aptitude for art and she studied at the Cologne

Kunstgewerbeschule A Kunstgewerbeschule (English: ''School of Arts and Crafts'' or S''chool of Applied Arts'') was a type of vocational arts school that existed in German-speaking countries from the mid-19th century. The term Werkkunstschule was also used for thes ...

during the academic year 1908/09. She then attended the Académie Julian in Paris from 1909 until 1910, where she received traditional training in landscape, portraiture, genre and history painting."Hilla von Rebay Foundation Archive"
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Retrieved 15 May 2014. Her portraiture skills supported her before she turned to more abstract art. Under the influence of the German ''

Jugendstil ''Jugendstil'' ("Youth Style") was an artistic movement, particularly in the decorative arts, that was influential primarily in Germany and elsewhere in Europe to a lesser extent from about 1895 until about 1910. It was the German counterpart of ...

'' painter Fritz Erler, Rebay moved to Munich in 1910 where she lived until 1911. Here, she began to develop her interest in modern art. Invited by Dr. Arnold Fortlage, Rebay participated in her first exhibition at the Cologne ''Kunstverein'' in 1912. Fortlage was the author of the foreword to the 1911

Ferdinand Hodler Ferdinand Hodler (March 14, 1853 – May 19, 1918) was one of the best-known Swiss painters of the nineteenth century. His early works were portraits, landscapes, and genre paintings in a realistic style. Later, he adopted a personal form of ...

exhibition in Munich, which inspired Rebay greatly to pursue her interest in modern art. In March 1913, Rebay was exhibited alongside

Archipenko Arkhypenko ( uk, Архипенко), also transliterated as Arkhipenko, Archipenko, is a Ukrainian-language family name of patronymic derivation from the Slavic first name Arkhyp/Arkhip (). The Belarusian-language version is Arkhipienka. The sur ...

, Brâncuși,

Chagall Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with se ...

Robert Delaunay Robert Delaunay (12 April 1885 – 25 October 1941) was a French artist who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, co-founded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. His later works were more abstra ...

, Gleizes,

Diego Rivera Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...

and at the

Salon des Indépendants Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (Pa ...

in Paris. This experience, however, was disheartening for Rebay, who seemed to judge her own work as inadequate. In 1915, Rebay met Hans (Jean) Arp in Zurich. This meeting was extremely influential upon Rebay's artistic taste, since it was through Arp that she was introduced to the non-objective modern art works of

Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...

, Franz Marc, Chagall and Rudolf Bauer. At this time, Rebay was also introduced to

Herwarth Walden Herwarth Walden (actual name Georg Lewin; 16 September 1879, in Berlin – 31 October 1941, in Saratov, Russia) was a German expressionist artist and art expert in many disciplines. He is broadly acknowledged as one of the most important discove ...

and the avant-garde Galerie Der Sturm in Berlin. In 1920, she, along with Bauer and Otto Nebel founded the artist group .

Career in the United States

In January 1927, Rebay immigrated to the United States and settled in New York City. An avid art collector, she became a friend and confidante of

, and helped advise his art purchases. In particular, she encouraged him to purchase non-objective art by Rudolf Bauer and Kandinsky. Guggenheim museum exterior retouched

These purchases later founded the basis of the

Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 1937 by philanthropist Solomon R. Guggenheim and his long-time art advisor, artist Hilla von Rebay. The foundation is a leading institution for the collection, preserv ...

's Museum of Non-Objective Painting, which opened in 1939 in a showroom located at 24 East 54th Street. The first exhibition, entitled ''Art of Tomorrow'', opened on June 1, 1939. Rebay served as the director of the museum until 1952. The next director was

James Johnson Sweeney James Johnson Sweeney (1900–1986) was an American curator, and writer about modern art. Sweeney graduated from Georgetown University in 1922. From 1935 to 1946, he was curator for the Museum of Modern Art. He was the second director of the Solom ...

, who had previously been a curator at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

. In June 1943, Rebay wrote to the noted architect

to commission a "museum-temple" to house the growing collection. While the new museum was being designed, the Museum of Non-Objective Painting moved to a townhouse located at 1071 Fifth Avenue, the intended location of the new building, where Rebay continued to organize exhibitions. When ground was finally broken in 1956, the collection was temporarily moved to a townhouse at 7 East 72nd Street. The new museum opened on October 21, 1959, as the

. Rebay was acknowledged to have excellent taste in modern art. She continued to paint and achieved some recognition for her abstract works. Although she was long a confidante to Solomon Guggenheim, others in the family found her personally difficult, especially his niece Peggy. After Solomon Guggenheim died in 1949, the family expelled her from the board of directors. When the museum was completed, Rebay was not invited for the opening. She never set foot in the museum she helped create. Embittered, Rebay retreated from public life and spent her final years at her estate in

Westport, Connecticut Westport is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, along the Long Island Sound within Connecticut's Gold Coast. It is northeast of New York City. The town had a population of 27,141 according to the 2020 U.S. Census. History ...

. After her death in 1967, she was buried according to her wishes in her family grave in Teningen, Germany.

Legacy and honors

Following Rebay's death in 1967, part of her extensive personal collection of art was given to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum as the ''Hilla Rebay Collection'', which includes works by artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Albert Gleizes and

Kurt Schwitters Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) was a German artist who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including dadaism, Constructivism (art), constructivism, surrealism ...

In 2012 a Hilla von Rebay Association was founded in Teningen dedicated to the memory of Rebay and her work. It operates a museum in her parents' house, which they purchased in 1919 and which she donated to Teningen after their deaths, with the request that it be used for a good purpose. *2004, the German documentary filmmaker Sigrid Faltin made the film ''The Guggenheim and the Baroness: The Story of Hilla Rebay''. *In 2005, a companion book ''Die Baroness und das Guggenheim Hilla von Rebay – Eine Deutsche Künstlerin in New York'' was published. *In 2005, nearly forty years after her death, the Guggenheim Museum honored Rebay with a special exhibition dedicated to her role in the foundation and her collection, entitled ''Art of Tomorrow: Hilla Rebay and Solomon R. Guggenheim'' (May 20 – August 10, 2005). It opened in New York and traveled to Europe. *''The Hilla von Rebay Foundation'' was established in her name at the Guggenheim Museum to promote non-objective art. *The ''Hilla Rebay International Fellowship'' was founded in 2001 to offer a current graduate student the opportunity to undertake a paid rotating position at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice. *In 2014, Rebay was depicted in '' Bauer'', a play about the life and art of Rudolf Bauer and his relationship with Rebay. The play had its world premiere at

San Francisco Playhouse San Francisco Playhouse (formerly SF Playhouse) is a non-profit theater company in San Francisco, California, founded in 2003 by Bill English and Susi Damilano. The theater stages nine plays yearly, including Broadway plays, musicals, and world ...

. *In 2017, a selection of Rebay's work was on view at the

in New York as part of the Visionaries: Creating a Modern Guggenheim exhibition.

Notes

# References

External links

*
Guggenheim Museum , Hilla von Rebay collectionOral history interview with Hilla von Rebay, 1966, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian InstitutionHilla von Rebay, memorial website
Teningen {{DEFAULTSORT:Rebay, Hilla von 1890 births 1967 deaths Abstract painters German baronesses Modern painters Artists from Strasbourg 19th-century German Jews German women painters People from Westport, Connecticut American women painters Painters from New York (state) 20th-century German painters People from Alsace-Lorraine Directors of museums in the United States Women museum directors 20th-century American painters Académie Julian alumni 20th-century American women artists Painters from Alsace 20th-century German women artists German emigrants to the United States