Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, the long-awaited museum rising on Saadiyat Island, has confirmed it will open its doors on December 11, with the inaugural programme opening with an exhibition dedicated to the building's architect, the late Frank Gehry. The show will bring together original sketches, hand-built models and archival material tracing how Gehry developed the design of the museum itself.
The building offers 11,600 square metres of indoor gallery space alongside 23,000 square metres of outdoor exhibition areas, making it one of the largest cultural venues in the region. Its most recognisable feature is a cluster of ten monumental cones, nine of them wrapped in stainless steel mesh and one finished in onyx and glass. Inside, gallery spaces of varying sizes have been designed to accommodate works across a wide range of scales and media, from painting and sculpture to installation, photography and new media.
The museum's permanent collection will focus on modern and contemporary art from the 1960s to the present day. Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, chairman of Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism, described the building as one that "draws from its surroundings, a structure that carries the forms of this region into something entirely new."
Standard adult admission has been set at Dh70. Guggenheim Abu Dhabi forms part of the wider Saadiyat Cultural District, joining other major institutions on the island, and is expected to become a significant draw for art tourism to the capital once it opens in December.