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Most of us know the Guggenheim Museum, but few of us know the story behind it, of its founding director, Baroness Hilla von Rebay (1890-1967). Although it was Solomon Guggenheim, the wealthy American industrialist, who financed the construction of the New York institution, its collection of abstract art was assembled in the 1930s by Hilla von Rebay, a German artist and friend of Hans Arp, Kandinsky, Léger, Chagall and Moholy-Nagy. Among the first women artists to join the Abstract Expressionist movement, she founded the museum in 1959. Together with Frank Lloyd Wright, she was also responsible for the Guggenheim's original plan, which was strongly criticized at the time. The most represented painter in the collection was Rudolf Bauer, whom Hilla von Rebay loved passionately; despite her best efforts, his works soon fell into oblivion. Although little known today, this "queen of art" devoted her entire life to the cause of abstract art. Her nephew Roland von Rebay is now trying to ensure that she is assigned her rightful place in the history of art. In the spring of 2005, the Guggenheim Museum will finally devote an exhibition to her, along with Solomon Guggenheim.
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