Richard Armstrong Goes Global: My Interview with the Guggenheim’s New Director

Frank Gehry is pretty far along on design. The museum will open in 2012-13 and the first groundbreaking can be this autumn. When I visited Saadiyat Island [where the new Guggenheim will be built], I saw a fair amount of breakwater activity going on. The museum is on a promontory, so they're obliged to change the shoreline to accommodate the building. They're literally building a seawall and then they're going to pump out water and change the shape of the surrounding land mass.

The neighborhood where the two museums are going to be---the Louvre and the Guggenheim---needed to be regraded and changed topologically to some degree, so that's happening. There's a very big bridge from Abu Dhabi City over to this island that will be finished in the next few months.

Vidarte is coordinating Abu Dhabi and Tom is much more on the ground in Abu Dhabi and he has a longstanding relationship with Frank [Gehry]. Right now that's one of the most crucial aspects of being able to realize this thing.

Krens reports to a committee that's composed of four board members and me, and he's charged with making that project happen in a timely, defensible and on-budget way.

My impression is that those are all things that are surmountable. [CultureGrrl: In other words, you'll be able to show whatever you want?] That's my impression. That's what we've been reassured.

They just took down a large Picasso exhibition. If there was ever an explicit and highly erotic artist, it might have been Picasso. [CultureGrrl: Did they show his erotic work?] Yes they did. It was in the Emirates Palace and it was a loan exhibition from Musée Picasso.

We have the report from the Human Rights Watch and we're keen on making certain that everyone is treated justly. We want to be vigilant in that direction. It's a very hard thing to delve into because in my visit there, I didn't have my own car. I didn't know my way around. I was being driven and shown. I'll be back shortly and repeatedly.

For the moment. But let's be honest with one another: If you're meant to have a global network, there's not deep connection to Asia at present. If one were truly putting together a pearl necklace across the globe, you'd say there's a large part of the world that's not being addressed at present.