Corona, California
Frank O. Gehry – Fender 

Woods, metal strings, composite materials, pigment
ca. 2000
Length: 40.1 in; width: 17 in
Strings – Lutes – Guitars – Electric

Painted on guitar: Swoopy / by FOG
Engraved back plate:  FENDER

A custom Fender electric guitar designed by Frank O. Gehry (Canadian American architect, born Frank Owen Goldberg in Toronto, Canada in 1929).  Gehry, is still a practicing architect and designer at the age of 94.  He named the guitar ‘Swoopy” and signed it FOG (Frank O Gehry).   The name ‘Swoopy’ possibly comes from the definition of the word, which means to move quickly in a smooth path, as when a bird swoops down.  The design also depicts a shape similar to that of the Museum of Pop Culture, which Gehry designed by slicing electric guitars into pieces to build architectural models.

The Experience Music Project (EMP) (today known as the Museum of Pop Culture), was founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2000.  It was a tribute to the musician Jimi Hendrix and to the process of the creative evolution of American music.  The Fender Stratocaster guitars that Jimi Hendrix used were sometimes destroyed on stage by Hendrix at the end of his concert.  Gehry used the concept of deconstructed guitar as an inspiration for the design of The Experience Music Project (EMP) / Museum of Pop Culture and that structural concept is also reflected in this guitar. 

This Fender guitar is painted with an American flag design and includes a custom guitar pick.  Quite possibly, it was a tribute to Jimi Hendrix and his performance of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at the Woodstock Music and Art Festival on Aug. 18, 1969.

Frank O Gehry moved to Los Angeles in 1949, and after several career adventures turned to architecture, studying at the University of Southern California’s School of Architecture.  After his first marriage, he changed their surname to Gehry, in an effort to sidestep antisemitic abuse for their children, which he later regretted. In his later years he served as a professor of architecture at Columbia University, Yale, and the University of Southern California, and was awarded the prestigious Pritzker Prize in 1989, that was acknowledged by the Jurors with comments about his consistent experimentation and compared his approach to that of Picasso.  Gehry also designed furniture and launched his ‘Easy Edges furniture line.’ 

Some of his modernist architectural achievements included:
Gehry House, in Santa Monica, California  1978
Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany  1989
El Peix (Fish), a modern steel sculpture in Barcelona, Spain  1992
Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, Minnesota  1993
Dancing House Prague, Prague, Czech Republic 1996
Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain 1997
Neuer Zollhof, Dusseldorf, Germany 1999
Museum of Pop Culture, Seattle, Washington USA 2000
Maggie’s Centre (Cancer Care Centre), Dundee, Scotland  2003
Walt Disney Concert Hall, (Downtown Los Angeles), California, USA  2003
Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York  2003
Marques de Riscal (Winery), Elciego, Spain 2006
8 Spruce Street (76-storey metal and glass façade skyscraper) New York, USA 2010
The Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris, France  2014

Resource about this iconic architect: https://www.livingetc.com/features/frank-gehry