Peggy Guggenheim
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Peggy Guggenheim (August 26, 1898 - December 23, 1979) was an American art collector.
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[edit] Inheritance, involvement in the art/writing community
Born Marguerite Guggenheim to a wealthy New York City family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who went down with the Titanic in 1912 and the niece of Solomon R. Guggenheim, who would establish the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.
At the age of 21 Peggy Guggenheim inherited a small fortune, but as the poorer branch of the family, it was an amount far less than the vast wealth of her father's siblings.
She was a clerk in an avant-garde bookstore when she first became enamored with the members of the bohemian bisexual artistic community. In 1920 she went to live in Paris, France. Once there, she became friendly with avant-garde writers and artists, many of whom were living in poverty in the Montparnasse Quarter of the city. Man Ray photographed her, [1] and he along with Constantin Brancusi and Marcel Duchamp were all friends whose art she promoted.
She became close friends with writer Natalie Barney and artist Romaine Brooks, and was a regular at Barney's stylish salon. She met Djuna Barnes during this time, and in time became her friend and patron. Barnes was staying at Guggenheim's country manor 'Hayford Hall' when she wrote her best known novel, Nightwood.
Around December 1937, she and Samuel Beckett had a brief affair.
[edit] World War II
Ms. Guggenheim got married for the first time to Laurence Vail, a Dada sculptor and writer. They divorced following his affair with actress Kay Boyle. In 1938 she opened a gallery for modern art in London featuring Jean Cocteau and began to collect works of art. After the outbreak of World War II, she purchased as much abstract and Surrealist art as possible.
When finished, she had acquired ten Picassos, 40 Ernsts, eight Mirós, four Magrittes, three Man Rays, three Dalís, one Klee, and one Chagall and exhibited the work of British surrealist artist John Tunnard. She greatly admired the work of John Tunnard (1900-1971) and is credited with his discovery in mainstream international Modernism.
After acquiring one of the most important collections of Modern art in private hands she returned to New York where, in 1942, she opened another gallery, called The Art of This Century Gallery. As a result of her interest in new artists she was instrumental in advancing the careers of many important modern artists, including the American painter Jackson Pollock, the sound poet Ada Verdun Howell and the German-French painter Max Ernst, whom she married in 1942.
[edit] After World War II
Following the War - and her 1946 divorce from Max Ernst - she returned to Europe and eventually established her collection in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni in Venice, Italy where it became one of the few European collections of modern art to promote a significant amount of works by Americans. By the early 1960s, Peggy Guggenheim had stopped collecting art and began to concentrate on presenting what she already owned. She loaned out her collection to museums throughout Europe and America, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, which was named after her uncle. Eventually, she decided to donate her large home and her collection to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation on her death.
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is the most important museum in Italy for European and American art of the first half of the 20th century. Pieces in her collection embrace Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism.
Peggy Guggenheim lived in Venice until her death in Padua, Italy. She is interred in the Nasher Sculpture Garden at the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni(Inside the Peggy Guggenheim Museum), buried next to her beloved dogs.
[edit] Portrayals
Peggy Guggenheim is portrayed by Amy Madigan in the movie Pollock (2000), directed by Ed Harris, based on the life of Jackson Pollock.
A play by Lanie Robertson based on Peggy Guggenheim's life, Woman Before a Glass, opened at the Promenade Theatre on Broadway, New York on March 10th, 2005. It is a one woman show, which focuses on Peggy Guggenheim's later life. Mercedes Ruehl plays Peggy Guggenheim. Ruehl received an Obie award for her performance.
