the wayward guggenheim

Controversial, scandalous, and exceedingly fabulous, Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979) did things her way. She was hated as much as she was loved, but her contribution to the world of 20th century art cannot be overestimated.

After a privileged yet unpleasant childhood (her father perished on the Titanic), this poor little rich girl went to Paris in the early 1920s and stayed there for the next few decades. She soon knew absolutely everyone who was anyone in those heady times, enjoying a glittering yet tempestuous life amongst artists, anarchists, the literati, and café society. It was there that she discovered her insatiable sexual appetite. Troubled marriages and countless affairs followed.

In the late 1930s, with war drawing ever-nearer, Peggy began collecting art with the aim of one day opening a museum. As more and more of her artist friends fled Paris, she took it upon herself to buy a painting a day---at bargain prices---by the likes of Kandinsky, Picasso, Magritte, Miro, Klee, Dali, Chagall, Mondrian, Braque, Tanguy, Giacometti, and Max Ernst (who she briefly married). This was in the days before purchasing art became the investment game and tax dodge it is now. In eight years, Peggy spent about $100,000 on paintings, drawings, and sculptures, never paying more than $4000 on one piece. Today, that collection has an estimated value of $600,000,000.


Moving to New York in the forties, Peggy was reunited with Marcel Duchamp, Andre Breton, and other surrealists who had left Paris. By this point, she herself had become a bit of surrealist art, known for her unique sense of style and ostentatious accessories. She opened Art of This Century, a gallery devoted to modern art, and it was an immediate sensation, showcasing work that had rarely been seen outside of Europe. Gradually she took on American artists as well, including Calder, de Kooning, Rothko, Motherwell, Joseph Cornell, and her recent discovery, Jackson Pollock. Paris was no longer on the cutting edge of artistic movements; the new capital of the avant-garde was New York.



Along the way, of course, there were constant parties, dinners, and various sexual entanglements. Her memoir from 1946 was unsparing in detail, becoming the talk of the town. Tiring of New York, Peggy moved to Venice in 1948, and remained there for the rest of her life. Her art collection was housed in her palazzo, where she entertained the rich and famous from all over. Though the ancient families of Venice never warmed to her, she became known as The Last Dogaressa, her flamboyant lifestyle the stuff of legend.



Peggy: The Wayward Guggenheim (1986), by Jacqueline Bograd Weld, is a wonderfully engaging biography. It shows Peggy Guggenheim as the complex (and often unlikable) individual she was: an unloved child and unloving parent, an infamous spendthrift who could be incredibly generous at times. She was shy, bold, awkward, grandiose, and had an endless parade of men (and a few women) in her bedroom. The book is also an excellent crash course on the history of modern art, covering Cubism, Dada, Surrealism, and Abstract Expressionism. This provides a context for many of Peggy's activities and relationships. It's a great read and I highly recommend it.



View the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. An excellent documentary can be seen here. For more of her amazing sunglasses, go here.