The Priceless Peggy Guggenheim

Excellent online lecture from the Barbican Library on the life and collecting of Peggy Guggenheim.

Alexandra Epps took us clearly through the life of Peggy Guggenheim concentrating on her art collecting and curating from her first purchase of a sculpture from Frans Arp, through her mass purchases at the start of the Second World War to her later championing of Jackson Pollock.

I was fascinated by the sections on the galleries she opened including Guggenheim Jeune in Cork Street London from where she introduced Britain to continental Modern art showing Kandinsky, Cocteau, Picasso, Magritte and more. We also looked at her Modern art museum in New York “Art of the Century” with floors dedicated to Surrealism, abstract art and kinetic art as well as space for changing shows.

Of course we ended by looking at the origins of the wonderful Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice.

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