Cathy's Art Diary

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.

Fascinating exhibition at Ordovas looking at the 18 months in the late 1930s when Peggy Guggenheim had a gallery in Cork Street in London. The show just had 12 objects and pictures mainly by Yves Tanguy and Hand Arp to show her collecting interests in Surrealism and Abstraction. These included rings designed by Tanguy for Guggenheim in rose wood and silver gilt. I loved the title of one work by Arp “Head with Annoying Object”. What a great description in one title of Surrealism. However I found the case of archive material most interesting including photographs, catalogues of shows and invitations to exhibition opening. As I had recently been to a show at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice looking at her collecting there,   it was good to learn about another aspect of her career. Closed 14 December 2019

Interesting exhibition at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection looking at the art she collected after she moved to Venice in 1948. The first section looked at the 1848 Biennale where she took over the Greece Pavilion which was the first show of a modern art collection in post war Europe and her Jackson Pollock show at Museo Correr which was the first Pollock show in Europe. It was lovely that they had so many great Pollocks form the show here but the space was too small for such large pictures. From her early days in the Palazzo on the Grand Canal Peggy established the idea of exhibitions in the space with a show of 20 pieces of contemporary sculpture, a few of which were shown here along with archive material from the show. The show included work she bought from British artists including the dramatic Graham Sutherland shown here and a Bacon of a chimpanzee. There was also a fascinating room of kinetic and optical art works which really messed with your eyes. What was a...

Interesting book talk at Charleston Farmhouse as part of their literature festival by Francine Stock about her biography of Peggy Guggenheim. I knew virtually nothing about Peggy Guggenheim except the obvious that she collected art and that her home in Venice is now a gallery. This talk was therefore fascinating from the fact that her father had died on the Titanic, her numerous marriages and affairs and her later life in Venice. I was most interested in the section on her relationship with the art world discussing how she bought and saved Degenerate Art before the war and helped get some of the artists to the USA. I want to know more about her Art of the Century gallery in New York where she showed installations and work by many of the great 20th artists. It was a nice touch to have the event chaired by Dinah Casson, an exhibition and gallery designer which put the emphasis on the art rather than the life.