A name that is repeated in the biographies of several European and American artists of the 40's and 50's is that of Peggy Guggenheim's. The mention of her name is often interpreted as a sign that the artist is already on the path to success, as if Peggy were a fairy godmother whose presence magnified the careers of the artists she selected. But Peggy did not limit herself to serving as a patron and collector; she dedicated her life to creating a legacy with the art she acquired, having a direct participation in the artistic community of Europe and the United States, indirectly shaping the art of the mid-20th century.

Origin

Marguerite Guggenheim (1898 – 1979), better known as “Peggy,” was a Jewish-American woman who descended from a wealthy family in the mining industry. Losing her father in the sinking of the Titanic, when Peggy came of age she inherited a significant fortune that she knew how to manage in such a way that she would not have to work the rest of her life. And although his expectations of her were limited to “marrying ‘well,’ and being a good wife and mother,” Peggy took advantage of her financial freedom to find her calling.

In New York, when Peggy turned 21 she worked briefly as a volunteer at an avant-garde bookstore where they held small exhibitions of local artists. It was here that she discovered her passion for art, and soon moving to Paris, she developed the habit of visiting galleries to learn about European art. It is in the French capital where she meets Marcel Duchamp (artist) and Herbert Read (historian), who direct her enthusiasm for the arts towards the avant-garde, such as surrealism, expressionism and cubism, of which she made the first purchases of hers. With the support of these two characters, Peggy learns to identify the promising artists of Europe, and almost without planning, she begins to shape her art collection.

The life of a gallery owner and art collector

In 1938, with the assistance of Marcel Duchamp, Guggenheim opened his first gallery in London under the name “Guggenheim Jeune.” Duchamp was responsible for managing and curating the exhibitions, bringing in artists such as Yves Tanguy, Pablo Picasso, Vasily Kandinsky, Georges Braque and more. But despite the gallery's success, Guggenheim found that her project was making more losses than revenue, so she began working on the idea of opening a contemporary art museum. Read was the one who prepared a list of all the artists worth including in her collection, and committed to her cause, Guggenheim for a time had a strict policy of “buying 1 artwork a day” from the artists on her list until, in 1941, the tensions of World War II forced her to return to the United States.

In America, Peggy directed her hunger for art toward Abstract Expressionist artists. In a country where there was no nobility or ecclesiastical community to play the role of patron (as was still the case in Europe), Guggenheim became one of the most prominent patrons of American art, promoting the careers of artists such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.

In 1942 she opened her second gallery “Art of this Century” in New York, a setting that has historically been described as a bridge between European and American art. This was because her gallery, in addition to exhibiting her collection (which, until then, mostly European work), held temporary exhibitions of both local American artists and migrant artists who had fled the war. This made Art of this Century a space where European avant-garde and American art coexisted, influenced each other and generated dialogue between members of the New York artistic community.

Personal life

Peggy Guggenheim's private life includes her numerous partners and lovers. Guggenheim, far from hiding this aspect, openly shared it with the public, taking advantage of the fact that her social and economic position allowed her to challenge the moral and chastity rules that were imposed on women of her time. However, towards the end of her life, Guggenheim would refer to these couples (between sporadic and formal) as a list of failures or fruitless relationships that drained her emotionally, highlighting Laurence Vail, the father of her only 2 children who came to physically attacking her, and the artist Max Ernst, who abandoned her for Dorothea Tanning, an artist who exhibited in the Guggenheim gallery.

Affected by her divorce from Ernst in 1946, Guggenheim published her autobiography “Out of This Century: Confessions of an Art Addict,” where in addition to talking about her life as a collector, she listed her lovers. Scandalized, her family tried in vain to stop the sale of this book, unleashing ridicule and criticism from some media outlets. Finally, exhausted by her recent personal failures, Guggenheim closed her gallery in New York and retired to Venice the following year.

Retirement in Venice (1947 – 1979)

In Venice, Guggenheim continued to acquire art (mostly Italian), and invited by the city, she shared her art collection at the 1948 biennale. In 1951 she fulfilled her dream of opening a museum in her then home, the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, an unfinished 18th century building that she had remodeled, and where her collection is still on display. Eventually, her constant support and participation in Venice's artistic and cultural community was rewarded with an honorary citizenship granted in 1961.

Thinking about the future of her museum and her collection, Peggy Guggenheim made the difficult decision in 1971 to transfer the administration of her museum to the foundation of her uncle Solomon Guggenheim, founder of the Guggenheim Museums. Peggy saw her uncle Solomon as a person who bought art solely for economic and investment purposes, contrary to the love and admiration she felt for the works he acquired. But she recognized that in the administration of her uncle's museums there was a good possibility of preserving her collection, so she donated her palace and her collection under the condition that it be preserved in Venice, a decision that, with the passage of time, turned out to be correct.

Finally, Peggy Guggenheim died in 1979 at the age of 81, and her ashes are preserved in her museum.

Legacy

Peggy Guggenheim's main legacy is her museum “Peggy Guggenheim Collection” which houses 300 pieces, and is considered the most visited modern art museum in Venice, and the second most visited of all the museums in the city. Likewise, the museum functions as a pavilion for American artists for the Venice Biennials.

Historically, she is considered a key figure in the American abstract art movement thanks to her constant patronage. It is noted that she owned at least one work by all the prominent American artists of the 1940s and 1950s, and much of the success and attention that Jackson Pollock received is attributed to Guggenheim's constant patronage.

She is also credited with making a significant contribution to the collection of American modern art museums. In the last years of her life, she selected several pieces of American works from her collection to be donated to various museums in the United States, among those works, 20 paintings by Jackson Pollock.

Sources: The Guardian & The Art Story