Day 23

So today was my first Peggy talk and it went really well :D

I had lots of listeners and they all giggled in the right places and asked me lots of questions! I was very happy and proud for the rest of the day :)

Here are my notes for my talk if any of you are interested! (Just imagine my voice speaking it)

1847 – Peggy’s great grandfather Simon Guggenheim immigrated from Switzerland to Philadelphia, America where he began to import and export stove polish and coffee essence.

1880 - Simon’s son, Meyer became a millionaire through lead and silver mines. By the beginning of WW1 the Guggenheims were reported to own 75-80% of the world’s silver, copper and lead.

Peggy’s Father, Benjamin was the ‘baby’ of the family as he was the sixth child of Meyer. He didn’t go to business school like his brothers and was a bit of a ‘playboy’.

1898 Peggy was born!

Peggy’s Father died on the Titanic in 1912 she was fourteen years old

Peggy, her two sisters and mother received some money from the Guggenheim family but it wasn’t an equal share compared to the rest of the family. Peggy considered herself as the impoverished cousin (!)

In 1919 Peggy was 21 and became financially independent.

1921- Travelled to Europe. She had no prior formal training in Art History. A friend had given her the books written by famous art historian Bernard Berenson, and she read and studied Italian Renaissance art through his points of connoisseurship. She would go and hunt down the old masters in the provinces.

1922 – She married Laurence Vail, an American who had lived most of his life in France. He was a Dada artist and writer. He was very much involved in the contemporary art and social scene in Paris, thus Peggy’s entree into the avant-garde. She had two children with him, Sinbad and Pegeen.

Through Laurence, Peggy met Marcel Duchamp, who was to remain a lifelong friend. He also played an integral part in the development of her artistic taste. He was an art teacher and advisor for Peggy.

1929 – She divorced Vail, went to London where she met John Holmes an English writer. She was with him for 5 years until he died accidentally during a routine surgery. She later wrote that he was the one true love in her life. (He fell whilst riding in Dartmoor with Peggy. His wrist didn’t quite heal and was advised to have surgery on it where he died.)

1938 – Peggy opened Guggenheim Jeune in Cork Street, London. She said that at the time she was ignorant of all the art that had followed the post-impressionism and so leaned heavily on Duchamp. He proposed the artists to her and the ideas for the shows and suggested that she specialise in two forms of modern art; surrealism and abstraction. (She admits “I have to thank him for my introduction into the modern world)

A retrospective of Kandinsky’s work was shown at the Guggenheim Jeune. It was the first ever show of in England of Kandinsky’s work (he was already over 70 at the time)

The show received good reviews but nothing sold

She also had individual shows for John Tunnard and Yves Tanguy. The Tanguy show was a total success and sold many works. Peggy bought a few for herself!

She had a contemporary sculpture exhibition with artists such as Antoine Pevsner, Henry Moore and Henri Laurens, Alexander Calder, Duchamp- Villon etc.

The director of the Tate gallery at the time, James B Manson, refused to certify many of the sculptures as art and classified them instead as ‘manufactured goods’. As a result, the import duties increased dramatically. Peggy took her case to the House of Commons and went on to win. This was a huge step in the recognition and appreciation of modern art.

As it was usually quite difficult to sell the artworks, Peggy bought one painting or artwork from each show, often anonymously, in an effort to encourage the artist. And so ‘without planning to’ as she said, she began her collection quite late at the age of 40.

1939 The Guggenheim Jeune closed after a year and a half because it proved to be too expensive. So instead she decided to open a museum of Contemporary art in London. The idea was that her collection would be expanded and a rotating loan collection established. She wanted the museum space to serve as a cultural stimulus and would propose the artists come and meet with the public.

Herbert Read, an English art historian, was to be the director of the museum. Read compiled a list of artists that Peggy should have represented, that was then revised by Marcel Duchamp. The list included many works from every non-realist European movement such as cubism, constructivism, futurism, Dadaism, surrealism and purism. Many people had promised donations and loans.

Peggy went to Paris with her ‘shopping list’ of works. She resolved to buy one painting a day. It was the ideal time to collect as art was selling at a good price due to the threat of the German invasion and the impending war. Artists also hearing that she was keen to collect would come and find her; she even saw people when she was in bed! Some of the masterpieces of her collection, including works by Francis Picabia, Georges Braque, Salvador Dalí and Piet Mondrian, were bought at this time. She astonished Fernand Léger by buying his Men in the City on the day that Hitler invaded Norway.

When the war broke out the plans to open the museum went on hold, and instead she decided to buy works for herself.

She was then faced with the problem of storage for the works and wanted to hide them so they wouldn’t be confiscated by the Nazi’s. The Louvre judged the works too recent to be worthy of storage space.

She found a barn in the south of France where she hid her collection before shipping them to America in crates labelled ‘household items’. She helped numerous artists leave Europe such as Andre Breton and Max Earnst.

1941 – Peggy arrived in New York and married Max Earnst

In 1942 Peggy resumed her idea of having a Museum- Art Gallery and opens Art of the Century on the 20^th October 1942 in New York. This was the first time that her collection was displayed to the public and tickets cost $1 and proceeds went to the Red Cross.

At the opening of the gallery she wore one earring by Yves Tanguy representing surrealism, a small landscape and another by Alexander Calder for abstraction, a small scale gold mobile. The demonstrated her impartiality towards both movements.

1943 – Peggy wanted to represent some of the young and new American talent to balance with her European collection. She held a Spring Salon for Young Artists in May to June. The selection committee included Alfred Barr, Howard Putzel, Marcel Duchamp and Piet Mondrian. The future abstract expressionist group Jackson Pollock, Ashile Gorky, William Boziotes and Robert Motherwell all enter work. Mondrian and Putzel encourage Peggy to take on Pollock.

That year she also held a one man show for Pollock and commissions him to paint ‘mural’ in the entrance of her New York apartment. This is considered to be one of his first masterpieces. She then put Pollock on a 5 year contract and he receives £150. This enabled him to leave his job as a carpenter at the Guggenheim museum run by her Uncle Solomon, and concentrate on his artwork full time.

Her gallery ‘Art of this Century’ became the space for New York’s avant-garde. Peggy played an extremely important role in the history of the abstract impressionist movement, being the launch pad for so many artist careers and therefore an important role in the history of modern art.

In 1946 Peggy published the first edition of her memoirs. She was so frank about not only herself but also her friends and family, that he Guggenheim uncles tried to buy the whole print run! (It’s a very good read!)

Peggy returned to Europe after the war leaving the running of her gallery to others.

‘Art of this Century’ closed in 1947.

In 1948 Peggy was invited to exhibit her collection in the Venice Biennale. She was offered the space at the Greek Pavilion as the Greeks at the time were in the middle of a civil war. She said that every morning she was delighted in seeing her name as a country in Europe. (on the list was written France, Germany Guggenheim etc.)

She met some young Italian artists who she began to support but they also became her guides and teachers on Venetian history (Vedova and Giuseppe Santomaso)

1949 Peggy finds this place! Palazzo Venier dei Leoni (The building of the Palazzo began in 1748). The building was never finished so wasn’t a listed building therefore Peggy could make many changes to the building and extend it.

From 1951 Peggy opened her palazzo three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

In 1962 Peggy became an honorary citizen of Venice.

1967 Peggy was titled Commendatore of the Italian Republic (a degree of knighthood).

December 23 1979 Peggy passes away. She had stated 10 years earlier that her collection was to be left to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York. She left guidelines that her collection can never be divided up and sold, and can never leave Venice.

Peggy is remembered for her early recognition and support of 20^th century art and artists. She was uninhibited and intelligent woman who sought out the most astute authorities of her day to educate and advise her.

And that was how much I had to fit in to a 10 minute talk! I think Peggy would've enjoyed it and would've sat there looking like this