No visit to Venice for any art lover would be complete without a visit to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. And it was here that I headed for a modern art fix after visiting the Renaissance-era art collection of the Accademia a short walk away. The collection is set in some lovely grounds filled with some interesting pieces of sculpture by the likes of Paladino, Chillida, Ernst, and Holzer. Despite the tourist hordes it is a relatively peaceful space, and it was really great to see, and be amongst the greenery and foliage of a peaceful garden.
Mimmo Paladino- The Cloven Viscount, 1998
Eduardo Chillida - Stele for Millares, 1972
Jenny Holzer - Survival, 2003
Max Ernst - In The Streets of Athens, 1960
Germaine Richier - Tauromachy, 1953
Alberto Giacometti - Woman Walking, 1936
Eva Renée Nele - Collective II, 1961
Mario Merz - If the Form Vanishes Its Root Is Eternal, 1982-89
Jean Arp - Amphora-Fruit, 1946
Mirko - Roaring Lion, 1956
Anish Kapoor - Untitled, 2007
Well, where to start with Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979). She certainly lived a full and eventful life of privilege, inheriting an amazing sum of money, and then cultivating a set of bohemian friends in the art world having moved to Paris. Guggenheim though, fought her corner in the male dominated artworld establishing renowned galleries in Cork Street London, and New York. She went on to forge a formidable reputation in the industry among collectors, as well as making and bolstering the reputations of certain artists, buying a piece of art a day by the likes of Picasso, Miro, Magritte, Dali etc. before decamping back to New York after the outbreak of WWII. She was also reputed to be a very sensual woman who enjoyed engaging in the pleasures of the flesh with a number of men. Her specialism in men were those in the artistic field such as artists and writers, and she claimed to have enjoyed the company of over a thousand of them! After the war she divorced Max Ernst and returned to Europe, settling in Venice. The collection of artworks she amassed is amazing, and there was so much to see and take in immediately after having visited the Accademia. Nevertheless here are some of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection jewels.
Pablo Picasso - On The Beach, 1937
Pablo Picasso - The Studio, 1928
Robert Delauney - Windows Open Simultaneously 1st Part, 3rd Motif, 1912
Marcel Duchamp - Nude (Study), Sad Young Man on a Train, 1911–12
Pablo Picasso - The Poet, 1911
George Braque - The Clarinet, 1912
Giacomo Balla - Abstract Speed & Sound, 1913-14
Wassily Kandinsky - Landscape With Red Spots, 1913
Wassily Kandinsky - Upward, 1929
Kazimir Malevich - Untitled, ca. 1916
El Lissitsky - Untitled, 1919-20
Theo van Doesburg - Counter Composition XIII, 1925-6
Wassily Kandinsky - White Cross, 1922
Fernand Léger - Men In The City, 1919
Piet Mondrian - Composition No. 1, 1938-39
Views of the Grand Canal through the decorative wrought ironwork on the windows.
Georges Vantongerloo - Construction of Volumetric Interrelationships...,1924
Piet Mondrian - Scaffold: Study for Tableau III, 1914
Constantin Brancusi - Bird In Space, 1932-40
Joseph Cornell - Swiss Shoot the Chutes, 1941
Joseph Cornell - Setting For A Fairytale, 1942
Joseph Cornell - Untitled, ca. 1939
Salvador Dali - Birth Of Liquid Desires, 1931-32
Giorgio de Chirico - The Nostalgia of The Poet, 1914
Kurt Schwitters - Maraak, Variation I (Merzbild), 1930
Kurt Schwitters -Merz Drawing 75, 1920
Amedeo Modigliani - Woman in a Sailor Shirt, 1916
Jean Dubuffet - Fleshy Face with Chestnut Hair, 1951
Paul Klee - Portrait of Frau P. in the South, 1924
Pablo Picasso - Half-length Portrait of a Man, 1939
Alexander Calder - Arc Of Petals, 1941
Max Ernst - The Postman Cheval, 1932
Salvador Dali - Untitled, 1931
Jackson Pollock - Direction, 1945
Jackson Pollock - Alchemy, 1947
Jackson Pollock - Enchanted Forest, 1947
Alexander Calder & Yves Tanguy - Earrings for Peggy Guggenheim, both ca. 1938
The Alexander Calder earrings were fantastic you can see more of his jewellery in an earlier post (here). The silver Calder-designed bed head was absolutely stunning.
Alexander Calder - Silver Bed-Head, 1946
Alexander Calder - Mobile, ca. 1938
A section of the collection devoted to Peggy's daughter - Pegeen's - drawings turned into glassware by Egidio Costantini.
Alberto Giacometti - Woman Walking, 1936
René Magritte - Voice of Space,1931
René Magritte - Empire of Light, 1953-54
Max Ernst - Antipope, 1941-42
Joan Miró - Seated Woman II, 1939
Max Ernst - Attirement of The Bride, 1940
Joan Miró - Dutch Interior II, 1928
Alberto Giacometti - Woman With Her Throat Cut, 1932
The Angel of the City, 1948, Marino Marini's notorious sculpture in all his rampant glory!
Henry Moore - Family Group, ca. 1944
Frank Stella - Gray Scramble - 1968-69
Kenneth Noland - Birth, 1961
Andy Warhol - Flowers, 1964
Lucio Fontana - Concetto spaziale, 1951
Julius Bissier - 27 July 1959, 1959
Julius Bissier - 16 July 1960 G, 1960
Julius Bissier - 16 June 1961 K, 1961
Julius Bissier - H 20 August 1962 S, 1962
Cy Twombly - Untitled, 1967
Cy Twombly - Untitled, 1961
Eduardo Chillida - Meeting Place I, 1964
Ellsworth Kelly - Blue Red, 1964, and Green Red, 1964
Alexander Calder - Red Disc-White Dots, 1960
Jenny Holzer - Survival: Go Where People Sleep and..., 1989
Back out in the garden there is a quiet spot devoted to Guggenheim's beloved dogs, their whimsical names are just wonderful. There is also the final resting place of her own ashes.
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection
704 Dorsoduro
30123 Venice
