2 minute read
PEGGY The Wayward Guggenheim
Scandalous eccentric, stingy, abrasive, dysfunctional, sad, promiscuous, farsighted, art addict. These are all words that have been used to describe the woman who introduced European Modern and Avant-garde art to America. Peggy sailed to Europe at the age of 21 and did not return to America for 20 years. Peggy expanded her love for both Avante-Garde art and men in Europe. During the early part of World War II, she went on a buying spree and purchased as many paintings as possible by the likes of Kandinsky, Miro, Leger, Klee. She escaped to New York with her future husband Max Ernst, likely saving his life from the Nazis in the process. In New York she opened a spectacular gallery “Art of This Century”, showing her own collection as well as undiscovered artists in New York including Motherwell, Hoffman, Rothko and Jackson Pollock. Peggy gave Jackson Pollack his first one-man show and supported him in exchange for most of his paintings. After World War II Peggy moved to Venice and installed her collection in a Palazzo on the Grand Canal. It is now the premier collection of Modern Art in Italy. Cubism, DADA, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and their artists, both European and American, are highlighted to the delight of the reader.
