The Peggy Guggenheim Collection of Modern ArtPeggy Guggenheim was one of the most important (and celebrated) art world figures of the twentieth century. Born into a wealthy New York family, she traveled throughout Europe during the 1920s and 1930s where she was a witness to the major art movements through her association with artists such as Constantin Brancusi, Max Ernst and Marcel Duchamp, to name a few. With a keen eye and exalted social standing, she amassed one of the most significant modern art collections in private hands. This volume is the only complete book on her exceptional collection. Through several essays and extended captions, every aspect of Guggenheim's collection, which was donated to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1979 after her death, is explained. The breadth of the collection is astonishing: from the earliest examples of abstraction by Piet Mondrian to the controlled abandon of Jackson Pollock's drip paintings (whose career she single-handedly launched), her intuition regarding the important trends was almost clairvoyant. The book begins with an essay devoted to the concept of structure as it relates to the cubist work of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque; the lyrically expressionistic work of Wassily Kandinsky and the spare constructivist work of Lissitzky, among many others. Guggenheim was also deeply interested in surrealist and dada work examples of which are well represented in the collection including the fantastical landscapes of Giorgio de Chirico and Max Ernst's whimsical collages. Sculpture formed an important part of Guggenheim's collection, many of which were installed to glorious effect on the well-manicured grounds of her home in the Grand Canal, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni. Withexceptional care and thoughtfulness, she was able to strike a remarkable balance between more classically-inspired work, such as the soft and refined curves of Henry Moore's figures, and more avant-garde work of Alberto Giacometti whose ghostly, attenuated figures were some of the most haunting works produced this century. In the end, the book chronicles not only the development of a great collection and the life of the socialite eccentric who built it, but, more importantly, the history of modern art. Sandro Rumney, Peggy Guggenheim's grandson, runs Art of This Century, a contemporary art publishing company, based in New York and Paris. Nicolas Calas and Elena Calas, personal friends of Guggenheim and art critics, knew intimately her concerns and thoughts regarding the development of the collection. Their rich commentary provides a sound art historical exegesis of nearly every work in the collection. |
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abstract Alberto Giacometti André Breton André Masson Antoine Pevsner artist bird blue Bronze catalogue charcoal collage on canvas Collection's color composition Constantin Brancusi Construction crayon Cubist Dada Dadaist Duchamp-Villon Enchanted exhibition expression figure forms frottage gallery Giorgio de Chirico Girl glass gouache on paper head Henry Moore Hirshfield's inspired Jackson Pollock Jacques Jean Arp Joan Miró Joseph Cornell Juggler Klee Kooning Kurt Schwitters landscape Laurence Vail Léger Leonardo light Lipchitz machine Malevich Marcel Duchamp Matta Max Ernst metallic Modern Art movement Museum Nude object Oil on board Oil on canvas Pablo Picasso Painted wood painter panel Paper collage Paris pattern Pegeen Peggy Guggenheim Collection Picabia pictorial picture Piet Mondrian pink plane plate poet Portrait Rayograph René Magritte Sad Young Salvador Dalí sculpture Surrealist symbol Tanguy's tarot tion Untitled Vasily Kandinsky Victor Brauner Voice of Space York Yves Tanguy