Peggy Guggenheim
Peggy Guggenheim and Rooting for the Arts, 2020
Unprecedented times enabled Peggy Guggenheim to amass her renowned collection. Through performance, Linda Brescia contemplates the lover of art and artists who lived life on her own terms.
This artwork was commissioned by Parramatta Artists' Studios for Movers and Makers 2020.
COLLECTOR
Peggy is most famous for amassing her collection during WW2 for a total of $40000.
She had opened her London gallery Guggenheim Jeune the year before and was losing money, so she decided to amass a collection for her next venture which was supposed to be a museum.
Peggy left London for Paris in August and the war broke out in September.
These were the dangerous times of Hiltler and Degenerate Art. Artists and writers were fleeing Europe and they needed money. Buying thier work saved not only the artist but the artwork from destruction.
With her shopping list of artists to aquire Peggy vowed to buy ‘ a painting a day’. Works purchased included those by Brancusi, Dali, Picasso, Miro, Magritte, Klee, Chagall and Man Ray.
Peggy had to store the work safely while waiting to get it out of France. The Louvre refused to help saying the work was too modern to save. The collection was stored in a country barn till it was shipped to NY as household goods, packed amoungst linens and blankets. Peggy escaped to the south of France 3 days before the Germans occupied Paris.
In 1942 Peggy opened Art of the Century gallery in NY. The Exhibition by 31 Women was a groundbreaking show that the reviewer from Time magazine refused to cover because he believed “there were no worthy women artists”.
In 1949 Peggy established herself in Venice, buying a Palazzo that became her home and a museum. The rest is history.
PATRON
Peggy Guggenheim wasn’t into art for the money. She used her inheritence to support the artists and causes she believed in.
A self described “art addict” who was self taught with the help of artists and friends.
At 21 Peggy flouted family expectations and worked at modern bookstore owned and run by women. It was at the Sunwise Turn bookshop… that Peggy was exposed to avant-garde culture and met many writers and artists. Among them was Margaret Anderson whom Peggy donated $500 to for the ‘Little Review’ magazine.
When Peggy was married to Laurence she gave the photographer Berenice Abbott 5000 francs to purchase a camera so she could work on her own, independent of Man Ray. In return Berenice took photographs of Peggy and her children which Peggy thought was a great deal!
Peggy spent the majority of her money on supporting artists and writers. At Guggenheim Jeune gallery in London she would purchase a work from every exhibition to appease and support the artist.
Jackson Pollock was one of the artists that Peggy paid a monthy stippend to, so that he had the freedom to paint full time. She also lent him the money for a house deposit in Long Island.
Some of her friends disliked the fact that people took advantage of Peggy who supported many over the course of their lives.
It’s funny hearing stories about Peggy being renowned for her pettiness when it came to household expences. Refilling wine bottles, refolding and reusing serviettes, even counting ham slices to check if the domestics where helping themselves. I just think she ran a tight ship so she would have enough money for art.
LOVERS
Peggy loved art and artists. Apparently anywhere between 400 and 1000 of them.
At the age of 23 Peggy took her first lover, Lawrence Vail and artist and writer. Known as the ‘King of Bohemia’ who became her husband and the father of her 2 children.
Lawrence didn’t treat Peggy too well and she left him for her true love John Holmes, the poet. Unfortunately John died in their 6th year together.
Still thinking she needed to be with a man Peggy moved in with a writer and communist Douglas Garman.
So for 15 years Peggy was a wife of sorts and was now ready for a new life of art and sexual freedom.
Unluckily, during her quest for art she fell for Max Ernst and made him her 2nd husband. Max was just using Peggy and the marriage ended when he began a relationship with the artist Dorothea Tanning.
Peggy took on many lovers.
Among them where Samuel Beckett, Marcel Duchamp, Yves Tanguy and John Cage.
She wrote about them in her memoir ‘Out of the Century’ which her family referred to as ‘OUT OF HER MIND’. Peggy was crucified in New York, so Venice offered a fresh start for the sexually liberated ‘Mistress of Modernism’.
TRAGEDY
Peggy lost her father when she was 13 – he went down with the Titanic. She suffered a nervous breakdown afterwards.
Her sister Benita, the only person she felt close to growing up, sadly died in childbirth.
The love of her life John Holmes, tragically died after a routine wrist operation because he had too much alcohol in his system.
Pageen, an artist, her only daughter, committed suicide at 42. Peggy wouldn’t accept she took her own life believing Pageen’s husband was responsible. He reminded Peggy of her husband Laurence Vail when he was drunk and angry.
Laurence would knock Peggy down in public, walk on her stomach, rub jam in her hair and once held her under water till she almost drowned.
But what I find even more distressing is the fact that his behaviour was accepted. Peggy didn’t leave him because he tried to kill her, she left him because he showed no empathy when her beloved sister died.
SAVIOUR
Peggy was a saviour of art and artists yet crucified for fucking like men.
Described by her friends as guileless she had the enviable quality of saying and doing what she wanted.
She wasn’t a phoney or dishonest – she was fair.
She generousely supported artists and writers yet was also referred to as stingy and mean.
Peggy bankrolled an ‘Art Movement’ as opposed to a financial investment.
She truly ‘rooted for the arts’ by caring for artists and loving their work – Her collection became her family and she referred to the art works as her babies.