A picture of Peggy from Arts Society lecture
PEGGY Guggenheim’s life was full of glamour, money, art, sex and tragedy.
Jacky Klein, the well-known art historian, shared her enthusiasm and knowledge of this 20th century art collector with members of The Arts Society Wokingham at their January lecture.
Jacky painted a vivid picture of Peggy as a wealthy New York society heiress.
In 1930, after the breakdown of her tumultuous marriage to Laurence Vail and the tragic death of her sister, she decided to use her inheritance to build up a collection of modern art works.
Within just a few years she had amassed a large collection which included drawings by Jean Cocteau, surrealist sculptures by Marcel Duchamp and abstract paintings by Kandinsky.
She exhibited them in London’s first museum of modern art, the Guggenheim Jeune, in 1938.
Jacky explained that Peggy continued to expand her collection to include American art works after she moved herself and her collection to New York in 1941.
Her home became a home for displaced European artists such as Max Ernst whom she married.
The work of these artists in turn influenced young American artists such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Her amazing unconventional gallery, Art of the Century, was designed by the avant-garde architect, Frederick Kiesler, to show-case both European and American modern art.
In 1947 Peggy moved on again, this time to Venice where she spent the last 30 years of her life.
She found a permanent home for her ‘children’, as she called her collection, in the 18th century Palazzo on the Grand Canal where much of it remains to this day.
Jacky brought the life and times of Peggy Guggenheim to life.
She convinced her audience that Peggy changed the course of modern art.
Peggy did take advice from mentors such as Herbert Read and other friends but she also had the knack of being in the right place, at the right time.
She had the ability to recognise and encourage the talent of young emerging artists. She was much more than a ‘bourgeois housewife with a shopping list’ buying a picture a day as Picasso once described her.
With the continuing support of Newbold Church’s technical team The Arts Society will be offering hybrid lectures to its members and guests for the rest of the season.
The next lecture, on Monday, February 21, at 7.45pm, is entitled A Carpet Ride to Khiva.
Chris Aslan, inspired by 15th century Persian illustrations which were the only surviving record of Timurid carpet designs, set up his own workshop in Khiva, a desert oasis in Uzbekistan.
Here, he is recreating these ancient carpet and embroidery designs and has become the largest non-government employer in town.
Guests, in person at Newbold Church or online in the comfort of their own home, are most welcome.
■ Email: memsectheartssocietywham@gmail.com for more details.
■ Details of all future talks are available at www.TheArtsSocietyWokingham.org.uk