Women of Art History: Peggy.

Peggy Guggenheim. 1898- 1979. America. 
Patron, collector and gallery owner.
How many artists can you name? Chances are, you'll have named many more men than women. From the moment we are children, most of the artists and artworks we are exposed to are created by or about men. It's time to rebalance the scales and open up the artistic 'canon', introducing more women and ethnic minorities into the widely known narrative of art history. Here, I'll be trying to do just that in the style of a children's story, introducing you to one more woman from art and art history who, until now, you might not have known. 

Once upon a time, there was a girl called Peggy Guggenheim who lived in New York. Her dad had just died in a tragic accident on a ship called the Titanic. He left his daughter a lot of money which made her very wealthy. But Peggy wasn’t interested in living a life of luxury surrounded by riches. Instead, she wanted to be around the exciting new art movements that were popping up all over Europe.

So, when she was twenty she moved to Paris where lots of young artists, musicians and writers were living. If you were interested in art, it was the place to be! Sure enough, Peggy met and became friends with lots of artists. Some of these friends would go on to be very famous, such as Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp.

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After spending so much time with all of these artists, Peggy became a real expert on the new art being made in Europe. She knew that if she opened a gallery and showed the art she liked, people would want to come visit and see what Peggy had to say about what was important in the art world.

In 1938, she opened her first gallery of modern art in London. She showed a lot of artwork by her friends. Lots of people visited and were excited by what they saw. Everything in Peggy’s gallery was special. This was one of the first galleries to show modern art in London. It was so different from everything they had seen before. For example, she let Vasily Kandinsky have his first show at her gallery, and people were amazed! He used lots of shapes and splodges of paint and clashing, bright colours. Peggy showed London: this is art now.

White Cross, Vasily Kandinsky, 1922.  

After her success in London, she decided to start a museum instead, this time in Paris. The difference between a gallery and a museum was important because modern art was very new and revolutionary, and often quite shocking. Putting it in a museum would make it seem historical and like it wasn’t just a passing craze, it was there to stay. This ‘modern museum’ idea was one of the first of its kind.

She knew that her name had to be associated with an incredible collection for people to take her seriously as a gallery or museum owner. She needed to have lots and lots of artworks to show everyone. She decided to buy a painting every single day.

In 1938, World War Two broke out. The Nazis were killing Jews in Germany, and as a Jewish woman, Peggy was afraid. Even though she was scared, she wanted to stay in Europe as long as she could so that she could buy some of the amazing artworks that were being made there. She stayed in Paris right up until the Germans were approaching, just so that she could seal a deal she was working on with Brancusi.

Inside the Art of This Century gallery, 1943. 

Finally, Peggy had to flea from Paris and went to New York. There, she opened a new gallery called Art of This Century. The gallery was beautifully designed, and was made to be just as new and modern as the artworks to be displayed there.

She began to help the careers of American artists, just like she had helped the European ones. Among them was Jackson Pollock. She commissioned his largest ever painting which was 6 metres long!

Peggy, Peggy's dogs, and Jackson Pollock in front of his 6 metre long Mural, 1943. 

Pollock and his friends had just begun a new art movement called the American Abstract Expressionists. They were mainly interested in colour. It was really shocking to a lot of people because it didn’t look like the art they were used to. There were no faces or people, just lots of shapes and lots and lots of colour. Peggy was one of their biggest supporters and gave the group some of their first gallery shows. It would go on to become one of the most important American art movements ever, and Peggy was really to thank. 

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice today. 

After the war, she could finally return to Europe  and she opened a gallery in Venice. This time in the beautiful Palazzo Venier dei Leoni. It was a very very old palace, right on the canal, with water lapping at its sides. It was a gleaming white colour and could be seen by all the boats passing by. Peggy filled it with modern art by Picasso, Magritte, Pollock and Kandinsky. This was the very old building being given new life by this modern art. She gave the American artists their first ever shows in Europe. People all over Europe were shocked and inspired by this new wave of modernism.

By the 1960s, her collections were so impressive that she loaned them out across the world. Her name became associated with some of the most famous artists and artistic movements of the century.

Peggy was known all over the world. Just like the exciting artworks she promoted, she wore really bright colours, huge coats and weirdly shaped glasses, designed by artists who wanted her to wear their artwork. She was always followed around by her two little dogs.

Peggy said she was in love with Venice.

She loved living in Venice and called the beautiful city a ‘living work of art.’ She lived there until her death at the age of 81 and was buried next to her beloved dogs.

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice is still one of the greatest museums of modern art in the world.

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