Art to Inspire, Words to Tell

Peggy Guggenheim was a passionate collector and supporter of the arts who deeply loved literature. Her interest started in her cousin’s New York bookstore, The Sunwise Turn, where she met her first husband Laurence Vail. The numerous artists she supported throughout her life included various writers, such as Djuna Barnes, who was thus able to write her narrative masterpiece Nightwood (1936). Guggenheim also financed avant-garde literary magazines, such as The Little Review, which first published James Joyce’s Ulysses in the United States. An author in her own right, she wrote her autobiography, Out of This Century. The Informal Memoirs of Peggy Guggenheim, first published in 1946.

Given the intrinsic bond between art and literature, both sources of inspiration and creativity for current and future visitors, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection collaborated with Campiello Giovani, a prestigious Italian literary award for those aged 15 to 22, organized by the Campiello–Confindustria Veneto Foundation. Five young finalists were invited to look at works of art in the collection for inspiration. The result was five extraordinary short stories that will be shared on the museum’s social media channels in the form of video animations by a young student of art history, Kanon Ida, which will bring the words of the young authors to life.