And Then Peggy Arriverd
1948–2008: 60 years of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice
2008 will be a remarkable year for the Peggy Guggenheim Collection: the museum is organizing a full calendar of conferences, meetings, educational workshops, temporary exhibitions, free guided visits, a movie program inspired by Peggy’s life and a concert during the summer, to celebrate 60 years of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. Beginning with the subjects of the temporary exhibitions, Coming of Age: American Art, 1850s to 1950s and Carlo Cardazzo. A New Vision for Art, the program intends to underscore the importance of the relationship between Peggy and American art, and additionally her influence on the Venetian artistic landscape between the 50s and the 60s, highlighting two different sides of a unique artistic passion that marked the life of this outstanding American patron. The program is supported by the Veneto Region (Regione Veneto) and benefits from the patronage of the City of Venice. All the events have been made possible thanks to the contribution of Hausbrandt, Hotel Gritti Palace, Safilens and Trend.
It was 1948 when Peggy Guggenheim was invited by Radolfo Pallucchini, Secretary General of the Venice Biennale, to exhibit her already legendary collection at the Pavilion of Greece, at the time engaged in a civil war. For the first time in Europe, works by artists such as Jackson Pollock, Arshille Gorky and Mark Rothko were exhibited. The following year, Peggy purchased Palazzo Venier dei Leoni which, to this day, hosts her collection, the most important in Italy of European and American art from the first half of the 20th Century. During her 30 years in Venice, Peggy Guggenheim continued to collect works of art and to support artists, such as Edmondo Bacci and Tancredi Parmeggiani. In 1969 Peggy Guggenheim resolved to donate her palace and works of art to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, created in 1937 by Peggy’s uncle Solomon in order to operate his collection and museum. In 1980, one year after Peggy’s death, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni became a museum that today has nearly 400.000 visitors each year.