The Peggy Guggenheim Collection continues its summer season and year-long celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the Collection in Venice with a series of events including art, music and more.
Besides hosting Coming of Age: American Art, 1850s to 1950s, an exhibition dedicated to a century of American art, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection has resumed its familiar “spritz” event sponsored by Aperol, a partner of the Intrapresæ Collezione Guggenheim (the Museum’s Corporate Membership group), which for years has refreshed museum guests every summer Sunday. Every Sunday at noon on the Marino Marini Terrace from 8 June to 21 September, the charming Venetian barman Piero Ballarin offers the famed aperitif to those spending their day amongst the works of Picasso, Kandinsky, Pollock, Chagall, Magritte, and de Chirico. Also, keep in mind that on Ferragosto (15 August) the museum will observe its normal opening hours (10AM to 6PM).
Summer events continue with the traditional concert reserved for the museum’s membership, on 26 August, in celebration of Peggy’s birthday.This year, in collaboration with Umbria Jazz, the Vicentine pianist Danilo Rea will captivate the audience with his improvisations and penetrating groove, featuring pieces ranging from the most diverse repertoires. A top jazz musician in Europe, two years ago headlined an unforgettable concert organized by Umbria Jazz for the project “Top Italian Jazz”, at the splendid venue of the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The choice to host jazz music was not random, but consciously evokes the kind of soundtrack that accompanied Peggy on her trip from America to Italy sixty years ago: a trip that would soon influence the course of of Modern art in our country. Peggy exhibited her legendary collection at the 1948 Venice Biennale, revealing to the public works by great representatives of American Abstract Expressionism: Pollock, Gorky, and Rothko. For further information on the concert contact: membership@guggenheim-venice.it
On the evening of 26 August, Peggy Guggenheim’s birthday, a mosaic of a celebrated image of Peggy wearing her quirky butterfly spectacles designed by Edward Melcarth which has been created by the famous Venetian mosaic atelier Orsoni (now part of Trend Group, a partner of the Intrapresæ Collezione Guggenheim) will be presented to the public.
At the end of the evening, in conjunction with the 65th Venetian Film Festival, an exhibition of 7 exclusive pairs of shoes, tailor-made for divas of the cinema, from the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum in Florence, will be inaugurated at Palazzo Venier dei Leoni. Among them will be those that the stylist created for Peggy Guggenheim in 1947.
Marking the end of this rich summer season, but not of the anniversary celebration, will be the 13 September launch of an exclusive line of retail merchandise designed by Fabrica, Benetton’s communications research center, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the arrival of Peggy in Venice. This collection of notebooks, leather goods, t-shirts and ceramic objects is inspired by the American patroness’s unique personality.