Philip Rylands to Step Down as Director of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and Guggenheim Foundation Director for Italy in June 2017
(New York, NY—December 12, 2016)—The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation announced today that Philip Rylands will step down as Director of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice and Foundation Director for Italy, effective June 2017.
“For more than 35 years, Philip has brought to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection a genuine affection for its founder, dedication to the Guggenheim’s mission, and a deep commitment to education,” said Richard Armstrong, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation. “The impact of his work can be seen in the record number of visitors to the museum in 2016, the thousands who have participated in its lauded internship program, and the numerous enhancements he has implemented to support expanded education and temporary exhibition programs. Significant works of Italian, European, and American art brought into the Guggenheim Foundation’s collection during Philip’s tenure now complement the incomparable collection of Peggy Guggenheim. A recently concluded, highly successful capital campaign greatly enhances both the presentation of art and the visitor experience.” Rylands joined the Guggenheim Foundation as administrator of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, overseeing the operation and development of Peggy Guggenheim’s palazzo and collection of 20thcentury masterpieces following her death in 1979. He became deputy director of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in 1986 and director in 2000. In 2009, he assumed the additional role of the Guggenheim Foundation’s Director for Italy.
Under Rylands’s leadership, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection has become the most-visited museum of modern art in Italy and the second-most-visited museum in Venice. During his tenure, Rylands oversaw the conversion and restoration of the 18th-century Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, Peggy Guggenheim’s former home on the Grand Canal in Venice, which houses her collection of seminal works reflecting the major movements of Cubism, European abstraction, Surrealism, Futurism, and Abstract Expressionism, by some of the greatest artists of the 20th century. In 1980, Rylands founded the Peggy Guggenheim Collection Internship Program, which has been a training ground for future museum professionals. Since 1986, he has directed the Peggy Guggenheim Collection’s management and operation of the U.S. Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, acquired by the Guggenheim Foundation that same year.
“It has been my great honor to serve as Director of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection,” said Rylands. “Peggy was a woman and a collector like no other. Celebrating, conserving and sharing her palazzo and her collection of 20th-century masterpieces for these many years has been a profound joy.”
“There is no question that Philip’s departure marks the end of an era and that his shoes will be difficult to fill,” said William L. Mack, Chairman of the Guggenheim Board of Trustees. “We thank him for his leadership and dedication, and we extend our warmest wishes to him as he embarks on a new chapter.”
“We are deeply grateful to Philip for all that he has brought to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and to lovers of modern art,” said Jennifer Blei Stockman, President of the Guggenheim Board of Trustees. “Those who have visited the museum in Venice know that Peggy’s legacy remains palpable in the rooms and gardens of her palazzo, its vividness reminding us anew of the daring, visionary spirit on which the Guggenheim itself was founded and with which Peggy lived her life.”
“Philip has been a devoted steward to the memory and generosity of my cousin Peggy Guggenheim,” said Peter Lawson-Johnston, Honorary Chairman of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. “His leadership of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection has added exponentially to the understanding and appreciation of the modern art which was the life’s work of its founder.”
The search for new directorial leadership of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection will begin in the coming months.