The largest Jean Cocteau retrospective ever organized in Italy and an homage to Marina Apollonio: the Peggy Guggenheim Collection announces its exhibitions in 2024.

Venice, December 12, 2023—The eclectic production of Jean Cocteau and Marina Apollonio’s experimental art are the focus of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection’s exhibition program during 2024. Two important monographic exhibitions pay homage to two important figures of the international twentieth-century art scene: on April 13, the first and largest retrospective exhibition in Italy dedicated to the multifaceted and eclectic Cocteau, followed in the fall by a tribute to Apollonio, one of the main exponents of Kinetic and Optical art.

Following the acclaimed Marcel Duchamp and the Lure of the Copy exhibition, closing on March 18, 2024, from April 13 through September 16, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection presents Jean Cocteau: The Juggler’s Revenge, the most complete retrospective dedicated to Cocteau (1889–1963) in Italy. One of the most influential figures of the twentieth-century art scene, Cocteau was a writer, poet, playwright, essayist, illustrator, film director, and actor. The exhibition, curated by eminent Cocteau specialist and New York University art historian Kenneth E. Silver, highlights the artist’s versatility, the multiple juggling acts that distinguished his production, which often drew criticism from his contemporaries. With over one hundred and fifty works in an impressive variety of media, including drawings, graphics, jewelry, tapestries, books, magazines, photographs, films, and documentaries authored by the French art world’s enfant terrible, Jean Cocteau: The Juggler’s Revenge traces the development of Cocteau’s unique and highly personal aesthetic alongside the key moments of his turbulent career. It also documents his friendship with Peggy Guggenheim who, following Marcel Duchamp’s suggestion, began her own career in the arts by organizing an exhibition of Cocteau’s drawings at her London Gallery, Guggenheim Jeune, in 1938.

In the fall of 2024, the museum presents a monographic exhibition dedicated to Marina Apollonio (b. 1940), one of the most important figures of Optical and Kinetic art, who was supported and collected by the U.S. patron during the 1960s. Marina Apollonio: Beyond the Circle, curated by art historian Marianna Gelussi and opening on October 12, 2024, traces the artist’s career up to the present, highlighting her rigorous visual research, expressed through multiple variations and elegant execution. Encompassing painting, sculpture, drawings, as well as static, moving, and environmental works, with a decidedly international scope, her research involves experimenting with black and white, as well as chromatic investigations, and exploring a variety of materials and techniques. The fact that the exhibition takes place in Venice, where Apollonio grew up and began her artistic career, makes this deserved homage even more special, and once again highlights Peggy Guggenheim’s crucial role in supporting young avant-garde artists. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection thus continues its tradition of organizing exhibitions celebrating leading figures of postwar Italian art supported by the U.S. patron, such as Edmondo Bacci—to whom it dedicated a recent retrospective, Edmondo Bacci: Energy and Light—Tancredi Parmeggiani, and now Apollonio, alongside exhibitions with an international scope. The exhibition will be on view through March 3, 2025.