Venue:
Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

Curator:
Luca Massimo Barbero.

Artist:
Germaine Richier.

Exhibition description:
This exhibition was the first retrospective dedicated to Germaine Richier in Italy. Richier was, along with Alberto Giacometti and Marino Marini, a protagonist of the post-war avant-garde debates and was considered a ‘maestro’ by critics and international collectors alike. This display presented almost sixty works, including bronze sculptures, small casts, lithographs and drawings, in a chronological and analytical view that sought to highlight the tortured artistic path of the sculptor. The display extended from the temporary exhibition galleries to the garden. The origin of the exhibition was the presence of an important work by Richier, Tauromachy (1953), in the collection of Peggy Guggenheim. Richier was born in 1902 in Grans (Bouche-du-Rhone, France) and moved to Paris in 1926. Although she never embraced any artistic or political movement, she participated in the cultural atmosphere of her time, frequenting Henri Favier, Celebonovic Marko, Massimo Campigli, Alberto Giacometti, Raymond-Jacques Sabouraud, and her friend Marino Marini. World War II took her to Zurich, where she recreated her studio. There, she continued to interact with friends who had also emigrated, such as Jean Arp and Le Corbusier. She returned to Paris in 1945. The metamorphic human being was central in Richier’s oeuvre.

Partnerships:
Organized by the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in collaboration with the Archives Françoise Guiter in Paris.

Catalogue:
Barbero, Luca Massimo. Germaine Richier. Venezia: Peggy Guggenheim Collection and The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 2006.

Two catalogues, in English and Italian. Catalogues include preface by Thomas Krens (Director, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation), introduction by Philip Rylands (Director, Peggy Guggenheim Collection), and essays by Luca Massimo Barbero, Françoise Guiter and Giorgio Mastinu. Catalogue also includes an appendix with a selected bibliography.

Library location: GUGG PGC 2006 .08 (Italian), GUGG PGC 2006 .07 (English).