Out of This Century: The Informal Memoirs of Peggy Guggenheim
(2015 Reprint of 1946 Edition. Full facsimile of the origi...)
2015 Reprint of 1946 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition. Not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Peggy Guggenheim's autobiographical writing is still the most informative and entertaining account of her full and colorful life. A patron of art since the 1930s, Guggenheim, in this candid self-portrait, provides an insider's view of the early days of modern art, with revealing accounts of her eccentric wealthy family, her personal and professional relationships, and often surprising portrayals of the artists themselves. Here is a book that captures a valuable chapter in the history of modern art, as well as the spirit of one of its greatest advocates. It also provides insight into the gilded-age lifestyles of the moneyed classes during this period.
Marguerite Guggenheim was an American art collector, bohemian and socialite.
Background
Guggenheim was born on August 26, 1898, in New York City, into a prominent New York City family. Her mother, the former Florette Seligman, was the daughter of James Seligman, a powerful banker; her father, Benjamin Guggenheim, was the fifth son of Meyer Guggenheim, whose vast smelting and mining concern brought him one of the greatest fortunes in American history. Guggenheim passed what she described as a miserable childhood. She spent little time with her parents. Her father died in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. He left less money than expected, so his widow and three daughters were forced to live less extravagantly, a change that gave Guggenheim a feeling of inferiority to her Guggenheim cousins that was to last all her life.
Education
Guggenheim was educated mainly by governesses. After two years at the Jacoby School in New York City, her first real contact with girls her own age, Guggenheim graduated in 1915.
Career
Guggenheim made her debut in 1916 and then took two short-lived jobs - helping new military officers buy uniforms, and as a receptionist and assistant for a dentist. More successful was her stint as clerk at the Sunwise Turn Bookshop, where she met a number of writers and intellectuals, including her future husband, Laurence Vail. In 1920 she moved to Paris, where she was exposed to the ideas and people who would most shape her. After an affair with a political radical named Douglas Garman, Guggenheim decided to open a gallery in London (she had moved to England in 1932). She knew little about art but was educated by Marcel Duchamp, who introduced her to the major surrealist artists. The gallery, which she named Guggenheim Jeune, opened with a Jean Cocteau show in 1938; shows of works by Wassily Kandinsky and of many other avant-garde artists followed. Although the gallery was successful in terms of publicity, it lost a great deal of money, so Guggenheim closed it to start a museum - still a money-losing venture but a more worthwhile one, she felt. These plans came to a halt with the advent of World War II. Guggenheim, who had returned to France in the summer of 1939, decided to buy all the art she could, and with the guidance of a California dealer named Howard Putzel, set about purchasing "a picture a day. " At a time when most people were thinking of little else than leaving Paris in the face of German danger, she bought two Constantin Brancusis, a René Magritte, an Alberto Giacommetti, a Georges Braque, and numerous other works, all at excellent prices because of the threatening political situation. Guggenheim finally had her collection shipped from Paris and then left on June 11, 1940, three days before the city's fall. After a year in Vichy France, Guggenheim and her family - including Vail, Vail's wife Kay Boyle, and their children - fled Europe for the safety of the United States, arriving on July 14, 1941. After she arrived in New York, Guggenheim began the hard work of establishing her gallery. She found a space, engaged the Viennese architect Frederick Kiesler to design the interior, and bought even more works of modern art so she could open with the widest possible selection. Art of This Century, as the gallery was called, was indeed remarkably different from any other then in existence, and many of the innovations there, like unframed paintings, would later become standard. Her role in this new movement was twofold: she and her gallery publicized surrealism, out of which abstract expressionism developed, and she supported its leading artists from the beginning. Besides running her gallery and leading an exhausting social life, Guggenheim worked on her memoirs, Out of This Century, which appeared in 1946. The book was wildly controversial, detailing her affairs and flamboyant life-style, and bursting with cutting stories about most of the literati, thinly disguised by pseudonyms. Nevertheless, it was an entertaining and enlightening portrait. In the summer of 1946, Guggenheim returned to Europe and decided to move permanently to Venice. After a closing exhibit at Art of This Century in May 1947, she did just that. She was invited to show her collection at the 1948 Venice Biennale, the first since the war, since it was obvious that hers was one of the most important collections of twentieth-century art. This invitation, the first official recognition of her achievement, was especially gratifying. In 1949, Guggenheim bought an eighteenth-century palazzo on the Grand Canal in Venice that became her home and permanent exhibit-place. It opened to the public in 1951 and now houses her collection under the auspices of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York. Guggenheim lived happily there, watching her museum become one of Venice's top tourist attractions. She traveled, continued to collect, and wrote another book that picked up where Out of This Century left off. Published in 1960, Confessions of an Art Addict was less outrageous than her earlier memoir and did not stir up as much controversy. Guggenheim died in Padua, Italy on December 23, 1979.
Achievements
Guggenheim is today remembered as an important patron of the Abstract Expressionist school of artists in New York City.
(2015 Reprint of 1946 Edition. Full facsimile of the origi...)
Personality
Many of her contemporaries disliked Guggenheim on account of her miserliness and abrasiveness. Paradoxically, she could be generous - she supported many artists through stipends, for instance - and absolutely charming.
Connections
Guggenheim married the writer Laurence Vail - considered the "King of Bohemia" - in 1922; they had two children. The marriage proved tempestuous, however, and she left Vail for another writer, John Holms, in 1928 before divorcing Vail in 1930. Holms was perhaps her greatest love, but the affair was ended by his death in 1934. She later married Max Ernst in December 1941. They were divorced in 1946, although their marriage had effectively disintegrated by 1942.
Father:
Benjamin Guggenheim
He was an American businessman.
Mother:
Florette Seligman
Spouse:
Max Ernst
Spouse:
Laurence Vail
Spouse:
John Holms
Friend:
Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp
He was a French-American painter, sculptor, chess player and writer.
