The eyes of Peggy Guggenheim's
granddaughter Karole Vail light up at the thought of artichokes.
"I could live on them," she said about the spring delicacies
of Sant'Erasmo island.
The highly appreciative gaze of Vail, director of the Peggy
Guggenheim collection in Venice, falls on a large painting by
Tancredi, an artist who was born in Belluno but trained in
Venice and was dear to her grandmother.
In a photo from the 1960s, Peggy is sitting in an armchair in
Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal with the work behind
her, her beloved dogs in her arms.
Vail knows that Venice and the Guggenheim are inextricably
linked.
"Peggy lived here for 30 years," she noted, "and her
influence was significant. She was the one who chose to remain
and to generously open up her collection to the city."
Almost a year ago, her granddaughter returned to the lagoon,
where she spent her childhood, and became the second director of
the foundation after Philip Rylands, who held the position for
37 years.
"It's lovely to get lost here," she said.
The past few months have seen her strengthen relations with
other institutions in Venice, and enjoy the fact that the
collection managed to draw over 427,000 visitors and bring in
innovations in the arrangement of the paintings, such as with
the 11 Jackson Pollack works all together.
She smiled in front of Surrealist paintings that used to
scare her when she was a child, noting that "it's too bad I
can't sleep here anymore!" and said that the choice to give up
New York for Venice was "the right choice".
It was just after WWII that the destinies of the city on the
lagoon and the Guggenheims crossed and Peggy landed, loaded with
works that had never before been seen to present in the Greek
pavilion of the 1948 Venice Biennale.
Starting on May 25, that moment in time will be brought to
life with an exhibition "that aims to pay homage to the Biennale
and Peggy, and her arrival in Venice".
It will be a surprise, with the return to the lagoon of
paintings that had taken other paths, such as works by Jean
Hélion and Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart, donated to the
Museum of Tel Aviv.
The exhibition, which is being held in parallel with one on
Josef Albers and his Mexico trips, will act as a path-breaker
for several initiatives being planned for 2019, the 40th
anniversary of Peggy's death.
"Our activities," her granddaughter said, "are in reality
always linked to her name and work, but this will be a chance to
deepen awareness and heighten visibility of her collection."
The permanent works of a donation received in 2012 will be
temporarily moved to the section for temporary exhibitions and
the main part of the building will show a wider range of the
works collected by Peggy until 1945.
For a period, she purchased one every day including works by
Brancusi, Léger and De Chirico, and Cubism, Surrealism and
Abstract art are all represented.
At the end of the year, the second part of the homage to the
patron of the arts will focus on works purchased after her
arrival in the lagoon, with Tancredi, Vedova, Santomaso and
kinetic art.
Between the two, during the summer, there will be a show on
Jean Arp, the first artist to be part of the collection.
The exhibitions will serve as a 'stage' for the choices of a
collector who wasn't afraid to risk and focused on talent and
not on the market.
All in all, the shows will remember a woman who gave so much
to Venice and most likely received a great deal from that city
where, in the eyes of many, contemporary art has found one of
its true homes.
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