AND THEN PEGGY ARRIVED.
1948 – 2008: 60 YEARS OF THE PEGGY GUGGENHEIM COLLECTION IN VENICE
701 Dorsoduro
30123 Venice
ITALY
phone +39 041 2405411
fax +39 041 5206885
email celebrate [at] guggenheim-venice.it
“ It is always assumed that Venice is the ideal place for a honeymoon. This is a grave error. To live in Venice or even to visit it means that you fall in love with the city itself. There is nothing left over in your heart for anyone else. After your first visit you are destined to return at every possible chance or with every
possible excuse”.
Peggy Guggenheim
Out of this Century
2008 will be a remarkable year for the Peggy Guggenheim Collection: the museum is organizing a calendar of temporary exhibitions, conferences, educational workshops, free guided visits, a movie program and a Birthday Concert during the summer to celebrate 60 years of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. With the themes of the temporary exhibitions Coming of Age. American Art, 1850s to 1950s (June 28 – October 12) and Carlo Cardazzo. A New Vision in Art (November 1 2008 – February 9, 2009), the program underscores the relationship of Peggy to American art, as well as her influence on Venetian art in the 1950s and 60s, highlighting two sides of the unique artistic passion that marked the life of this outstanding American patron.
In 1948 Peggy Guggenheim was invited by Rodolfo Pallucchini, Secretary General of the Venice Biennale, to exhibit her already-legendary collection in the Greek Pavilion, as Greece was engaged in civil war and its pavilion was empty. In this way works by artists such as Jackson Pollock, Arshile Gorky and Mark Rothko were displayed for the first time in Europe. The following year Peggy purchased Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, which to this day houses her collection, the most important in Italy of European and American art of the first half of the 20th century. During her 30 years in Venice, Peggy continued to collect works of art and to support artists such as Edmondo Bacci and Tancredi Parmeggiani. In 1969 Peggy resolved to donate her palace and works of art to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, established in 1937 by her uncle to operate his own collection and museum in New York. In 1980, a few months after Peggy’s death, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni re-opened as a museum that today hosts almost 400,000 visitors each year.
PROGRAM
For further information about the program: celebrate@guggenheim-venice.it, tel. 041 2405 440/419
• Two cycles of 4 free lectures in May and October will take place at the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, related to the two temporary exhibitions Coming of Age. American Art, 1850s to 1950s (June 28 – October 12) and Carlo Cardazzo. A New Vision in Art (November 1, 2008 – February 9, 2009). The lectures are organized in partnership with Ca’ Foscari University. The lectures are free and start at 6pm
• Free guided visits of the temporary exhibitions from June 28 to December 31, daily at 3:30pm
• Peggy Talks: free presentations to the public about Peggy’s life from the US to Europe as well as her time in Venice. Daily, at 12pm, 3:30pm and 4pm
• Kids Day: educational activities at 3pm for kids 4-10 years old, inspired by Peggy, her collection, and things that were a part of her life. Last Saturday of each month
• April 27 – Commemorative Philatelic Cancel. From 10am until 4pm, a Postage stamp cancellation service will be offered to the public at the museum with a special commemorative philatelic cancel dedicated to Peggy
• On July 2, 9, 16, 23, at 9pm, the garden of the Collection will host films in a series curated by Flavio Gregori, Professor of English Literature and Culture, Ca’ Foscari University, entitled Environments of the American Soul. These ‘spaces of the human soul’ – four examples of the world in which the average person lives and is (cinematically) immersed – will counterpoint the works of art in Coming of Age. American Art, 1850s to 1950s. The films look at the environment of American film as a physical, topographical place and as a projection of desire, anxiety, nostalgia, hope, and terror: the four films represent moral as well as physical models of the American soul
• August 26: Concert by Danilo Rea for Peggy’s birthday in collaboration with Umbria Jazz 9pm. Members only. For further information: membership@guggenheim-venice.it
• ‘A scuola di Guggenheim’: a project about Peggy by Veneto schools, which will conclude in June with the exhibition Peggy: a School for Art (June 11 – 16), presenting works by the schoolchildren
• Peggy’s library, also called the library of “modern – really modern – artists”: the complete library of the Collection will open its doors online to students, researchers and readers. For information: 041 – 2405433
And Then Peggy Arrived.
1948 – 2008: 60 Years of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice
January – December 2008
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
701 Dorsoduro
30123 Venice
ITALY
Phone +39 041 2405411
Fax +39 041 5206885
Email info@guggenheim-venice.it
Opening hours: daily 10 am to 6 pm (closed on Tuesday and December 25)
Press Office:
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
Tel. +39 0412405404; press@guggenheim-venice.it
