I could not afford to buy anything that I wanted, so I turned to another field, that is, after a few artists were very kind to me and made me special prices. I began buying pre-Columbian art. In the next few weeks I found myself the proud possessor of twelve fantastic artefacts, consisting of totem poles, masks and sculptures from New Guinea, the Belgian Congo, the French Sudan, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, and New Ireland. It reminded me, in reverse, of the days after Max had left our home, when he came back in the afternoons, while I was in the gallery, and removed his treasures one by one from the walls. Now they all seemed to be returning. I even succumbed to the dangerous little Mr Carlebach, who had formerly sold so many things to Max in New York, and who now had a magnificent gallery on Madison Avenue. His prices had doubled, but at least they were still possible.
For several years Clement Greenberg had said that when I came back to New York he would like to make a show called ‘Hommage a Peggy’, to include all my ‘war babies’, as I called the painters I had discovered during the war. It was to have been a huge exhibition launched with a champagne party. But I had to decline. Greenberg had become artistic adviser to French and Company, where it would have to have been held, but I did not like what they exhibited in their galleries, nor what most of my ‘war babies’ were now painting. In fact, I do not like art today. I think it has gone to hell, as a result of the financial attitude. People blame me for what is painted today because I had encouraged and helped this new movement to be born. I am not responsible. Eighteen years ago there was a pure pioneering spirit in America. A new art had to be born—Abstract Expressionism. I fostered it. I do not regret it. It produced Pollock, or rather, Pollock produced it. This alone justifies my efforts. As to the others, I don’t know what got into them. Some people say that I got stuck. Maybe it is true. I think this century has seen many great movements, but the one which undoubtedly stands out way beyond all the others is the Cubist movement. The face of art has been transformed. It is natural that this should have come about, as a result of the industrial revolution. Art mirrors its age, therefore it had to change completely, as the world changed so vastly and so quickly. One cannot expect every decade to produce genius. The twentieth century has already produced enough. We should not expect any more. A field must lie fallow every now and then. Artists try too hard to be original. That is why we have all this painting that isn’t painting any more. For the moment we should content ourselves with what the twentieth century has produced—Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, Kandinsky, Klee, Léger, Braque, Gris, Ernst, Miró, Brancusi, Arp, Giacometti, Lipchitz, Calder, Pevsner, Moore and Pollock. Today is the age of collecting, not of creation. Let us at least preserve and present to the masses all the great treasures we have.
INDEX
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Abstract Expressionism, 104, 173
Ahmed, 151
Alfieri, Bruno, 121–2, 132
Apollonio, Umbro, 119–20
Arensberg collection, 89, 170
Argon, Professor, 121
Arp, Jean, 51–2, 76–7, 105, 141
Arp, Sophie, 51–2, 76
Art of This Century, 94
Bacci, Edmondo, 136
Bacon, Francis, 158
Barker, Jack, 104
Barnes collection, 169–70
Barr, Alfred, 56, 91, 104, 108–9, 145,158
Barr, Marga, 121
Bauer, Rudolph, 52
Baziotes, William, 104, 105
Beckett, Samuel, 48–51, 57, 61
Beny, Roloff, 125
Berenson, Bernard, 34, 122–3
Bewley, Marius, 112
Blesh, Rudi, Modern Art in U.S.A., 145
Bowles, Paul, 137, 151
Brady, Robert, 169
Brancusi, 48, 71–3
Brauner, Victor, 58–9, 80
Breton, André, 57, 60, 79–80, 88–90,92,94
Breton, Jacqueline, 60
Broadwater, Boden, 113
Bucarelli, Dr Palma, 146–7
Cabbot, Elise, 125
Cahiers d’Art, 81, 120, 133
Calder, Alexander, 54, 111–12
Callas, Nicco, 91
Capote, Truman, 145
Cardiff, Maurice, 165
Carlebach, Mr, 92, 172
Carrain, Vittorio, 123, 132, 133,141, 160
Carrington, Leonora, 70–1, 81, 85–6,93, 166
Celeghin, 124
Chirico, de, 105
Clark, Sir Kenneth, 63
Clark, Lady, 63–4
Clifford, Henry, 170
Cocteau, Jean, 48–9, 143
Colp, Dr Eugene, 143
Congdon, Bill, 135, 138
Connolly, Jean, 107
Consagra, 130, 131
Corbusier, Le, 134, 155–6
Crippa, 138
Dali, Salvador, 88, 111
Davie, Allan, 142
Davis, Bill, 108, 109
Delaunay, 109
Doesberg, van, 64, 105, 114, 135
Doesberg, Nellie van, 63–5, 69–70,73, 76–7, 110, 114, 135
Dominguez, 59
Dova, 138
Drew, Jane, 155
Duchamp, Marcel, 47–8, 51–2, 54,63, 101–2, 104, 106–7
Dunn, James, 121
Eichmann, Ingeborg, 123
Einaudi, President, 120–1
Eliot, T. S., 63
Eluard, Paul, 60, 88
Ernst, Jimmy, 86–8, 91, 102–3
Ernst, Max, 70, 79–81, 85–95, 102–3, 106–7, 111, 113, 123, 141
Farcy, Monsieur, 77–8
Fleischman, Helen, 33, 41
Fleischman, Leon, 33
Flora, Francesco, 125
Ford, Charles Henri, 91
Frankfurter, Alfred, 140
Fry, Maxwell, 155
Fry, Varian, 80
Gallatin collection, 92, 170
Giacometti, 73–4, 105, 141
Giglio, Victor, 27
Gottlieb, Adolph, 105
Greenberg, Clement, 108, 145, 172
Guerin, Jean, 143
Guggenheim, Harry, 165, 167–8
Guggenheim Museum, 167–9
Guggenheim, Solomon, 52–3, 165
Guggenheim, Mrs Solomon, 62, 95
Haddow, Paxton, 154–5, 157
Hare, David, 105, 122
Hartman, Mrs, 24
Helion, Jean, 105, 133
Heller, Ben, 169, 171
Henderson, Wyn, 48, 50, 55, 61
Hirshfield, Morris, 105, 112
Hoffmann, Hans, 105
Holms, John, 41–4, 51
Hunter, Sam, 144, 145
Janis, Sydney, 112, 144
Jewell, Edward Alden, 103
Jolas, Maria, 50, 76, 77
Joyce, Giorgio, 77
Joyce, James, 50–1, 57
Kalo, Frida, 166–7
Kandinsky, 52–3, 110, 136
Keytes, George, 157
Kiesler, Frederik, 99–102, 114, 168,169
Kohn, Lucile, 30, 32
Kootz, Sam, 106
Krassner, Lee. See Pollock, Lee
Kuh, Katherine, 142
Lasalle, Philip, 131
Le Fevre Foinet, René, 79
Léger, Fernand, 74–5
Leon, Paul, 50
Loeb, Harold, 33
Lorenzetti, Dr, 126, 132–3
Lowengard, Armand, 34
Luce, Mrs Clare Boothe, 137–8
Marchiori, Professor Giuseppe, 130
Marini, Marino, 130
Martin, Michael Combe, 126
Matisse, 170
Matta, 105, 136, 158
Mazia,Violette de, 169–70
McCarthy, Mary, 113
Miller, Dorothy, 109
Minotaur, 120
Miró, 110
Mondrian, Piet, 56–7, 94, 104, 110–11
Moore, Henry, 54–6
Mor
ey, Dr, 146
Morley, Dr Grace McCann, 90, 108
Motherwell, Robert, 104
Museum of Modern Art, 63, 70, 85,87, 91, 108–9, 140–1
Mysore Art Museum, 153
O’Keefe, Georgia, 34
Pallucchini, Rudolfo, 118–22, 126, 139
Parmeggiani, Tancredi. See Tancredi
Parsons, Betty, 109, 114, 144
Passero, 160, 162
Paulon, Flavia, 129, 130
Pegeen, 138–9, 143
Pereira, I. Rice, 105
Perrocco, Dr, 126
Pevsner, Antoine, 54
Picasso, 110
Pignatelli, Princess, 157
Plastique, 51
Pollock, Jackson, 104–9, 114, 123, 132–3, 140, 144–5, 173
Pollock, Lee, 106, 109–10, 145, 171–2
Putzel, Howard, 69–70, 86, 92, 99–100, 102, 104–5
Ragghianti, Dr, 124–5
Raoul, 143–4, 151
Read, Sir Herbert, 47, 58, 61–4, 104,131,143–4
Rebay, Baroness, 53–4, 62, 165
Reis, Bernard, 88, 135, 143, 171
Reis, Mrs Bernard, 88, 158, 171
Reinhardt, Ad, 105
Richter, Hans, 105
Rivera, Diego, 106, 107
Rome, Modern Art Museum, 146
Roosevelt, Mrs Eleanor, 103–4
Rothko, Mark, 105
Roy, Jaminy, 153–4
Sadler, Sir Michael, 52
Sage, Kay. See Tanguy, Kay Sage
Saheb, Thakore, 153
Sandberg, Dr, 120, 134
San Francisco Museum, 90
Santomaso, 117–18, 120, 136, 139
Scarpa, 119
Shaw, Walter, 143
Soby, James, 103, 104
Sterne, Hedda, 105
Stieglitz, Alfred, 34
Stijl, de, movement, 64
Still, Clyfford, 105
Surrealist feud, 60, 88
Sweeney, James Johnson, 103–4, 107, 135, 144, 165, 167–9
Sylva, Vera da, 78
Tancredi (Parmeggiano), 135–6, 138
Tanguy, Kay Sage, 79, 88
Tanguy, Yves, 57
Tanning, Dorothea, 103
Tenzing Norkey, 157
Titanic, 26–7
Togerloo, van, 75
Tunnard, John, 56
Vail, Lawrence, 33–6, 39–41, 58, 72, 78, 80, 94, 102, 105, 143
Vedova, 117, 120, 136
Velde, Geer van, 49
Viani, 131
Waldman, Peggy, 47
Winston, Mrs Harry, 108
Wright, Frank Lloyd, 167–9
Yeats, Jack, 49
Zervos, Christian, 133
Zorzi, Count, 120–1, 138–9
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PEGGY GUGGENHEIM was born into affluence and a lavish lifestyle. Bored with her seemingly “pedestrian” life in New York, she headed for Europe in 1921, where she would sow the seeds for a future as one of modern art's most important and influential figures.
In the midst of Europe’s avant-garde circles, she reveled in her love affairs with prominent artists and also became a serious collector. Her Guggenheim Jeune gallery in London brought figures such as Brancusi, Cocteau, Kandinsky, and Arp to the forefront of the art scene. Later, her New York gallery would launch the careers of Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell, among others.
In her own inimitable and bawdy style, Peggy Guggenheim gives us an insider’s glimpse into the modern art world with intimate, often surprising portrayals of many of its most significant players. Candid, clever, and always entertaining, here is a memoir that captures a valuable chapter in the history of modern art, as well as the spirit of one of its greatest advocates.
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COPYRIGHT
Foreword Copyright © 1979 by Gore Vidal. Reprinted by permission of William Morris Agency, Inc. On behalf of the Author.
CONFESSIONS OF AN ART ADDICT. Copyright © 1960 Peggy Guggenheim.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Guggenheim, Peggy, 1898–1979
Confessions of an art addict / Peggy Guggenheim. — 1st Ecco ed.
p. cm.
Autobiographical.
Updated ed. of: Out of this century. 1st ed. 1980.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-88001-576-4
EPub Edition April 2013 ISBN 9780062288363
1. Guggenheim, Peggy, 1898–1979. 2. Art patrons—United States—Biography. I. Guggenheim, Peggy, 1898-1979 Out of this century. II. Title.
N5220.G886A3 1997
709'.2—dc21 97-15461
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
FIRST ECCO EDITION 1997
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Confessions of an Art Addict Page 13