Woman Crush: Peggy Guggenheim

Marguerite “Peggy” Guggenheim also known as just Peggy Guggenheim was an American art collector, bohemian and socialite. She was born to the wealthy New York City Guggenheim family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, and the niece of Solomon R. Guggenheim, who would establish the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

In the high-rolling, modern-Medici world of 20th-century art patronage and art collecting, Peggy Guggenheim was unique. She was an insatiable art collector like nobody else, picking up items that didn’t sell, and works for which there was, as yet, no market, just because she loved them. She bought art, not as an investment, but because she saw something that her very own eyes told her was great.

Peggy Guggenheim totally reinvented herself after her father’s tragic premature death and her short marriage to artist Max Ernst. She did not fit the typical mould of a woman in the times she lived in, but she was heroic in the sense that she gave something back through art. She travelled with such eagerness, from London to Paris, from Paris to New York; and was totally modern in the way she lived her life, nothing was holding her back.

Moreover, Marguerite Guggenheim was a very free woman who didn’t believe any rules applied to her and that was a courageous outlook. The words, ‘I’m going to live my life the way I want to,’ simply were not part of a unique woman’s vocabulary back then. She wasn’t the kind of feminist who sits there and says, ‘I believe in this’. She was an archetype for women who make their own rules, and who don’t live under restraints. Her story is one of victory, passion, and believing in yourself, which are all old fashioned traits that we can believe and resonate with also in this day and age.

She exhibited her collection as she built it and, in 1949, settled in Venice, where she lived and exhibited her collection for the rest of her life. This personal collection is the embodiment of who she was, but it’s really her being present in it that makes people stand in line to see it every day at The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, a modern art museum on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. Adele always pays a visit to this stunning museum overlooking the Grand Canal when she is in Venice & her favourite works of art exhibited include Giorgio de Chirico, Picasso and Arp.

We love Peggy’s fiercely independent life. A real girl boss.

Material provided above is from:

• Wikipedia
• http://www.guggenheim-venice.it/inglese/default.html
• http://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/8127/art-addict-the-insatiable-appetite-of-peggy-guggenheim