Confessions of an Art Addict Page 13

  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.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

  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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