Peggy Guggenheim: Mistress of Modernism

This is an enjoyable read. I was interested in reading it after reading "The Rape of Euorpa" and "Duveen" it made sense to wonder what had become of the art/artists that were rescued from the WWII Nazi-occupation of Europe.

Peggy Guggenheim brought abstract expression to the forefront of the art world. Behind the scenes, Guggenheim led a torrid, Bohemian existence, unrestrained by middle class conventions. Mary V. Dearborn captures the essense of of Peggy against the back drop of the art she helped to promote. Well written, easily readable, and thoroughly researched. Mistress of Modernism: The Life of Peggy Guggenheim is a must read for anyone who loves art, or just loves to read a good biography.

I didn't realize when I picked this up that I'd be reading about Nazi interrogations, the anarchist Emma Goldman, rescuing Jewish artists from Vichy France, and cultural politics during the Cold War. Quite a life. There are two really illuminating things about this book: First, it provides a great travelogue of the avant-garde cultural scene in the 1920s and 1930s, which Peggy seemed to be acquainted with every crack and corner of; second, it gives a first-hand view of how that scene was distilled into the post-war art world of New York. Peggy had a crucial role in creating the love-it-or-hate-it art business we know today - in fact, by the mid-50s it had got a bit too rich even for her! I have to say I didn't know much about Peggy Guggenheim before I read this book. I learned a lot about her and about the constellation of artists she patronized, encouraged, and helped raise to prominence. There's plenty of good gossip here, about Max Ernst (her second husband), Samuel Beckett (who she had a torrid affair with), Yves Tanguey, etc., but also some splendid cultural history. The appendix is almost worth the price of admission: Even by the standards of the time, I think, Peggy was paying pocket money for some of the 20th century's greatest works of art! Dearborn reprints some of the records from Peggy's gallery, and it's enough to make you drool! It's possible to argue that Peggy was just in the right place at the right time, but Dearborn makes a good argument that she was a lot more than that. Very interesting and liberated woman who was misunderstood a lot in her time and even after her death, but who changed art history.

I have read Mary Dearborn's books on Henry Miller and Norman Mailer. I was impressed with the scope of her research, her analysis of her subjects' psyches, and her ability to place her subjects in the popular and high culture of their times. Mistress of Modernism is this kind of work. Jackson Pollack's critics, Emma Goldman's friendship, Laurence Vail's superficially affable responses to life, Djuna Barnes' literary contacts, Peggy in Paris, and Peggy in Venice are all treated in this way. In choosing Peggy Guggenheim as a subject, Dearborn knew that a story with many dramatic moments was possible. She tells it in a way that is not only entertaining and surprizing, but in a way that truly memorializes her subject.

This is an excellent book for anyone with even a passing interest in modern art and 20th century cultural history. The title is most appropriate because Peggy Guggenheim seems to have been bound up with every aspect of modernism practically by the time anyone knew to call it that. When she was a child, her father went down on the Titanic - kind of a modernist cultural event in its own way, along with being a great tragedy - and her first real job was in a bookstore in Manhattan that sold the work of modernist writers like Joyce and Lawrence. In Paris in the 20s she knew all the usual suspects - Hemingway, Joyce himself, who was a good friend, Picasso - and in the 30s she gravitated toward the British surrealist group that gathered around Herbert Read. I was surprised to learn that one of her great friends in these years was none other than Emma Goldman, the writing of whose autobiography Peggy bankrolled. The author does a wonderful job of showing you how a pampered rich girl came to live such a life. In short, she didn't want to live the same stifling confined life that other women from her upper class background were condemned to in those days. She liked to live among artists because they weren't like that. So what about the art? Guggenheim's career as an art patron, collector, and dealer is such a good yarn that it's tempting not to say too much about it here. She literally brought modern art to America during the WW II years - brought her collection, brought many of the artists themselves, and hooked them up with the younger generation of Americans who would follow in their footsteps - Jackson Pollock (her greatest discovery), Baziotes, Clyfford Still, Rothko, Motherwell, etc etc. Thanks to her, New York replaced Paris as the center of the world art scene, a position it holds to this day. This book is full of great anecdotes and revealing facts, but you'll have to read them for yourself. Peggy comes across as a lot more than just a rich collector. She was a strong personality herself who had definite ideas of what modern art was and where it was headed. Her gallery in New York was a major artistic statement in and of itself, that created a much more democratic environment for art to be enjoyed and for artists and the public to mingle, and Peggy's personality obviously had a lot to do with this. My only complaint is that the book doesn't contain more photos of this fascinating place (perhaps there aren't that many around any more?). I highly recommend this book. It's clearly written, presents its subject vividly and sympathetically, and moves right along. A fine education in the making of the contemporary art world and its place in American culture.