Peggy Guggenheim Collection. 2004

by Philip Rylands, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Perhaps the most important museum in Italy for European and American art of the first half of the twentieth century, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection is located in its founder's former home, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, on the Grand Canal in Venice. Opened in 1951 by the niece of Solomon R Guggenheim, the wealthy American industrialist and art collector, the museum presents Peggy Guggenheim's personal collection of twentieth-century art, masterpieces from the Gianni Mattioli collection, the Nasher Sculpture Garden, as well as temporary exhibitions. This publication acts as a guide to the collection, which contains masterpieces of Cubism, Futurism, Metaphysical painting, European Abstraction, Surrealism, and American Abstract Expressionism. Among the artists represented are Picasso, Braque, Duchamp, Léger, Brancusi, Severini, Balla, Delaunay, Kupka, Picabia, Mondrian, Kandinsky, Arp, Miró, Giacometti, Klee, Ernst, Magritte, Dalí, Pollock, Rothko, Calder, Moore, and Marini.

Genres: Art, Reference, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 2, 2004

About the author

Dr. Philip Rylands (1950 -) was the director of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection for 17 years.

Reviews

[Anne Earney]

I have a small collection of art books and I decided a while back that I should start reading them as page-a-day books. I started with this one because I had recently seen the Peggy Guggenheim collection and knew I was going back. Every day (or most every day), I looked at one artist's work, read the descriptions, and then read the artist bio. Not sure how much of this info I'll retain, but it's interesting in the moment and keeps the book from just being a shelf decoration/souvenir.

This being the first book I've gone through in this manner, I'm not confident in my star rating. Maybe this is an excellent example of a museum collection guide and I just don't know. Maybe it's horrible. I may come back and readjust if needed.

[Emily]

The collection is absolutely phenomenal, but some of the visual analysis breakdowns for specific works are unclear.

[Alice Riccò]

Fondamentale perché purtroppo durante la visita museale non sono disponibili supporti anche non interattivi per conoscere meglio le opere esposte.

[Dave]

Wonderful...Peggy Guggenheim was a remarkable woman, a lover of art and men and collector of some of the most amazing and important pieces of modern art of the 20th century. Her story is fascinating and one that is vital to the story of art.

[Gillian]

wow this book reads like a movie
what a page turner
the little anecdotes are priceless especially about Truman Capote!

[Lbaker]

A beautiful and informative book.