Confessions of an Art Addict (18 page)

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.

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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

Morey, 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

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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Foreword Copyright © 1979 by Gore Vidal. Reprinted by permission of William Morris Agency, Inc. On behalf of the Author.

C
ONFESSIONS OF AN ART ADDICT
. Copyright © 1960 Peggy Guggenheim.

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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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