| The collector’s world is like a time tunnel: Whoever enters into it will never go out from it, or at least not the same as when they first entered. The passion for collecting used to end up possessing the collector to such a point that it becomes a lifetime addiction and a way of living. Ms. Peggy Guggenheim has been recognized as such on many occasions. Collector’s profiles have in common some points which we can use to analyze in this research paper the life of Peggy Guggenheim, but there are other points such as personality of the collector, historical and social context, and motivation for collecting that I will attempt to individualize to this unique historical character. The Collector’s personality. - Personal biography that impacts in the collector’s interest for art. There is typically in a collector’s biography an event or situation(s) that impacted his/her interest for art. In Peggy Guggenheim’s case, one of those moments which would irrevocably alter the direction of her life forever was working at the avant-garde Sunwise Turn Book Shop in New York. The Book Shop was run by her cousin Harold Loeb, who also published a magazine named Broom with the likes of artist as Kandinsky, Klee, Matisse and Picasso. It is in that Book Store where she met the pioneer photographer Alfred Stieglitz and where she held in her hands for the very first time a modern painting, an abstract by Georgia O’Keeffe. But there are four other biographical events that, in my opinion, are necessary to mention to better understand the ever-complicated Peggy Guggenheim. The first one is her father’s death while she was very young. The second is the fact that she received her inheritance from her millionaire father which gave her the possibility of living a “poor millionaire” Bohemian life in Paris of the 20’s. The third is the fact that she knew about her father’s mistresses since she was a child. This third event, in my opinion, would instill a strong and unconscious desire in her of being “the other”, the desired female (the mistress) instead of the official one (a wife). She would use men and she would leave men to use her. With her vivid desire of living, she was creating her own piece of art: her life. The fourth and last personal-biographical event which I believe would change her destiny forever would be the inheritance from her mother of one half a million dollars in 1937 which allowed her to open her first art gallery named Guggenheim Jeune. - Level of commitment chosen consciously or unconsciously by the collector: 1. Commitment towards his/her collection Peggy Guggenheim’s serious commitment as an art work collector arrived late. She really started to take seriously her collection just right before the WWII, in 1937 when she visited the best of modern art studios such as the ones of Mondrian, Brancusi and Duchamp and buying some of their art works for a bargain-price, especially as stress over a pending war loomed. She used intelligent advisers for buying art and staged important exhibitions in her galleries in London (named Guggenheim Jeune, it opened in 1938 and was curated by Marcel Duchamp) and in New York (named Art of this Century and opened in 1942). Owning these art galleries gave her the possibility of buying more artworks, ultimately acquiring 10 Picassos, 40 Ernsts, 8 Miros, 4 Magrittes, 3 Man Rays, 3 Dalis, one Klee and one Chagall among some of her most important pieces in the collection. We can estimate that she would parlay an investment of maybe $205,000 into a collection that today maybe worth an estimated $350 million. 2. Commitment towards the artists According to the humble opinion of this researcher, the real interest of Peggy Guggenheim was the artist and the experience of his/her presence around her more than the art itself. Her generosity was extreme, sharing or leaving apartments to artists, friends, family members or even-ex family members, as if what she called bohemian people were part of one big tribe including herself. The list of people and artist that she supported with regular pensions includes her ex-husband Laurence Vail, as well as his later wife and kids; the writer Djuna Barnes (ex-mistress of her ex-husband Laurence Vail); Yves Tanguy; Emma Goldman; and finally Jackson Pollock whom she would declare was, along with her art collection, the two most important achievements of her life. Her complex personality (i.e. a mix of a very independent and avant-garde woman at that time period), her free spirit and anxiety for living would create in some moments tense and conflict-ridden relations with the artists she supported as well as with some members of her family including her own son Sinbad and daughter Peggeen. I say this in fact as an attempt to justify what other authors have criticized about her. She used intellectuals and artists for learning from them and admiring them simultaneously, but without any doubts all of them received in return much more than what they gave to her emotionally and materially. She literally changed the destiny of many people. Pollock would probably never have been who we know now if Peggy had not provided him with a life pension for him to be free of working at his uncle’s foundation and dedicate his life to his own art. Consciousness of his destiny as a collector: - Capacity of organization and business thinking regarding the collection. Peggy was better creating and helping the other’s business than her own: she was unfocused and not quite organized regarding the collection, but she was smart enough for surrounding herself with people who knew everything about it. She was humble enough for following the expert’s advices while buying modern art and while opening the art galleries in London and New York. She would leave the artist to organize by themselves their exhibitions at her gallery, and she would provide the contacts and the PR side of the affair. In her London gallery Guggenheim Jeune, she put Marcel Duchamp as the gallery curator and followed his advice with great success for both of them. She knew where she wanted to be in the Bohemian, modern art world, and she did it with all the consequences—good and bad. At the end of her life, while living at her Palazzo in Venize, she created of her persona and her collection a “must” to any tourist in the town, but she neglected to take care properly of the collection which was storage in the Palazzo’s dumped basement which every year suffered inundations from Venice’s great channel. Her difficult relation with her uncle Guggenheim’s foundation has created lots of controversy in artistic circles analyzing her life. She didn’t leave in her estate one single art work to her son or daughter and she didn’t provide a plan for the museum of her collection, as well as the economic help for the collection’s restoration. In the humble opinion of this researcher, that is completely consistent with Peggy’s character and style. She was conscious of her own life and destiny and considered these artworks like witnesses of her life and not really as investments. She never tried to avoid conflict (certainly), she just tried to live her life the way she wanted and she did it up to the end. This seems to be hard to understand for some authors which need to categorize her as a selfish, miser and egocentric person. Perhaps she receives such mis-characterizations because many of the people trying to characterize her as such could never live life as she did. Historical and social situation at the collector’s time period & capacity of reaction--opportunism of the collector. - Wars and political repression in the artist’s country. The inter-war period was a unique and historical moment for history of art. The happy and crazy 20’s in Paris made this city the center of modern art and avant-garde expression. The best generation of artist at that time from different parts of the world moved there to live and work as a bohemian. It is in those years when Peggy moved to Paris following her cousin and thanks to her first abusive husband, the writer Laurence Vail, she was introduced for the first time to this world. Other historical circumstances unique is her presence in Paris right before WWII, which allowed her to buy the works of the leading artists of the day at bargain prices. She was in the right place, at the right moment, with the right people, with the right conditions and, most importantly, she made used of it by acting decisively and quickly. The beginning of WWII meant the emigration of all those young bohemian artists which lived in Paris to New York, and Peggy was there at that moment, creating a new gallery named Art of this Century. Again, she was in the right place at the right time and acted upon her instincts to take the right decision. The Collector’s goal. - Investment As we mentioned before, Peggy Guggenheim’s motivation for buying wasn’t especially financial. The times from Paris were the very beginning of the careers of most modern artists; as usual, the public was not ready to like the avant-garde art. Peggy wasn’t financially motivated if we consider that at that time period, being a modern art collector and dealer was almost an altruistic business, not a financially motivated one. Also, she was a woman acting in a male-dominated world which may have contributed to the view that art was her avocation, not vocation. - Personal satisfaction This is probably the main goal of Peggy Guggenheim as a collector. Her intellectual interest for the bohemian life and artists that lived it made her a collector not only of modern art, but of life experiences. She drank from the chalice of bohemian life often, but also filled it for others—in her day and for generations to come. Modern artists and surreal artists would paint these styles and in the researcher’s opinion, Peggy Guggenheim would live it. Her life was a mix of the 20th century’s most important styles, full of neutral colors as the modernists, full of motion as the futurists, full of continuous strange decisions and circumstances as the surrealists and even those she considered the bohemians as a tribe which had similarities with the Dadaism manifesto. - Addiction/Compulsivity Peggy declared on many occasions that she was an addict of art, but not as a way of saying. If we look for the meaning of addiction in the dictionary, we find this definition: 1. To cause to become physiologically or psychologically dependent on something. 2 . To occupy or involve (oneself) habitually or compulsively. (The American Heritage College Dictionary, 4th edition, Houghton Mifflin) Peggy in a way was really addicted to art and to bohemian life. When one person is addicted to a substance, they would do anything to have that substance without considering the objective circumstances or people involved in her/his life or in the process. That seems to be true in many occasions, where Peggy’s attitude, according to her daughter Pegeen, the matron preferred to have a Picasso painting than a daughter. Peggy’s constant changing of everything and everybody in her life seems to be as well associated to this compulsive/addictive behavior. The researcher feels a deep and sincere respect for Ms. Guggenheim and the theory that tries to support it is nothing but justifying some of her behaviors criticized on many occasions by family members and authors. All these points have try to identify the different aspects that make a person a collector, but what distinguished a good collector from just an ordinary collector? There are some common characteristics in the good collectors that the researcher has tried to organize and which are considered the most important for making this distinction. This list is not exclusive and many other aspects could be added since it seems to be quite subjective. To have a proportional amount of good storage space for keeping the collection. This is something important to consider but not necessary. Peggy Guggenheim would carry with her in the train dozens of art works accumulated during her trips around Europe. During her last decades of life, she would accumulate in awful conditions her collection of modern art in her Palazzo’s basement. Every year and during the common Venetian floods, some of her friends had to save them literally from the water. While she passed away, and without leaving any estate with clear instructions (in my opinion her personal vendetta towards her uncle’s Guggenheim foundation) and money for the ever-so-needed restoration of the artworks, as well as the so needed preservation works at the Palazzo. The collector should be conscious of the pieces he/she owns and be responsible for them, but as we mentioned before, the personality of the collector as well as the consciousness of the collection’s importance and destiny analyzed before are not always going to be ideal for this purpose. In some cases, collectors have accumulated such a quantity of pieces that doesn’t fit at their homes. It is then when they decide to open an art gallery to the public. Peggy Guggenheim was one such collector and opened two galleries during her life, one in London named Guggenheim Jeune and other in New York, Art of this Century, but she was better making business for others than for her, so her addiction would make her be the main client of her own galleries! However, Peggy collected thanks for openings: not only more art work but especially something that she appreciated the most--personal experiences with artists. To Have money For being a good collector one doesn’t have to be millionaire or have lots of money, but one does have to have enough for spending on the collection. The collection should be in proportion to the collector’s economical situation. The collection can end up possessing the collector in such a way that any effort would be made for acquiring the piece desired. However, if the piece is good enough, it is always going to be a good investment. For the common mortals, Peggy Guggenheim was an eccentric millionaire, but analyzed in the millionaire’s social and historical context, she was a “poor rich” and she was perfectly conscious of it. Her interest for her contemporary artists who were under-valued primed her interest for collecting experiences and spending her money on them, made Peggy an inexpensive collector. A collection that at her times was valued in around $ 200,000, today is valued at more than $300 million. Knowledge about the collection’s topic It is very important to know since the beginning at least a minimum about the collection for avoiding mistakes and disappointments, although usually the collector’s knowledge and collection grow together. Peggy chose modern artists and surrealists because those artists best captured the spirit of her times and she had people around her who gave her sound advice. She chose to collect art from the contemporary art of her time, probably as a reaction to the old world furniture and ambiance—perhaps as a way of assuaging her intense displeasure of the house she grew up in and despised on stylistic grounds. Documentation/Research Once the kind of collection to be made has been decided, the collector should learn everything about the topic and ask as much as she/her can of the experts. All this will supply the absence of knowledge or sometimes bibliographical resources that often can be overlooked. Although never trusting them blindly, Peggy Guggenheim used (consciously or unconsciously) men for acquiring knowledge and networked from them having sexual relations or loving those men who could offer this in return to her. Her interest for the arts in general, and for music and literature, was especially created by her long term lover-poet-writer John Holmes, who educated her in critical thinking and art appreciation. Collector’s exposure to art galleries, travels and exhibitions. It is important that the collector go to fairs and professional exhibitions during the year as well as art galleries, auctions and art shops. This will give him/her the opportunity of networking, knowing the market and fair value for different pieces, as well as making questions to those in the art world. Peggy used to ask for advice from the main critics of that time and she would follow their directions almost literally. She probably knew Europe and its monuments, art galleries and churches better than the most refined Europeans. Her capacity of assimilation by traveling constantly and living in different parts of Europe with different friends, lovers or husbands, made her mind a unique cultivation in the humanities. Be specialized in the topic’s collection Let’s face it, it is physically impossible to collect any single thing you like, if the collector desires to have an important collection and won’t learn as much as he could with more specific topic. A real good collector should never fall in the trap of indiscriminate diversification—the collection should be guided by its themes, be they conscious or subconscious. And real collectors know how to do that. Select well, wisely and instinctively Just because something could belong to the collection does not mean that the collector should acquire the piece. It is always good to choose those pieces which are special because of their beauty, bizarreness or are altogether difficult to find or limited. According to some critics, Peggy Guggenheim’s collection is important but could have been even more important if she had focused or selected better some of her acquisitions as well as valued more some of the art works that she simply gave away. For instance, most of the artworks she received from Pollock she gave away to other people. At the end of her life she was conscious of this and recognized that some of her choices could have been better, but the researcher considers that there is no collector that didn’t loose at lease one good opportunity or otherwise incorrectly valued enough some of the pieces of the collection. Important: The piece should be a piece of art. A genuine and unique work created with aesthetic or interpretive intention. In my opinion, the art work should be genuine and unique regarding two points: (1) being created by one person and (2) being a unique piece in its own right. And both of these attributes are related sometimes. For instance, if a piece was made by Picasso, Dali and Duchamp together and signed by the three of them and there is only one piece, that would be a very unique piece because it is a unique one. If this piece belonged to a serial of pieces all the same, even if limited, the value would be much reduced and thus have less interest as a piece of art. Joining an association or club, networking There is no more satisfaction to collectors than being able of sharing and enjoying new findings and information with others. One of the best tools of Peggy Guggenheim besides surrounding herself with people with knowledge about her collection was the fact of being a good “PR person” and having a broad and interesting network around the world. That made all the artists which exhibited in her galleries to have relative success and to be introduced to the public. She lost money in both galleries she owned, but there are other reasons to have a gallery. A Collector should collect what he/she really likes. This is the only way of warranting that there wont’ be a mistake in the collection. If the collector makes a mistake in buying the wrong piece of art, at least he/she will always have the satisfaction of having a piece that he/she really likes. Sometimes, the trait of a good collector is to go with instincts, not current market trends or with that which is de rigeure. Some people think that every human being is a collector, but only a few of them can actually develop this privilege. But in reality there are lots of kind of collections, and certainly not only the millionaires have right to be collectors. It seems that human’s life on this earth is not but collecting objects, thoughts, experiences, works, happiness and pain. Every body is a collector of something. The specialty of the topic will depend on each person, the personal interest, cultural level, opportunity and personal experiences but basically the rules are the same for every collector. Peggy Guggenheim was a collector to be sure, but not only of her famous and great collection of Modern and surrealistic art works as she is famously known for. But, and importantly, she was also a collector of personal experiences, summarized in her life. Her most valuable surrealistic and modernist piece of art it is nothing but her own art and her behavior up to the end of her days is consistent with this thinking. Thanks to her labeling by many authors and family members as ego-centric, the Guggenheim foundation has today the international dimension that it has. Hopefully this research paper has helped to the reader to identify what influenced in a person to become a collector and what makes a collector a good one. BIBLIOGRAPHY Fernandez A., Barnechea E., Haro J. “Historia del Arte.” Spain: Madrid, Vicens-Vives, 1994. Gill, Anton. Art lover: a biography of Peggy Guggenheim. New York: Harper Collins, 1975. Guggenheim, Peggy. Out of this century: Confessions of an art addict. New York: Universe Books, 1979. Messer, Thomas M. “The Guggenheim story: reply to John Richandson”. The New York Review Books. November 1992. 14 April 2003 http://www.nybs.com/article_id: 2750. Pierpont, Claudia Roth. “The conquest and canvases of Peggy Guggenheim.” The New Yorker.May 2002. 14 April 2003. http://www.newyorker.com. Richardson, John. “Go Go Guggenheim”. The New York Review Books. July 192. 14 April 2003. http://www.nybs.com/article_id:2854. |
PEGGY GUGHENHEIM, A COLLECTOR OF LIFE -ESSAY
