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Anton Gill
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Art Lover: A Biography of Peggy Guggenheim Reprint edition by Gill, Anton (2003) Paperback Paperback

by Anton Gill (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 54 ratings
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Peggy Guggenheim -- millionairess, legendary lover, sadomasochist, appalling parent, selective miser -- was one of the greatest and most notorious art patrons of the twentieth century.After her father, Benjamin Guggenheim, went down with the Titanic, the young heiress came into a small fortune and left for Europe. She married the writer Laurence Vail and joined the American expatriate bohemian set. Though her many lovers included such lions of art and literature as Samuel Beckett, Max Ernst (whom she later married), Yves Tanguy, and Roland Penrose, real love always seemed to elude her.In the late 1930s, Peggy set up one of the first galleries of modern art in London, quickly acquiring a magnificent selection of works, buying great numbers of paintings from artists fleeing to America after the Nazi invasion of France. Escaping from Vichy, she moved back to New York, where she was a vital part of the new American abstract expressionist movement.Meticulously researched, filled with colorful incident, and boasting a distinguished cast, Anton Gill's biography reveals the inner drives of a remarkable woman and indefatigable patron of the arts.
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    Harper Perennial
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  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B011W9APXY
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 54 ratings

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Anton Gill

Anton Gill

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4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
54 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

MGB
5.0 out of 5 stars Great condition
Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2018
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Received this book and it's in great condition.
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ann amenta
5.0 out of 5 stars Woman of passion!
Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2013
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Peggy had the means, energy and desire to live her life in her own unique way and so she did!!
2 people found this helpful
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Stuart Pearson
4.0 out of 5 stars Fun, but a third person voice
Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2011
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Peggy's story is definitely a fun read, if not a fun life in itself. It reminds us of how secondary money can be to finding true love. She was the product of a wild time in history and this book, while well-written, makes me want to read her story in her own hand. A good "map to the stars" if you're interested in some gossip on the artists of the period. I paid next to nothing for the book - if I had paid full price, I might have felt a little less satisfied.
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Rob Hardy
5.0 out of 5 stars A Life Devoted to Sex and to Art
Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2002
The name Guggenheim is well known among museums and among art collectors. One thinks that all those Guggenheims were pretty well off, but everything is relative, and there were rich Guggenheims and poor ones. Benjamin Guggenheim in 1912 dressed in his best formal evening clothes, heroically helped women to climb into the lifeboats of the _Titanic_, and then drowned. He left half a million dollars to his family, but it was the legacy of a poor Guggenheim, not a rich one. His daughter Peggy managed to take her share, and independently of the other collectors in her family, made a highly-regarded collection of early twentieth century art. It was a great accomplishment. She also took plenty of lovers, many of them famous, which is somewhat less of an accomplishment. She was a reprehensible mother, and pinched pennies in ways that would make those around her uncomfortable. She was a contradictory bundle, and now a fun, big, gossipy biography, _Art Lover: A Biography of Peggy Guggenheim_ (HarperCollins) by Anton Gill, has put bright light on all the facets. It isn't always an uplifting story, but it sparkles.
Peggy was fourteen when her father drowned; Gill argues that she was always looking for a father figure after that. Her sexual enthusiasms may have been driven also by fretting over her looks; she was a good-looking woman with a fine physique, but she had a nose which one unkind friend (and she had many of those) said looked like an eggplant. She had two marriages, both to artists, the second one to the famous surrealist Max Ernst, but both were painful. She took hundreds of lovers, most of whom meant little but a night of fun. Someone asked her later in her life, "How many husbands have you had, Mrs. Guggenheim?" and the typical, sharp, self-deprecating and self-aggrandizing answer came: "D'you mean my own, or other people's?" She was far luckier in her pursuit of art (rather than of artists). As years went on, she referred to her collection as "my children" and showed more interest in caring for it than she did for the flesh-and-blood version. She was able to buy art from artists who are now household names before they became so, and before art prices skyrocketed. Her sponsorship of Jackson Pollock is a lasting imprint on American art. Although her famous collection of surrealist and cubist works is now widely appreciated, not everyone felt it was a success. When she welcomed the critic Bernard Berenson to it in 1948, she gushed, "Mr. Berenson, you were the first person to teach me about painting," to which Berenson replied, "My dear, what a tragedy that I wasn't the last."
The Tate Gallery in London had enough enthusiasm earnestly to try to acquire her collection (it did do restoration work), but because of her legal and personal problems, the deal never went through. Tellingly, she could not finally compete with the resources of her uncle Solomon's foundation and museum. She had made her Palazzo Leoni one of the high points to visit in Venice (where it contrasted with the ancient city to good effect), and upon her death, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation took it over as a public museum. Peggy died in 1979, and her cremated remains were interred near her collection, and also near her beloved dogs' resting place, but far away from any friends or relatives. She had done well with dogs and art, and not much more. It was an eccentric and unique life, often successful, but encompassing a good deal of lost opportunities and sadness. This generous but by no means fawning biography is a pleasure to read because it is full of fascinating detail, scandalous stories, and coruscating bon mots.
39 people found this helpful
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MOVIE MAVEN
5.0 out of 5 stars A LASTING MEMORIAL
Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2002
I never really knew who Peggy Guggenheim was until I visited her home filled with art: the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni in Venice, Italy. The gardens and terraces as well as all the rooms open to the public are filled with wonderful examples of the modern art collected by Guggenheim, including, tellingly, a larger-than-life white statue of a horse situated outdoors on the main terrace overlooking the canal. The horse has a happy male rider. The rider sports a large erection.
So who was Peggy Guggenheim? Anton Gill goes a long way to providing her with a lasting memorial but far from a stuffy one. His well-researched, entertainingly and wittily written book ART LOVER is a fascinating read. Guggenheim was not one of the wealthier Guggenheims; her Dad went down on the Titanic and she was left with a goodly sum of money, but far from the vast fortunes her relatives had. And so, as Richard Adler & Jerry Ross said about their heroine, Lola, in "Damn Yankees," Guggenheim used "A Little Brains, A Little Talent (With An Emphasis On The Latter)." She had, according to her own account over one thousand "sexual liasons" with men as famous as Samuel Beckett and as nasty and vicious as her alcoholic first husband who emotionally and physically abused her.
She knew she was not a great beauty (in fact in one of the terrific photos collected for the book she resembles Dame Edna!)so she used her brains and superb taste and knowledge of a true bargain to collect art from men as diverse and influential as Brancusi, Mondrian, Pollock, Duchamp and Ernst (her second husband), most of which were purchased during World War 2 when so many artists were fleeing Europe and selling their works cheaply.
Peggy Guggenheim was a true American original who led a wild life of art, society and sexual high-jinks in several countries and she has left us, at least, a wonderful, wonderful gallery of modern art in a Venetian palace, most of us can only dream about living in. Gill has done her proud. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
32 people found this helpful
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J. Morgan
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2016
I love this book. Index is as enlightening as the book itself.
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Ava
5.0 out of 5 stars Art, sex and high psychological drama!
Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2002
I could not put this book down. I read it straight through over two days in complete fascination. A woman who so deeply influenced art of the 20th century and nourished improtant artists when they were unknown so that they could keep working, and yet so insecure, so troubled, so unsure of her own knowledge and taste. An exquisite portrait of this flawed and fabulous character. I am thrilled that the aucthor has created such a thorough and penetrating biography - Peggy certainly deserves it!
13 people found this helpful
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Kate Runyan
3.0 out of 5 stars A flawed collector
Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2016
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Art Lover was well written, but Peggy Guggenheim as a person became very tedious to read about, and very annoying with her over- the top life style, and complete lack of interest in anyone else, but it was interesting to read about her.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Liz Malinka
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on June 16, 2017
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what a great read, she was something alright!
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camilla l ramirez
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 15, 2014
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Wonderful book, and in great condition. Many Thanks
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recluse
2.0 out of 5 stars アメリカを捨てたアメリカ人のプロファイル
Reviewed in Japan on April 13, 2004
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私自身は、相当気負って読み始めたわけですけど、読後感としては、シュールレアリズムの人間関係や当時（１９２０－１９３０年代）欧州をたむろしていた無数の高等遊民のアメリカ人の人間模様に、よほどの関心がある人以外にはお勧めしません。グッゲンハイム家の一員の女性が、第一次大戦直後に、アメリカを捨ててヨーロッパで信託所得で、何も通常の意味の仕事をすることなく、生活する中で、当時の画家たちとの交流を深め、モダンアートのコレクターとなっていく。主人公は、第二次大戦の勃発で、一時期アメリカに戻るのですが、戦後再びヨーロッパに舞い戻り、ベニスに住み着き、最後はグッゲンハイム美術館に自分のすべてのコレクションを寄付する。非常に面白いテーマなのですが、この伝記の作品自体は、その質において、高級女性週刊誌のレベルを超えることはありません。何度も結婚した主人公の人間関係(max ernstやベケットも出てきます）と家族関係を追っていくのがやっとで、それ以上の面白さはないですね。ただこのようにして集めたコレクションをどのようにして散逸することなく、後世に残していくかに賭ける主人公の熱情は、ある一時代に存在したであろう、ある特異なパーソナリティーの描写です。
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