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Venice

Venice visit-Canal Grande-Peggy Guggenheim museum of Modern and Contemporary Art

Embarking
on vaporetto
no.1
   

Santa Maria
della
Salute-
Peggy
Guggenheim
story
  

 Peggy
Guggenheim
museum
of modern
art

 Galleria
dell
Accademia

From Accademia to Palazzo Mocenigo

Eating Venice and wine bars

Four days diary of a great love

hotel recommendations

Venice main page

Canal Grande main page

Rialto Bridge

The Rialto market

From Rialto to Palazzo Labia

From Fondaco dei Turchi to Palazzo Tiepolo Papadopoli

From Ca' Loredan to Ca' Rezzonico

The Peggy Guggenheim museum shows the masterpieces of Modern Art of the avant-garde of the first half of the 20thcentury.. Open from 11.00 to 18.00. Closed on Tuesday and on Dec 25. Tel 0415206288 fax 0415206885
In this narrow “calle” the entrance of one of Venice highest cultural spots is hidden. This museum is absolutely unique and is really worth the visit, even if some will pretend that their mother, brother, aunt or concierge could do the same!

Jack in cafeteria

 It’s probably the most fascinating private art collection of modern art in the world, in the most extraordinary cadre and setting you could dream of. When you enter, you are stricken right away by the tranquil atmosphere, a beautiful garden in which temporary exhibitions are regularly organized. There are constantly sculptures by Giacometti, Henry Moore and Max Ernst.
It’s also in this garden that Peggy was buried together with 14 preferred doggies. In this very agreeable landscaped space, you can have a break on an elegant cafeteria with terrace.The inside of the museums is organized in sections:--cubism room with

Annie looks

Picasso, Albert Gleizes, Metzinger, Juan Gris, Braque, Fernand Leger (Hommes dans la cite 1919), Marcel Duchamp, Frantisek Kupka, a superb Marc Chagall (The rain 1911)
--surrealist room with Magritte (l’Empire des Lumieres), splendid Delvaux (l’Aurore), Dali (Naissance des Desirs liquides), YvesTanguy, Max Ernst (Habillement de la Mariée and the Antipope)
--in the corridors numerous masterpieces: Chagall, Brauner, André Masson, Man Ray, Picasso (Reve et Mensonge de Franco) and the most important Americans: Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock…
--stunning sleeping room of Peggy (with her bed-head drawn by Calder)
--in the lower gallery, Bacon and an orgy of Pollock, Karel Appel, Alechinsky, Matta.
--in the futurist and abstract expressionist section: Kandinsky, Braque, Gino Severini, Arp, Jean Helion, Villon, more Picasso….

City's Angel and Annie

In the courtyard leading to the Grand Canal, have a look on an equestrian statue of Marino Marini called “The City’s Angel” (with Annie looking at you;-), see my web site). Marino Marini resolved here the eternal question of which is the sex of the angels by incorporating a penis that can be taken to pieces! In his “Memoires” Arthur Rubinstein tells us that the masculine attribute was taken away when important ecclesiastics came to visit. What can I say?  It will change us a bit from all the religious paintings elsewhere in Venice.

Bibliography

Italian hours, by James Henry-Venice, a traveller’s companion, by John Julius Norwich-The Companion guide to Venice, by Hugh Honour-Venice and its lagoon, by Giulio Lorenzetti.
Venice-A thousand Years of Culture and Civilisation, by Peter Lauritzen- l’Art Venitien, by Terisio Pignatti (Flammarion, 1992), Heures Italiennes, by Henry James (La difference 1985)