Peggy Guggenheim and Venice

Last summer, I was lucky enough to visit the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. The museum is itself almost a piece of art due to its Venetian-palace-style architecture and its prime location on the Grand Canal. Its veranda harbors a breathtaking view that places you in the midst of the mesmerizing water.

Moreover, the collection also hosts intricate futurist and modernist artworks, among them some paintings by my favorite Wassily Kandisky. However, the painting I chose to show here is not by Kandisky, but the ex-husband of Peggy Guggenheim (whose father is the Guggenheim that went down with the Titanic!) Max Ernst. The description says the figure in red dress is supposed to be the "angry Peggy" in Ernst's perception at that time due to a turbulent period of their relationship that ultimately led to their divorce.

I was so fascinated by this museum and Peggy's interaction and sponsorship of the artists that I came back and bought her autobiography Out of This Century: Confessions of an Art Addict, which is an easy yet fun read that I'd recommend to everyone.