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Guggenheim was one of three daughters of New York businessman Benjamin Guggenheim and his wife Florette Seligman. Her father came from one of the wealthiest industrial families in America; he came in April 1912 when the R.M.S. sank. Titanic died in the Atlantic. The event made her the heir to a fortune worth millions. Her uncle was the American industrialist and art collector Solomon R. Guggenheim, founder of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. When Guggenheim came of age in August 1919, she inherited her inheritance. In 1920 she began a traineeship at the "Sunrise Turn" bookstore in New York. In 1921 Guggenheim moved to Paris, where she met many intellectuals and artists. Guggenheim, who rebelled against social norms from a young age, lived her own life - she not only developed a strong passion for collecting works of art, but also supported artists in their careers.
In 1922 she married the French painter and sculptor Laurence Vail. Together they became parents of two children. After eight years the marriage ended in divorce. She made her extensive private collection accessible to the public during her lifetime. She also provided the important publicity for numerous artists, including Wassily Kandinsky, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Jackson Pollock and Yves Tanguy, whom she discovered and made known as an artist. She supported the artists committedly, among other things, by purchasing pictures or arranging for them exhibitions. From 1942 to 1947 she ran the gallery "Art of this Century", which developed into a central contact point for the Surrealists, from which Abstract Expressionism emerged. In this respect, Guggenheim's gallery is important as the birthplace of this art movement, which became dominant in the post-war period.
From 1941 to 1943 she was married to the artist Max Ernst. During the time of the German wartime occupation, she acquired numerous works of art in Paris at rock-bottom prices, many of which then counted among the most important pieces in her collection. Among other things, she founded a gallery in London. After moving to Venice in 1947, she played a key role in shaping the European art scene. Her 1948 exhibition in Venice pulled the Biennale out of a slump in attention. Thanks to the successful efforts of Peggy Guggenheim, the event remained in the focus of public interest for 20 years and ranked as an annual exhibition event of the most important modern artists. The passionate art collector chose Venice as her permanent residence and acquired the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni in 1948. There she also laid the foundation for a unique large collection of expressionist and surrealist works of art.
In 1951, the art patron founded the "Salomon Guggenheim Foundation". She is now part of an international museum system owned by her family. The private collection, with over six thousand images and objects worth at least three billion dollars, was exhibited in New York for the first time. The works of art will be presented worldwide through a massive museum project. With her commitment and her magnificent collection, Peggy Guggenheim became a central figure in the establishment of avant-garde artists and their works.
Peggy Guggenheim died on December 23, 1979 in Venice.
The Guggenheim Museum is a modern art museum in New York. It was donated in 1937 by her uncle, the industrialist Solomon R. Guggenheim. A central artist in this is Wassily Kandinsky with his non-representational art.
