|
|
 |
|
| Visions & Revisions |
Growing the Guggenheim
12/01/2005
|
So museums are being forced to sell art to raise money for conservancy.
Most museums don’t have big enough endowments, and they can’t keep raising
admissions the way colleges can raise tuition. No one likes to dip into the art
assets, but sometimes museums find they must.
You wrote that, with the exception of Peggy, few Guggenheims have had any
true expertise in art. Even your grandfather, Solomon, sometimes balked at
modern pieces. Yet your family is now associated with expertise in modern
art.
My grandfather, Solomon, was heavily influenced by the Baroness von
Ehrenwiesen, a painter he hired to do his portrait. Now, I wasn’t there, but I
can just imagine her saying, “You’re a big success in the business world and
you’re getting along in years. You must be thinking of paying back society for
your great fortune. Have you ever considered nonrepresentational art?” I’m sure
he had no idea what nonrepresentational art was at the time, but he became
enraptured with both her and with the concept of what we call abstract art
today.
I do believe that Peggy was the only Guggenheim who really had the
expertise to judge art. And she certainly had the best advice possible because
of her very intimate relationships with some of the major artists of the 20th
century, including Marcel Duchamp, André Breton, Jackson Pollock and Max Ernst,
to whom she was briefly married. She had a passion for the art.
In your book
you recall that your grandfather’s suite in the Plaza Hotel was filled with
nonobjective art. Eventually he developed a passion for modern art.
Yes, even down to the purple fixtures in the bathroom. There was very modern
equipment in the bathroom.
As a child, how did you react to it?
The first painting I remember as a little boy was a (Amedeo) Modigliani nude
that stood out among all the others. There’s a reproduction of it in the book.
It’s modern, but not abstract. I remember thinking it was very pleasant to look
at and that’s about all.
Your children are active in the family’s art collection, so you must have
nurtured their interest.
My wife and I didn’t formally involve them; rather we let the interest arise
from the individual. My four children—Wendy, Tania, Peter and Mimi—are all
involved in the art legacy. My oldest daughter, Wendy, has been on the
Guggenheim board for 25 years and is chairman of our governance committee. I
look upon her as the conscience of the Guggenheim; she would never allow the
sale of any piece of art that my grandfather owned, not that we’d want to. Peter
is very successful in business, and he and his partnership have contributed
about $3 million to the endowment. Tania serves on the finance committee of the
Harry Guggenheim Foundation. My youngest, Mimi, worked as a docent for several
years at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, where she learned to speak
Italian and fell in love with Peggy’s art. She just recently joined the board
for that museum. They all take great pride in the art part of the family legacy.
Peggy has a granddaughter named Karole Vail who curates for us at the
Guggenheim in New York. She is very interested in carrying on the legacy. She
recently did a show at the Berlin Guggenheim. She’s been involved in many of our
exhibitions.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
