PEGGY GUGGENHEIM- ART ADDICT. 2015. A DOCUMENTARY FILM DIRECTED BY LISA IMMORDINO VREELAND. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
Coming to DVD and VOD on 22nd February 2016, courtesy of Dogwoof, is a rare treat indeed. It's rare in every sense of the word. It's a fascinating documentary about a truly gripping subject. I'd heard of Peggy Guggenheim before this assignment, certainly, but I must confess I knew little enough about her beyond a couple of key words. Art. Rich. That was about it, really. I'm a shocking cultural ignoramus, haha.
Thank Heavens, then, for Ms. Vreeland's excellent documentary. Yes, Peggy Guggenheim was rich and, yes, she was one of the most important figures in the twentieth-century art world. To box her off like that, however, is to deny oneself the pleasure of looking beyond the online encyclopaedia entry to the vibrant, refreshingingly liberated but often surprisingly timid woman underneath.
The idea for the documentary came about when tapes of Peggy's last ever interview came to light. The interview was conducted by Jacqueline B. Weld for her authorised biography of Peggy entiltled: PEGGY: THE WAYWARD GUGGENHEIM. The tapes were actually thought to be lost forever until they turned up in a basement somewhere. What a brilliant story! It makes you wonder how many other brilliant stories are hiding in the basements and the attics of the world, patiently waiting to be uncovered.
Did you know that Peggy Guggenheim's father, the rich banker Benjamin Guggenheim, died on the RMS TITANIC in 1912 along with a woman (his secretary) believed to be his mistress? He left Peggy a vast fortune, though not as vast as those her cousins would inherit, as apparently Benjamin's brothers were all even wealthier. Peggy's Uncle Solomon established the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, so that ought to show you how loaded they were, haha.
A few family facts before we move onto Peggy's establishing herself in '20s Paris as a patron, collector and lifelong promoter of art. Peggy's mum, Florence Seligman, was a trifle eccentric and three was seemingly her lucky number. She did things three times. She would wear three coats at once, for example. Strange? Yes. Awkward and inconvenient? Almost certainly. Still, when you're the wife of a millionaire, I guess you're entitled to a few idiosyncrasies. If I were a millionaire's missus, I'd take it as a licence to start being absolutely stark-raving bonkers. You can take that to the bank.
Peggy had two sisters, Benita and Hazel. Benita died in childbirth. Hazel, believe it or not, dropped her two small children off the roof of a building rather than let their father take them away from her. She never did jail-time for the childrens' deaths. This is just one of many extraordinary snippets of information about Peggy's long and colourful life contained in the (approx.) ninety-minute documentary. I must admit I was glued to it. It's absolutely fascinating stuff.
Peggy went to Paris, of course, when both she and the 20th century were in their twenties. She befriended artists, writers and sculptors and eventually exhibited the works of some of the most important artists of the time when she opened her own gallery, the GUGGENHEIM JEUNE. Such an art-lover she was! She lived for art. That much is patently obvious from the film. She didn't just want to own it, to be a hoarder or a miser of art. She wanted people everywhere to see it and enjoy it.
So many famous names cropped up in the documentary because of their connection to Peggy. Salvador Dali, Jackson Pollock, Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, Chagall, Joan Miro. You name them, she either was friends with them, exhibited their work or even gave them their first start in the art world. She was that most necessary of all things to artists, a true patron, even supporting artists while they created the lesser-known works that were the stepping-stones to their most famous oeuvres. Examples of some of these works are shown in the film. I felt awfully cultured watching it!
I loved hearing Peggy talk about how unafraid she was of the Nazis. 'I'm not afraid of anything,' she said, or words to that effect. Ballsy lady! Peggy, a Jewish woman who would have had much to fear from Hitler and his henchmen, took her precious works of art out of wartime Paris to where the Nazis couldn't get their hands on them.
I was fascinated too to watch the bit about the Nazis exhibition of so-called 'degenerate art.' Have you heard about that? They basically gathered about 650 of these works of art confiscated from German museums and exhibited them in Munich as examples of the kind of cultural degeneracy that they were committed to stamping out. Now, that's truly bonkers, but then I guess the Nazis weren't famed for their rational behaviour...!
Peggy was famed for her many lovers. In that sense, she was a truly liberated woman. She did exactly what men have always themselves done with impunity, that is to say, she bedded the men (and one or two women!) whom she found attractive without apologising for it. There's a great story about how she slept with writer Samuel Beckett and they stayed in bed for several days without separating physically except to let in room service. Kinky...!
Peggy didn't seem to find happiness with her several husbands, so I wouldn't begrudge her her many lovers. When asked if her first husband, Laurence Vail, knocked her about frequently, she replied that he wasn't terribly brutal, he only tried to drown her and he also walked on her stomach a bit. Oh well then, in that case...!
Poor Peggy, who said herself that she'd had several abortions, wasn't too lucky in her personal life. Her relationships with her children Sindbad and Pegeen were troubled at times and Pegeen, an artist, even took her own life when she was in her early forties.
I really liked the way Peggy came across in the documentary. She was one of the first people ever to have rhinoplasty, but when her nose job was botched she decided to leave it as it was, believe it or not. I liked hearing about how she hardly opened her mouth at all when she talked. I loved the pictures of her in her fur coats and pearls or in her simple 'Sixties dresses with her silver hair cut short.
When I get old, I want to be a game old girl just like her with tons of younger lovers and an over-riding passion for films and writing. They'd be to me what art was to Peggy. Although she didn't exactly grow old disgracefully, she did her own thing up until she died and that's what I want to do too. You could actually do a lot worse as a role model. The film also really made we want to go and look at art. We have some fantastic galleries here in Dublin and I don't visit 'em half enough.
I really think that Peggy, who regarded herself as the black sheep or the enfant terrible of her family, seemed like a good person, insecure about her looks maybe and about men as well, but a lovely person nonetheless. The documentary gives all kinds of little insights into her life and personality and, even if you don't think you're an art-lover, you'll enjoy this unprecedented behind-the-scenes glimpse into a truly well-lived life. Trust me. You will.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based performance poet, novelist, film blogger, sex blogger and short story writer. She has given more than 200 performances of her comedy sex-and-relationship poems in different venues around Dublin, including The Irish Writers' Centre, The International Bar, Toners' Pub (Ireland's Most Literary Pub), the Ha'penny Inn, Le Dernier Paradis at the Trinity Inn and The Strokestown Poetry Festival.
Her articles, short stories and poems have appeared in The Metro-Herald newspaper, Ireland's Big Issues magazine, The Irish Daily Star, The Irish Daily Sun and The Boyne Berries literary journal. In August 2014, she won the ONE LOVELY BLOG award for her (lovely!) horror film review blog. She is addicted to buying books and has been known to bring home rain-washed tomes she finds on the street and give them a home. In 2003, she was invited to be a guest on Niall Boylan's 98FM late-night radio talk show purely on the basis of having a 'sexy voice.'
She is the proud possessor of a pair of unfeasibly large bosoms. They have given her- and the people around her- infinite pleasure over the years. She adores the horror genre in all its forms and will swap you anything you like for Hammer Horror or JAWS memorabilia. She would also be a great person to chat to about the differences between the Director's Cut and the Theatrical Cut of The Wicker Man. You can contact her at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
so nice. :)
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