'Art Addict' & The Passions Of Peggy Guggenheim
Despite the monetary connotations of her name, Peggy Guggenheim amassed one of the greatest collections of modern art in the world, and she did so without throwing tons of money around. Instead, she followed her heart, moved to Europe, married artists, saved works from wartime destruction, and, when she returned stateside, helped support painters like Jackson Pollock. In comparison to what her collection is worth today, she payed pennies for paintings by last century's masters. While it's easy to point to her privilege as paving the way for her legacy, Guggenheim gave her lifeblood to be connected to the work she loved, and that's what a new film from Lisa Immordino Vreeland seeks to show.
Art Addict is a straight-forward, chronological examination of Guggenheim's life, fleshed out with archival photos, interviews and, of course, works of art. Much of the audio in the film is from tapes recorded by her biographer and thought to have been lost. Like a pinball, Guggenheim's story bounces from movement to movement (Dadaism to surrealism to abstract expressionism) and traces a line that runs parallel to the most important developments in modern art. Think of some artist you love from the last century, and Guggenheim probably knew them. Some, she financially supported or was the first to show in one of her several galleries. Others, like Max Ernst, she married. While she may not have been an influencer in modern thought or criticism, she was a vehicle that helped propel artists, including several women, into the spotlight, and thus the historical record.
The most interesting points of the film have to do with Guggenheim's relationships to artists and thinkers, such as Marcel Duchamp. Several of these relationships were romantic, and Art Addict explores Guggnheim's interest in sex. She had no shame, as it were, and that's part of her appeal. She's portrayed as an outsider, a woman who acted much like the men in her life and didn't care if she was condemned for it. Her memoirs attest to this. However, one area where Guggenheim's appeared to struggle was parenting. Her daughter died young and tragically, and her son became allergic to anything art-related. This is not to say she was a bad mother, just that her overwhelming interest in art and legacy definitely took precedent over her domestic life. Still, these details flesh out Vreeland's portrait of Guggenheim. The moral takeaway here is that while money goes a long was in shaping history, individual passion, vision and determination are much more important.
Art Addict is playing at the Lagoon Cinema.
