1948: The Biennale of Peggy Guggenheim Group Show

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the exhibition of the collection of Peggy Guggenheim in the Greek Pavilion at the 24th Venice Biennale. In order to commemorate this milestone event in the history of 20th-century art, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection presents an homage exhibition 1948: The Biennale of Peggy Guggenheim, curated by Gražina Subelytė, Assistant Curator, installed in the Project Rooms from 25 May to 25 November 2018.

The exhibition will partially recreate the setting of the pavilion through documents, photographs, letters, and for the first time a three-dimensional model of the pavilion installation. The layout had been designed by the distinguished Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa, who collaborated with the Biennale from 1948 to 1972. Selected works from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection will be on view in the exhibition together with others donated by Guggenheim, such as Composition No. 113 (1939) by Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart and Composition (1936) by Jean Hélion, now in the collection of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. These gifts have not been seen in Venice since the 1950s. In 1948 the presentation of the collection offered the European public the opportunity to catch up with the latest artistic developments and to see the New York artists who would dominate the art scene through the 1950s. The present exhibition will therefore offer the opportunity to re-examine this watershed event in Guggenheim’s career and in the history of the Biennale.