Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict

This "Art Addict" bio-documentary offers the inquisitive viewer a very informed overview of the life and times of wealthy, American socialite, Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979).

Early in her adult life, Guggenheim became intensely interested in 20th century art and its artists and, as a result, she is noted as being instrumental in advancing the careers of a number of painters who would have, otherwise, been unrecognized in their specialized profession.

All-in-all - (Due to its historical relevance in the realm of the art world) - I enthusiastically recommend this presentation as being worthwhile viewing.

In fairness the title does specifically state that this film is about Peggy Guggenheim but her story is not a new one or particularly interesting. She was the stereotypical poor little rich girl but this documentary seems to put her in some kind of heroic light. Yes she got some artists out of Nazi occupied Europe but it showed just how dim witted she was when she was asked if she was afraid that she might be put into a concentration camp if the Nazis caught her and she replied that being scared was not in her nature. That is pretty much the essence of this documentary, it's a puff piece on her to turn her into some kind of super hero.

There is a little about the art and artists she displayed in her gallery but not nearly enough, it was all about a woman who was born with a silver spoon in her mouth who used her money to showcase art that she personally liked. The truth is she was a woman completely devoid of any artistic talent herself but hung around artists in order to make her feel like she was in their world.

Peggy Guggenheim accomplished two things noteworthy and lasting enough for books to be written and documentaries to be filmed about her, even to this day. She nurtured a set of talented young artists that turned out to be among the most influential of her century, and she put together one of the world's great collections of work by this same group of artists.

And there's more. She was quite a character. The guts that she showed in following her tastes in art also led her to affairs, brief and occasionally longer, with men, often young men, and especially artists she admired for more than their artistic talents. This led her to be widely gossiped about, not that this mattered enough to her to change her ways.

The film is sympathetic but not at all hagiographic. It's very well put together, framed around a candid oral interview with her late in life, and interspersed with comments from dozens of art world luminaries-- artists, dealers, critics--who knew her (sometimes in several senses of that term).

The film points out the duplicity of the culture that tolerates sexual promiscuity in males more than in females. Looking back on her life at the end of the film, Guggenheim comments on what made her happiest and on what she still desired most. Happily for the viewer, she speaks as honestly and as bluntly then as always.

Peggy Guggenheim (1898 - 1979), a famous art collector who contributed to the modern art movement beginning in the 1940s, is the subject of this American documentary.

This film includes recordings of an interview with Guggenheim shortly before her death. As the tapes had been thought lost, they add heft to the film. And the content itself is more than engaging.

Peggy is the niece of Solomon Guggenheim who founded the famous museum in New York. The stories of her family background make for great drama by themselves, sadly including tragedies in her childhood as well as in middle-age.

With fabulous footage and interviews, this film follows its subject's life and career at a fine pace. They include that great era of Paris in the 1920s, WWII, and the post-war years in New York and later, Venice. Taking the viewer through art history lessons is a bonus.

The viewer also gets to vicariously enjoy watching the lives of the jet-setting rich and famous with all the indulgences and many incidents of sleeping around. By the end, we feel internally richer getting to know a fascinating woman well ahead of her time. A fine doc, indeed.

I enjoyed watching Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict, even though I found the relentless insults hurled at her by John Richardson (a Picasso biographer) to be a bit grating. I wonder if he was simply jealous that she managed to accomplish so much while, according to him, lacking taste, intelligence, and basically anything aside from ambition? Anyway, the life story of this woman is definitely colorful and frankly remarkable, as she was far more liberated than the typical women of her time. The film would have been better without the snarky interjections of Richardson, but I suppose that it revealed a more general contempt endured by Peggy Guggenheim throughout her lifetime by people just like him.