Page 17 - Studio International - January 1965

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection

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life. without falling into a stale aestheticism. a note of
detachment from every day's reality, an aloofness lady­
like and polemic at the same time.
Does there exist then an art of living different from
that which is codified by the etiquette of traditional
aristocratic customs? Peggy chose the ·surrealistic' way
of living (she was not Max Ernst's wife for nothing).
Palazzo Venier dei Leoni is the most distinct antithesis
of I Tatti. Berenson·s famous villa at Settignano. Beren­
son was a refined gentleman. a rather cynical humanist.
who little by little created for himself a dwelling fit for
his taste and his culture. Berenson was the purest
incarnation of a snob fin de siecle. of an aesthete with
a precious conversation. much appreciated by the
intellectual society described by Proust.
Peggy, on the contrary. acts as a wonderful interpreter
of the period between the two world wars and the
second one seen from the American exile. which per­
mitted her to make accurate researches in the artistic
milieu of New York. enlivened by the presence. at the
same time. of so many European exiles such as Leger.
Mondrian. Ernst. Chagall. Breton. etc.
Of those well-directed researches. many documents
::ire left in Peggy's collection. which has been growing
morP and more on the scheme traced by Herbert Read
and on her personal experiences. after an historical plan
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