Ep. 2 - Beyond Art

After closing her New York museum-gallery, Art of This Century, in 1947, Peggy Guggenheim feels that there is only one place that she can truly call home: Venice. The city has taken up all the space left in her heart and is the place where she feels truly happy. The works she has collected with such passion and determination finally find a permanent home, where they are still on view today.

Great loves can be recognized almost immediately because they cause a very specific feeling: they make us feel at home. Perhaps this is how Peggy Guggenheim feels the first time she holds a bronze sculpture by Jean Arp. She  purchases it, and it becomes the first piece of her collection. Acquiring one artwork after another, she develops the idea of opening a museum.

The bohemian scene of 1920s Paris welcomes Peggy Guggenheim at a pivotal moment in her coming of age. She begins her work as a patron, forging friendships and romantic relationships that will forever shape her life. Not all these relationships will make her happy, but each will enrich her and bring her closer to her passions: first literature, then art.

Peggy Guggenheim is born into a family that has achieved the American Dream: both her grandfathers emigrated from Europe with third-class tickets and went on to find fortune in the United States, becoming some of the wealthiest men of their time. However, despite her family's considerable prosperity, Guggenheim experiences an unhappy childhood and soon embarks on a long journey towards freedom.