American art collector, bohemian and socialite.

Her singular career spanned the modern era, linking the Dada and Surrealist movements with Abstract Expressionism. She collected and championed artists from Vasily Kandinsky to Jackson Pollock to Yves Tanguy, and made few distinctions between her business and private lives: her two marriages were to artists, Dadaist Laurence Vail and Surrealist Max Ernst, amid a string of liaisons and intrigues with the likes of Samuel Beckett and Constantin Brancusi.

Her taste for Surrealism, in particular, set her in opposition to Guggenheim Museum curator and director Hilla Rebay, who was dedicated to nonobjectivity and found both Surrealist symbolism and the gallery business crass and materialistic. Where Rebay, and through her influence, Solomon Guggenheim, were dedicated to art and the creation of a public museum as a spiritual pursuit, for Peggy, accordingto her granddaughter, curator Karole Vail, “her life and her art collecting were completely intertwined.”

Peggy Guggenheim was a fashion icon and was know for her extensive collection of out-there accessories. She commissioned painter Edward Melcarth to create bat-wing and butterfly eyeglasses, and her pouf of white hair, red lipstick, and extravagant earrings, they became her signature.

Gallery

Inspo for instillation

Yves Tanguy gave these earrings (shown below), his smallest paintings, to Peggy Guggenheim in 1938 at the time of his exhibition at her London gallery, Guggenheim Jeune. I love the fact that I have never seen something like this. I have never seen small paintings as earrings. I’ve never even thought about creating earring that might have a complete unique take on them. This has really inspired me to create something as a response to her work.

On the studio practice part of my blog, I will be experimenting with various designs to create some unique earrings.