 Introduzione
The Peggy Guggenheim Museum is a foundation that is housed inside Palazzo Venier dai Leoni, unfinished 18th century palazzo building with just one floor that looks out onto the Grand Canal. The palace, only a few steps away from the Church of Santa Maria della Salute and the Palazzo Corner della Ca' Grande, was begun in 1749, but was never completed. The aristocratic Venier family are said to have kept lions in the sleepy garden - hence the appellation dei Leoni (of the Lions). Containing prinicipally the personal art collection of Peggy Guggenheim (18981979), a former wife of artist Max Ernst and a niece of mining magnate Solomon R. Guggenheim. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is the most important museum in Italy for European and American art of the first half of the 20th century. Philip Rylands is the museum's current director. It is one of several museums of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.
 History
The American Peggy Guggenheim (1884-1979) opened a museum of contemporary art in London in 1939, and in 1942 the Art of the Century Gallery in New York from which her private Venetian collection of cubist, abstract and surrealist paintings is derived. In 1948 Peggy Guggenheim first exhibited her collection at the Bienniale in Venice. Shortly afterwards the ca' Venier dei Leoni became her new residence and here she opened her collection to the public. Today the collection belongs to the Salomon R. Guggenheim foundation in New York set up by Peggy's uncle, but with the proviso that the works of art should remain as a museum in Venice.
 Location
Address: 704 Dorsoduro, I-30123 Venezia
Transit: The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is located on the Grand Canal between the Accademia Bridge and the Church of Santa Maria della Salute.
From Piazzale Roma or Ferrovia:
vaporetto no. 82, direction Lido, Accademia stop
vaporetto no. 1, direction Lido, Accademia or Salute stops
From Piazza San Marco:
vaporetto no. 82, direction P. Roma, Accademia stop
vaporetto no. 1, direction P. Roma, Salute or Accademia stops
 Art works
The works on display include those of prominent American modernists and Italian futurists. Pieces in the collection embrace Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism. These include notable works by Picasso, Dali, Brancusi (including a sculpture from the Bird in Space series) and Pollock. The collection includes works by Max Ernst, to whom Peggy Guggenheim was married (The Kiss, 1927), Pablo Picasso (On the Beach, 1937), Georges Braques (Clarinet, 1912), Fernard Leger (City People, 1919), Jean Metzinger (Cycle Track, ca. 1914), Joan Miro (Dutch Interior II, 1928), Salvador Dali (The Birth of Liquid Desires, 1931/2), Paul Klee (Portrait of Mrs. P in the South, 1924), Rene Magritte (The Voice of Space, 1931), Alberto Giacometti (Woman on Foot, 1932), Constantin Brancusi (Maiastra, ca. 1912), Piet Mondrian (Composition, 1938/9), Marc Chagall (Rain, 1911), and Jackson Pollock (Moonwoman, 1942). In one room, the museum also exhibits a few paintings by her daughter Pegeen Vail. In the courtyards between the main buildings are sculpture gardens containing an extensive collection of works. Its most famous (or notorious) exhibit is the 1948 bronze The Angel of the City by Marino Marini, positioned at the front of the palazzo, facing the Grand Canal.
 Useful information
Telephone +39.041.2405411
Email: info@guggenheim-venice.it
Open: 10am-6pm
Closed: Tuesdays and December 25
Tips: Photography prohibited.
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