Venice is the ‘art city’ of 2026, with the 61st edition of La Biennale di Venezia running from May until November.

At the same time the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, has a new exhibition to enjoy, it’s about Peggy’s days in London when she opened her first gallery.

The show entitled ‘The Making of a Collector’ is curated by the super-talented Grazina Subelyte and shines the spotlight on Peggy’s early days as a collector and her London Gallery known as ‘Guggenheim Jeune’ which opened at 30 Cork St, Mayfair in January 1938. The Gallery was a beacon for avant garde and surrealist artists of the time. Peggy hosted the first solo show of Kandinsky at the Cork St Gallery.

‘The Making of a Collector’ runs until October in Venice. Then it moves to The Royal Academy, London where it opens in mid-November. Its final port of call is The Guggenheim, New York in 2027.

Peggy’s art gallery in London opened in January 1938. The gallery known as ‘Guggenheim Jeune‘ was located on Cork St, Mayfair (still an important gallery area today). The gallery hosted more than a dozen exhibitions during its short life, including Vasily Kandinsky’s first solo show in London. Peggy used her exceptional and eclectic artistic taste to facilitate exhibitions by artists little known in England at the time. The show in Venice focuses on the avant-garde trends of the 1930s, especially surrealism and abstract art.

I particularly enjoyed the Kandinsky canvases, showing the development of the artist over the years.

A surprise discovery for me was the puppet collection of Marie Vassilieff. This interesting woman spent her life surrounded by these dolls or puppets, made by hand in her studio in the south of France. Photos below include St Francis of Assisi and his counterpart St Clare, both of whom were the spiritual leaders of their respective monasteries in Italy. Now forever woven into my mind’s eye as characterful and rather comic puppets.

There are also works by Barbara Hepworth, Rita Kernn-Larsen, Piet Mondrian, Henry Moore, Yves Tanguy, Augustus John and Cedric Morris. Even Pegeen, Peggy’s daughter is included in the show.

I’ve been a big fan of the curator Grazina Subelyte for a while now. She has the ability to find and display unusual and interesting art. She curated the superb ‘Surrealism and Magic’ exhibition in 2022. The show which was quite brilliant featured Leonora Carrington (a favourite of mine), Max Ernst, Leonor Fini and Yves Tanguy – some of the art shown, including the famous Cat Woman by Leonora Carrington was being shown in Venice for the first time. You can read the full article here. Surrealism and Magic – Venice

Given Peggy’s influence on modern art and her direct involvement in the Biennale event, where she generously showed her private collection in 1948, it is fitting that her work as a collector and patron ten years earlier, whilst in London, should be considered in Venice at the time of the 61st Biennale.

_{Letters above (The Guggenheim, Venice) June, 1948 discuss Peggy’s collection being shown at 1948 Biennale – Peggy in Delphos Gown, designed in Venice}

The impact that Peggy Guggenheim had and continues to have on contemporary art in Venice is enormous. The photo above right shows five centuries of art in one frame, taken in the courtyard garden at Peggy’s Palazzo. If you look carefully you can see Ca’ Dario palazzo top left (15th-16th Century), then the Dome of Salute (17th Century), next there’s Peggy’s palazzo – 18th-19th Century, and finally 20th Century – Anish Kapoor sculpture (black granite) and La Vache (Alexander Calder) – bright red.

_{Kandinsky ‘Courbe Dominante’ 1936 (left). Peggy at home with the doggies (right).}

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LASTLY…….

Another highlight of the ‘Collector in London’ show is the ‘Know Yourself’ painting by Rita Kernn-Larsen, a Danish artist who came to London for Peggy’s exhibition and couldn’t return because of the outbreak of war in September, 1939. Photo below.

Sadly Peggy’s gallery closed in June, 1939. War clouds were gathering over Europe. There was a dark time ahead. War was declared on 1st September, 1939.

If you are in Venice in the coming months I’d strongly recommend a visit to the Guggenheim Collection. It’s hard to put into words the quality of the permanent collection and the thought-provoking charm of the temporary exhibition currently on show.

• Other articles that I’ve written about The Biennale and Peggy Guggenheim:
• Peggy Guggenheim – Modern Art in Venice
• Venice Biennale 2026: A Journey Through Art
• Venice – Biennale 2022
• Venice – La Biennale 2024
• Venice Biennale 2026 – In Minor Keys…

Written by Janet Simmonds – www.educated-traveller.com

Questions / Comments to: janet@grand-tourist.com

April 2026

June 2026