The art gallery in Cork Street

In 1938, seeking work, Peggy Guggenheim moved from Paris to London and opened the gallery Guggenheim Jeune on Cork Street, choosing it over a publishing house for its lower costs. Within eighteen months, the gallery became a landmark for the European avant‑garde, hosting exhibitions of Picasso, Ernst, Kandinsky, Dalí, Magritte, Arp, and Miró. Guggenheim organized more than twenty pioneering shows, including Kandinsky’s first UK solo exhibition, a monograph on Jean Cocteau, Britain’s first exhibition devoted entirely to collage, a scandal‑stirring sculpture show, and a presentation of works by children, featuring early paintings by Lucian Freud and Peggy’s daughter Peggen. These years shaped Guggenheim’s identity as a patron and collector, reinforcing her ambition to found a modern art museum. When World War II began, she left for Paris to gather artworks on her “legendary list,” then brought them safely to New York, where she opened Art of This Century. This pivotal London chapter is revisited in the exhibition Peggy Guggenheim in London. Birth of a Collector, featuring around one hundred works by artists such as Agar, Arp, Hepworth, Kandinsky, Mondrian, Moore, Taeuber-Arp, and Tanguy. Paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, and archival materials retrace the vibrant, experimental atmosphere of a turbulent prewar Europe.

Featured image: Gisèle Freund, Herbert Read e Peggy Guggenheim, 1939 (stampata nel 1977) – Archivio Collezione Peggy Guggenheim, Venezia, Acquisto grazie a Ikona Photo Gallery, Venezia, 1988