Peggy Guggenheim’s influential—and short-lived—London gallery to be celebrated in new show in Venice and London’s Royal Academy

The primary portray Lucian Freud ever exhibited shall be a spotlight of a present devoted to the legacy of Peggy Guggenheim’s groundbreaking contribution to the event of Twentieth-century artwork.

Her London gallery Guggenheim Jeune’s transient tenure—it opened in Cork Road in January 1938 and closed 18 months later—makes its affect on the route of up to date artwork in Britain within the Twentieth century much more exceptional. And will probably be celebrated with Peggy Guggenheim in London: The Making of a Collector, an exhibition of greater than a 100 works opening on the Peggy Guggenheim Assortment in Venice in spring 2026 (25 April-19 October 2026) earlier than touring to the Royal Academy in London (21 November 2026-14 March 2027). “The story we wish to inform focuses on Guggenheim’s monumental private contribution to the visibility and acceptance of up to date artwork in London at the moment,” says Grazina Subelyte, an affiliate curator on the Peggy Guggenheim Assortment in Venice and a co-curator of the exhibition.

“Guggenheim Jeune confirmed probably the most up-to-the-minute artwork—Salvador Dali, Eileen Agar, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore and Piet Mondrian amongst them—at a time when London wasn’t the stage for modern artwork in the way in which it’s now. Certainly, Peggy paved the way in which for that. Her exhibition of up to date sculpture in April 1938 was the primary occasion of its sort, and included works by Jean Arp, Alexander Calder, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Constantin Brâncuși. The truth is, it was so trailblazing that the director of the Tate was required to certify that it truly was sculpture, to keep away from Peggy having to pay import obligation.”

In all, there have been greater than 20 exhibitions at Guggenheim Jeune earlier than it closed on the eve of the Second World Warfare. Among the many different standout exhibits was Vasily Kandinsky’s first solo London exhibition, together with his pivotal piece Dominant Curve (1936). Different highlights included the first-ever main collage group present in Britain, which included works by an artist who would later be Guggenheim’s husband, Max Ernst; portraits by Cedric Morris; and particular person exhibits for the French painter Yves Tanguy and the Danish Surrealist Rita Kernn-Larsen. “This was the primary exhibition of surrealism Peggy ever organised—and surrealism and abstraction can be the artwork actions she would at all times be linked with,” Subelyte says.

In response to her co-curator, the editor of Picpus journal Simon Grant, it could have been her private curiosity in progressive training—each her personal youngsters went to modern faculties—that led her to organise an exhibition of works by youngsters, through which the teenage Lucian Freud confirmed his portray Outdated Males Working (1936). “We have now nearly no archival materials concerning the exhibition, which passed off in October 1938,” he says. “Peggy referenced the Freud work later as Working Males however I feel she misremembered it, and the portray proven was Outdated Man Working. This was the primary time a piece by Freud was ever proven in a public gallery.”

General, Grant says, Guggenheim was exceptional for her risk-taking and her openness to displaying unknown artists. “The checklist of individuals whose work she confirmed at Guggenheim Jeune is extraordinary, lots of them went on to change into family names, however they definitely weren’t that on the time. Take the Austrian Mexican painter Wolfgang Paalen, he was pretty unknown within the UK on the time, and she or he gave him a present. There was lots taking place round Trendy artwork in Europe again then, however she was one of some individuals who had been pioneering it in Britain.”

Though Guggenheim Jeune was an enormous success when it comes to launching modern artists in Britain, it misplaced cash financially. Peggy closed it hoping to open a Museum of Trendy Artwork in London, alongside together with her chief creative adviser Herbert Learn; however within the occasion the conflict intervened, and the artists whose work was proven on the London gallery grew to become the premise for the gathering she later moved to Venice, now housed in her palazzo on the Grand Canal.