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The exhibition is curated by Gražina Subelytė, Curator, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, and Simon Grant, Guest Curator
From 25 April to 19 October 2026, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection presents the first, largest exhibition ever held in a museum setting, celebrating the London adventure of Peggy Guggenheim and her first gallery, Guggenheim Jeune, which operated in London between 1938 and 1939.
Over the course of eighteen months, from January 1938 to June 1939, the Guggenheim Jeune gallery would become a point of reference for the avant-garde of the time, known for promoting and showcasing local and international artists, many of whom were linked to the artistic trends of abstraction and Surrealism. The exhibition sheds light on a crucial period that helped define Peggy Guggenheim as a collector and patron, highlighting the network of influences and friendships – from Marcel Duchamp to Mary Reynolds to Samuel Beckett – that shaped her vision.
Guggenheim Jeune hosted more than twenty exhibitions, including Vasily Kandinsky's first solo exhibition in London, a monographic exhibition dedicated to Jean Cocteau, the first group exhibition in the UK dedicated to collage, and an exhibition of contemporary sculpture that caused a scandal.
Peggy Guggenheim in London. Nascita di una collezionista brings together key works exhibited in those pioneering exhibitions, as well as similar works from the same period, by artists such as Eileen Agar, Salvador Dalí, Barbara Hepworth, Rita Kernn-Larsen, Henry Moore, Vasily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Cedric Morris, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and others. The exhibition will also include archival materials, testifying to an era of intense experimentation and cultural ferment, close to the outbreak of the Second World War.
After Venice, the exhibition will move to London, to the Royal Academy of Arts, in autumn 2026, and to the Guggenheim New York in spring 2027.
For more details, please visit the official website.
Source IAT Venice
