Confessions Of an Art Addict | 
 enlarge | Author: Peggy Guggenheim
Publisher: Ecco
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy New: $7.98
You Save: $7.02 (47%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 135000
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 176
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.5
ISBN: 0880015764
Dewey Decimal Number: 709.2
EAN: 9780880015769
ASIN: 0880015764
Publication Date: November 1, 1997
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Condition: New Soft Cover as Pictured: Not a remainder book: Minor shelf wear, some in-store browsing, and is priced accordingly. Satisfaction Guaranteed. In Stock: Daily shipping with email notification and free shipment tracking. (SC 3156)
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Product Description
A patron of art since the 1930s, Peggy Guggenheim, in a candid self-portrait, provides an insider's view of the early days of modern art, with revealing accounts of her eccentric wealthy family, her personal and professional relationships, and often surprising portrayals of the artists themselves. Here is a book that captures a valuable chapter in the history of modern art, as well as the spirit of one of its greatest advocates. 13 photos.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Not only an art addict... March 31, 2006
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
I became curious about Peggy Guggenheim, when last year, I visited her former home - Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, on the Grand Canal in Venice. Now a beautiful and exciting museum, made up of a great collection of paintings and sculptures.
I was very impressed by the famous artists I found there - Dali, Picasso, Max Ernst, Brancusi are just a few names. So I thought that such a woman must have had an interesting life.
But I have to say that the autobigraphy she wrote has no literary value whatsoever. Instead, it is a very honest, uninhibited story of a life dedicated to collecting pieces of art and their authors. Her motto was "buy one paiting per day" and she got much of the fame for her many affairs with artists. However, the efforts she made to promote XXth century art, by organizing exhibitions and art galleries can only be laudable.
A definite non conformist, she decided to quit college and left for Europe, where most of the American literary "nomads" of the time were going. Bohemian life style suited her perfectly. The vivid literary and artistic life in London and Paris, made her fall in love with these places.
I can only say "chapeau" to such a woman who was neither an artist, nor a critic, but loved art and artists, and who spent all her fortune to create what is today the most important museum in Italy for European and American art of the first half of the 20th century.
The story flows nicely and I also got the chance to find out a lot of interesting details about famous artists. The book can only be a pleasant and light reading on an intercontinental flight or on your coming soon vacation.
Brutal honesty? August 19, 2005
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Guggenheim doesn't seem to gilt her "Confessions" in velvet (or gold); she comes across as an honest soul wanting to relate her experiences--an influences--in the art world. Some of the things mentioned are her childhood, her marriages, Max Ernst, Brancusi, Kandinsky, Pollock, and Motherwell (to name but a few). Worth a read... and another read.
A strange an interesting book February 15, 2005
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
Undoubtedly, Miss Guggenheim led a colourful and interesting life. She had either great artistic insight and intigrity or a bratish desire to boost of her wealth.
I didn't reach a conclusion having read this book, but then maybe she was doing a bit of both and wanted to keep us guessing? I found the book enormously entertaining and informative if a little disrespectful of it's subject.
One cannot help but to consider that this disrespect and the virtual anonymous space she occupies in history, might be very different had she been Peter and not Peggy.
A great read for modern art lovers, a fairly good one for anyone else.
Though it cannot be helped nor altered, it is a book very heavy on characters, plot, and at times, weighty information; which can be very offputting and confusing.
 LOOK, THERE'S A LONG PRIAPUS ON YOUR HORSE! August 25, 2000
12 out of 16 found this review helpful
Here's the story of a woman that knew them all, felt the earth move under her feet with many of them, and bought their art for pretty much nothing. She recognized them when they were starting, and this makes her a Princess. This book is her equivalent to Gore Vidal's "Palimpsest" and Lillian Hellman's "Pentimento". This is one of those books that almost transports you to a long gone era, and makes you wish you could have been there to see it all.
 Confessions, Sort Of February 8, 2000
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
Peggy was a trip. She also apparently had no editor, or so it seems, which adds to the air of entitlement and oblique charm that permeates this book. Her accounts are interesting historically, though PG's slant on history is sometimes its own beast. This is a quick read and some of her observations will make you laugh out loud ("I was worried about my virginity--I was twenty-three and I found it burdensome..."), while others are chilling, especially the question of which Jews she deemed worthy of her efforts to help them get to the States. This may be more entertaining than informative, but it's both.
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