Portrait of an art lover

A new documentary film offers an intimate look at Peggy Guggenheim, known as much for the number of men she slept with as her lasting mark on 20th century art.

“Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict” delves into the idiosyncratic collector’s life, using previously unheard recorded interviews that were her last before dying in 1979 at age 81.

From losing her father who went down on the Titanic to her many lovers – including Samuel Beckett, Max Ernst and Marcel Duchamp – the documentary offers a riveting portrait of Guggenheim, exploring everything from her troubled relationship with her daughter, Pegeen, to her botched nose job.

Filmmaker Lisa Immordino Vreeland, who interviewed some 60 people for the film, says she decided to do a film on Guggenheim to offer a full and honest portrait of a complex woman largely known for her sexual exploits and less for her lasting mark on the art world.

“I felt that she was really misunderstood and her role in art history was something that was too tempered because people really didn’t understand what her accomplishments were,” says Vreeland, whose 2011 feature debut was a documentary about fashion photographer Diana Vreeland, her husband’s grandmother.

“Guggenheim’s other side, the sexual side, her exploits, make up her fantastic character,” Vreeland says. “But it was really not about the lovers, it was about this very contemporary approach that she took to life.”

The film charts Guggenheim’s journey as she used her modest fortune to amass one of the most impressive collections of 20th century art, initially guided by instinct and French painter Duchamp.

Her patronage helped launch the careers of American artists like Jackson Pollock, whom she supported with a monthly stipend, and Ernst, whom she married and divorced in two years.

 “She not only connected with the art but she connected with the artists and her life became very much that,” Vreeland says. “She made very courageous choices and we always have to think about Peggy and courage.”

The film delves into Guggenheim’s troubled and tragic family life.

She was devastated by the loss of her father at the age of 13 and then later by the death of her lover, the English intellectual John Holms, described as the greatest love of her life.

She also had a fraught relationship with her two children from her marriage to the writer Laurence Vail.

“I think she really had some emotional voids in her life and the art filled it up,” Vreeland says.

The film, which chronicles different periods in Guggenheim’s life, also brings across her loneliness as she took her impressive art collection and finally settled at her 18th century palace in Venice.

Vreeland said while Guggenheim was initially referred to as the “crazy American” in Venice, she soon became a star attraction and everyone came knocking on her door.

“But I think she did feel quite alone,” Vreeland says. “I think she always felt it but it came out much more toward the end of her life.”

Vreeland says she hoped her film will change Guggenheim’s legacy and ensure she is remembered for her indelible mark on the history of art.

“She had a very important and significant role in London, Paris, New York and Venice,” Vreeland says. “And historically, nobody had this kind of role worldwide.”