frederick kiesler

frederick kiesler. peggy and kiesler: the collector and the visionary ...................................................................................................................................

......................... shop .................. competitions .............. education ................ interviews ................... snapshots ................... history .......... contemporary

peggy and kiesler: the collector and the visionary

peggy guggenheim collection, venice,
through october 10, 2004

peggy guggenheim’s new york museum-gallery art of this century
is legendary as much for the extraordinarily innovative design of
its exhibition spaces as for the groundbreaking collection and
exhibitions of avant-garde european and american art that it hosted.
invited by peggy guggenheim in february 1942 to convert two
57th street tailor shops into galleries for her already formidable
collection of early modernist european art, visionary austrian
architect and artist frederick kiesler created what has come
to be considered an architectural masterpiece, exploring radical
new possibilities of exhibition design. kiesler’s theory of unity
between art and environment led him to design three distinct
gallery spaces, abstract, surrealist and kinetic, the interiors
of which were conceived as extensions of the imaginary
space and content of the works of art themselves.
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peggy and kiesler: the collector and the visionary
will be the first exhibition to consider in depth the legacy of the
collaboration between peggy guggenheim and frederick kiesler.
the exhibition presents extensive archival material including
over 150 original architectural drawings, exhibition announcements
and catalogues, letters, invoices, documents and photographs.
examples of kiesler’s famous ‘correalistic’ furniture will be
shown in the exhibition galleries alongside a number of
paintings and sculptures that made their first appearance at
art of this century. significantly, this exhibition is presented in
the context of the peggy guggenheim collection, in the presence
of the many masterpieces shown at art of this century,
thereby representing a unique opportunity to study the
unprecedented synthesis of architecture and art that the
gallery created.
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the show has been organized with the frederick and
lillian kiesler foundation, vienna.

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