Knowledge, Passion, Persistence, Dedicated Mentors & Friends, and a Bit of Luck

This fall I “studied abroad” at Hunter College in New York City, after spending three academic years at the University of Michigan, the school from which I graduated with a B.A. in the history of art. At Hunter I took a basic sociology course and found that the differences between UMich and Hunter would make for an interesting sociological study in and of themselves… Regardless, among the many fascinating sociological concepts I learned are the ideas of social and cultural capital. In his 1986 work “The Forms of Capital,” French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu claimed that cultural capital includes knowledge, skills, and education – essentially the advantages that give a person status in society. Social capital is a specific form of cultural capital in which a person develops, or inherits, relationships with others that serve as support in social, legal, and professional situations – in other words, social capital is a person’s “network.”

In 1943, Howard Putzel introduced Jackson Pollock to Peggy Guggenheim. At first, Peggy was not particularly fond of Pollock’s work, however a good friend of Peggy’s Piet Mondrian, who happens to be one of the most important 20^th century artists, convinced Peggy of Pollock’s brilliance. Peggy purchased several works from Pollock and even commissioned him to do a mammoth mural for her home, enabling him to support himself solely through his work as an artist for the first time in his life. As it happens, one of the paintings Peggy purchased from Pollock was The She-Wolf (1943), which Alfred Barr, who at one time was the director of the Museum of Modern Art, later bought from Peggy for the MoMA, making it the first Pollock work in a public institution. Overtime Peggy grew increasingly enthusiastic about Pollock’s work and in late 1943 she gave him his first solo exhibition, which she held at her New York City gallery, Art of This Century. In 1947, Peggy decided to move to Venice, but before doing so she convinced Betty Parson’s to represent Pollock in Parson’s successful New York gallery. In 1948, Peggy exhibited Pollock’s paintings at the Venice Biennale; this was the first time Pollock’s work was exhibited in Europe. By that point, Peggy had purchased so many of Pollock’s works that she began donating them to museums across the world to increase appreciation for the up and coming artist. In other words, Peggy was Pollock’s cultural capital – she gave him visibility by connecting him to important galleries and other prominent artists, in both the U.S.and Europe. Peggy facilitated Pollock’s fame, and in many ways nurtured the abstract expressionist movement.

However, Peggy’s success as an art aficionado was itself a product of cultural, and specifically social, capital… This week a brilliant consultant for the Peggy Guggenheim Collection by the name of Dario Pinton came to speak to the new PGC interns. Early in his three-hour tour of the PGC, Pinton discussed the difference between a “museum” and a “collection,” (as in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection). He stated that a museum is a survey of objects from a specific, or multiple, historical/contemporary periods, whereas a collection is works that represent the taste of a specific person. He went on to claim that “the secret to Peggy’s collection is the people with which she surrounded herself, including advisors and artist friends.” In addition to Putzel, Mondrian, and Barr, Peggy accrued a long list of famous friends to advise her on her collection, perhaps the most notable of which is Marcel Duchamp. Peggy and Duchamp met in the 1920’s when she first moved to Europe and began collecting modern art. They became quick friends and by 1938, when Peggy opened her first gallery, the Guggenheim Jeune of London, Marcel Duchamp was essentially her chief advisor, helping her do decide whom to exhibit at the gallery and which works to buy in order to boost her burgeoning collection. Though the list of important people who surrounded Peggy and helped make her the icon she is today, goes on forever, for the sake of holding your attention, I’ll leave you with this last thought: nothing better than knowledge, passion, persistence, dedicated mentors & friends, and a bit of luck – with those five ingredients we can truly do anything we set our minds to…

1. Jackson Pollock, The She-Wolf, 1943, Oil, gouache, and plaster on canvas, Museum of Modern Art.

2. Photograph of Peggy Guggenheim with friends in her New York Apartment, 1942. Front Row: Stanley William Hayder, Leonora Carrington, Frederick Kiesler, Kurt Seligmann. Second row: Max Ernst, Amadee Ozenfant, Andre Breton, Fernand Leger, Berenice Abbott. Third row: Jimmy Ernst, Peggy Guggenheim, John Ferren, Marcel Duchamp & Piet Mondrian.