italy

Some say that she never found true love in her life, but others say that she did…her dogs and her art!

The tree does not look like the tree I have seen in other photos but this little guy next to the Yoko Ono sign seemed peaceful to me!

Emerson made so much fun of me and rightfully so! I walked into the Peggy Guggenheim sculpture garden and was overly excited to see it all. I said to the kids, “look around and take it all in! Check out the cool ghost statues on the roof next to the cherub statues.” Emerson said, “Mom- are you kidding? They are moving in the wind. Those are big umbrellas, not statues!” I said, “That’s the beauty of art- it’s everywhere!” Aye-yi-yi!

Peggy Guggenheim was an interesting, eccentric lady. It was rumored that she had over a thousand lovers in her life (both men and women.) She didn’t seem to care what people thought of her social escapades or the art she chose to collect. It was known that she loved art and sex in equal measure, and was also turned on by fame. She wrote about sleeping with many artists that helped influence her art purchases, but she mainly chose things that she loved.
Peggy was the original poor little rich girl, born in 1898 to extremely wealthy parents in New York City. She inherited a lot of money after her father Benjamin died when the Titanic sunk in 1912.
She could have chosen a cushy life of a socialite but Peggy Guggenheim was so much more than that: “she was an art collector who believed that some works are worth keeping safe in the collective cultural memory, protecting them against obscurity, as if it were a noble cause.”
Emerson took the following photos of art that she liked.

The white flowers with black background is an Andy Warhol. It said that it exemplified his constant conflict with life and death.

In some of places we have visited- water is quite scarce. People have to walk miles carrying large jugs. In Italy, you are never too far from a quick drink which is great because we get thirsty wandering around all day. (Check out the fish market tent behind Maddux. There are little shops like this all around the city. If you feel like fresh seafood- you would be in luck!)