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THEMES AND VARIATIONS POST-WAR ART FROM THE GUGGENHEIM COLLECTIONS February 2 – August 4, 2002

On Friday 1st February 2002, the Collection, , will inaugurate Themes and Variations – Post-war Art from the Guggenheim Collections. Curated by Luca Massimo Barbero, this 6-month cycle of installations will assemble , sculptures and works on paper - both European and American, but predominantly Italian – from the holdings of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, with a small number of additional private loans.

This dynamic and innovative project sets out to provide a fuller understanding and contextualization of the post-war works in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. A series of three two-month installations – examining in turn a succession of movements and artists with which Peggy Guggenheim was affiliated first in New York and later Venice - will present works by a strong group of post-war 20th century artists, including Edmondo Bacci, Francis Bacon, César, Joseph Cornell, Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Alberto Giacometti, Asger Jorn, Bice Lazzari, René Magritte, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson, Mimmo Rotella, Giuseppe Santomaso, Tancredi, Laurence Vail, Victor Vasarely and Emilio Vedova.

Themes and Variations provides an opportunity to present for the first time recent acquisitions of post-war art, including important works by Carla Accardi, Agostino Bonalumi, Costantino Nivola, Mimmo Rotella and Toti Scialoja, alongside previously acquired works by Edmondo Bacci, , Conrad Marca-Relli, Giuseppe Santomaso and . A series of private loans will further strengthen the representation of Italian post-war art; it is in this context that the work of Mirko Basaldella will be presented in depth in the course of the initial February- March installation.

Throughout the 1950s Peggy Guggenheim both promoted and collected the art of an emerging group of young Italian artists in Venice, among them Bacci, Pizzinato, Santomaso, Tancredi and Vedova. Unknown to her, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York was at the same time assembling its own collection of works by Italian artists of the same generation such as Afro, Burri and Capogrossi. When in 1976 the collection of Peggy Guggenheim was merged with that of the museum founded by her uncle, their respective holdings of Italian post-war art were found to be remarkably complementary.

This depth and diversity forms the basis of the current exhibition, and for that reason a number of key post-war works, by artists such as Alberto Burri, Lucio Fontana and , will be borrowed from the collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

A selection of Italian post-war paintings and sculptures from the combined Guggenheim collections will then be offered to exhibition venues within Italy, accompanied by a catalogue to be published at the conclusion of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection presentation.

THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION

Banca del Gottardo is Institutional Patron of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection

The programs of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection are made possible by the Peggy Guggenheim Collection Advisory Board, Alitalia, Regione Veneto and: ______INTRAPRESÆ COLLEZIONE GUGGENHEIM Aermec Hausbrandt Andersen Leo Burnett Arclinea Lubiam 1911 Automotive Products Italia Palladio Finanziaria Banca Antoniana Pitti Immagine Popolare Veneta Rex Built-In Barbero 1891 Salvatore Ferragamo Bisazza Swatch Booz•Allen & Hamilton Italia Unipol Assicurazioni Fitt Wella Gretag Imaging Group Zucchi - Bassetti Group Gruppo 3M Italia

# 100, January 2002

THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION