MISTRESS OF MODERNISM: The Life of Peggy Guggenheim

Dearborn celebrates Guggenheim, the iconoclastic doyenne of abstract expressionism, in this appreciative, thorough biography. Born in 1898 to a "poor" branch of the family, Guggenheim moved to Europe in 1920, where she befriended such modernist notables as Djuna Barnes and Marcel Duchamp. After two failed marriages (to alcoholic, volatile writers), Guggenheim began to collect surrealist and other modern art seriously, opening the Guggenheim Jeune in London in 1938. During WWII, she preserved numerous artworks—and artists—by getting them to the U.S.; she also began a long, turbulent relationship with Max Ernst. In wartime New York, Guggenheim opened Art of This Century; the explosively popular gallery brought fame to Jackson Pollock, Joseph Cornell and others. Dearborn, who has authored biographies of Norman Mailer and Henry Miller, underscores Guggenheim's professional achievements, but salacious details and physical descriptions—of her infamous nose, her delicate ankles—sometimes win out over character analysis and art history. Although Dearborn seems to rely a good deal on Guggenheim's sensational 1946 autobiography, Out of This Century , which publicized her artists and myriad lovers alike, her research and interviews with family and friends add rich, gossipy detail about the heiress's life. With its fluid prose and provocative subject, this book will appeal to art lovers interested in more than the paint. B&w photos not seen by PW . Agent, Georges Borchardt . (Sept.)