A Picture a Day, Jean Arp

Shell and Head, Jean Arp, 1933

In an effort to inspire myself to start working on my art again, I will be "posting a picture a day" for the next few weeks.  It may be a painting.  It may be a sculpture,  It may be a collage.  I am reading Mistress of Modernism, The Life of Peggy Guggenheim, by Mary V. Dearborn, and it has me thinking about what I like and the different areas I might want to explore. I love art and I love history, so it is turning out to be a very enjoyable and interesting book.

 In 1939-40, at the start of the second World War, Peggy resolved to" buy a picture a day" with an eye toward opening a future museum.  Some of the masterpieces of her collection, such as works by Francis Picabia, Georges Braque, Salvador Dalí and Piet Mondrian, were bought at that time. She astonished Fernand Léger by buying his Men in the City on the day that Hitler invaded Norway. She acquired Brancusi’s Bird in Space as the Germans approached Paris, and only then decided to flee the city.  One of the very first pieces she bought was the Jean Arp pictured above.  I like that such an unusual and modern piece was valuable in 1933.  She reportedly paid $3000 and said "The instant I felt it I wanted to own it."

Portrait of Peggy by ManRay, 1924, in a Paul Poiret gown