This book is essential reading and reference for all who are interested in the colorful biographies of two outstanding cultural figures of the twentieth century; in the history of art installation, collecting, and art dealing; in the embattled origins of the New York School; and in the history of art and design in general.

New York in the 1940s was the crucible for the development of postwar American and European art, and at the heart of this was Peggy Guggenheim with her remarkable museum/gallery, made instantly the most sensational venue of the avant-garde in New York by Frederick Kiesler’s visionary architectural design. This is the never-before-written story of"Art of This Century"--the name Peggy gave both to her collection (now part of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and on permanent view in Venice, Italy) and to her 57th Street gallery, Kiesler’s masterpiece, where the careers of artists such as William Baziotes, David Hare, Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Charles Seliger, and Clyfford Still were launched.

The essays in this volume recount the formation of Peggy’s art collection; reconstruct for the first time the plan and design of Art of This Century; analyze its place in Kiesler’s long career in architecture, theater design, sculpture, and theories of perception; assemble the astonished reaction of the press; set the record straight for the first time with new evidence about Pollock’s largest-ever painting, Mural (1943); and document the fifty-five exhibitions that Peggy organized at Art of This Century from 1942 to 1947. The publication is comprehensively illustrated, including color plates of a selection of Peggy’s collection, Kiesler’s drawings and designs, and numerous installation photographs of Art of This Century.

This book is essential reading and reference for all who are interested in the colorful biographies of two outstanding cultural figures of the twentieth century; in the history of art installation, collecting, and art dealing; in the embattled origins of the New York School; and in the history of art and design in general.

Thomas Krens   9   Preface

Philip Rylands & Susan Davidson   12  Acknowledgments

Philip Rylands   18  The Master and Marguerite

1.Peggy and Kiesler, The Collector and the Visionarg

Dieter Bogner  34  Staging Works of Art: Frederick Kiesler’s Exhibition Design 1924-1957

Susan Davidson  50  Focusing an Instinct: The Collecting of Peggy Guggenheim

90   Plates

Selected Works Exhibited at Art of This Century

Francis V. O’Connor  150  Jackson Pollock’s Mural for Peggy Guggenheim

Its Legend, Documentation, and Redefinition of Wall Painting

2.Design and Critical Reaction

172  Architectural Commission and Public Statements

180  Reconstructed Plan

186  Sequential Views

200  Perspective Views of Reconstructed 3-D Model

by Jason Holtzman

Don Quaintance  206  Modern Art in a Modern Setting

Frederick Kiesler’s Design of Art of This Century

218   Plates

Frederick Kiesler’s Designs for Art of This Century

Commentary by Don Quaintance & Valentina Sonzogni

Valentina Sonzogni  274  "You will never be bored within its walls"

Art of This Century and the Reaction of the Press

3. Exhibitions and Chronology

Jasper Sharp  288  Serving the Future: The Exhibitions at Art of This Century 1942-1947

363  Chronology

Compiled by Don Quaintance, Jasper Sharp & Valentina Sonzogni

382  Index