Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict (2015) User Reviews

A Woman Before Her Time

[jamieleeackerman · 7/10 · 28 December 2015]

"Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict is such an insightful movie about a woman that was far before her time. A truly inspiring story, Lisa Immordino Vreeland did a fantastic job capturing such an innovative woman and telling her story beautifully. Peggy Guggenheim was such a liberated woman and it was wonderful to see her passion through the film. Such an incredible Indie film! I'm so happy I can support films like these because it is key as fellow artists that we support one another's talents and storytelling. "Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict" is a mesmerizing documentary of a passionate,

artistic woman.

Lovely film

[bbewnylorac · 8/10 · 8 February 2016]

This is a beautifully and passionately made film about a woman, Peggy Guggenheim, whose name is well known, but the details of whose long life, until now, haven't been that well known. One thing that stood out for me was how many tragedies she suffered -- father died on the Titanic, a sister died in childbirth, the love of her life died in surgery, and two of her nephews fell from a skyscraper and died. Any one of those events would have felled many people. But she carried on. And even though she was very wealthy, negotiating the very male dominated world of artists and galleries would have been difficult. She was one tough lady, yet she not only survived, but thrived, through what the film makes clear is a genuine love of the art, of artists and the art world. The list of interviewees and the showcase of galleries and artworks, spliced with historic footage and social context, is impeccable. From an early age, it would have been much easier for Ms Guggenheim to sit back and become a ditzy socialite, spending her millions shopping and travelling, but instead she chose a much more interesting cerebral and artistic life. What an amazing lady.

This Woman Was A Noted Patron Of The Arts With Impeccable Taste

[StrictlyConfidential · 7/10 · 12 July 2020]

This "Art Addict" bio-documentary offers the inquisitive viewer a very informed overview of the life and times of wealthy, American socialite, Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979).

Early in her adult life, Guggenheim became intensely interested in 20th century art and its artists and, as a result, she is noted as being instrumental in advancing the careers of a number of painters who would have, otherwise, been unrecognized in their specialized profession.

All-in-all - (Due to its historical relevance in the realm of the art world) - I enthusiastically recommend this presentation as being worthwhile viewing.

Remarkable Life Story

[larrys3 · 7/10 · 7 April 2017]

This documentary focuses on the remarkable life story of Peggy Guggenheim, who passed away in 1979 at the age of 81. Utilizing her keen eye and instincts regarding new modern artists, she was able to amass one of the truly great collections of art, worth billions today but for which she paid most minimal amounts at the time of purchase.

Although I really liked Guggenheim's brutal honesty, the film itself was not an easy watch for me as my DVD copy had no subtitles (except for segments of taped interviews she did) and the sound quality was not terrific either. However, the power of the tale of her colorful life, at times marked by personal tragedies, and the staggering displays of artwork that were flashed on screen made it certainly worthwhile to view for me.

Overall,this documentary, directed by Lisa Immordini Vreeland (Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel) tells a fascinating story of a most unique woman, whose legacy lives on in the spectacular artwork on display in museums and galleries around the world.

The fruits of art addiction

[xWRL · 26 December 2016]

Peggy Guggenheim accomplished two things noteworthy and lasting enough for books to be written and documentaries to be filmed about her, even to this day. She nurtured a set of talented young artists that turned out to be among the most influential of her century, and she put together one of the world's great collections of work by this same group of artists.

And there's more. She was quite a character. The guts that she showed in following her tastes in art also led her to affairs, brief and occasionally longer, with men, often young men, and especially artists she admired for more than their artistic talents. This led her to be widely gossiped about, not that this mattered enough to her to change her ways.

The film is sympathetic but not at all hagiographic. It's very well put together, framed around a candid oral interview with her late in life, and interspersed with comments from dozens of art world luminaries-- artists, dealers, critics--who knew her (sometimes in several senses of that term).

The film points out the duplicity of the culture that tolerates sexual promiscuity in males more than in females. Looking back on her life at the end of the film, Guggenheim comments on what made her happiest and on what she still desired most. Happily for the viewer, she speaks as honestly and as bluntly then as always.

The Most Important Modern Art Influencer

[iquine · 8/10 · 27 August 2017]

(Flash Review)

Ernst, Pollock, Duchamp, Brancusi, Picasso, Miro, etc, etc, etc, etc… Peggy spent time and helped them all in some way. She found, bought and was the first to show a smorgasbord of their work in her art exhibitions, galleries and museums. She was the epicenter of modern art of her time. This documentary describes the art-focused portions of her life, the men in her life and a nice assortment of art she collected. There are interview snippets from some artists as well as Robert De Niro as Peggy showed his father's work; random. Is was nicely done, nothing groundbreaking.

An enjoyable romp

[proud_luddite · 7/10 · 24 July 2018]

Peggy Guggenheim (1898 - 1979), a famous art collector who contributed to the modern art movement beginning in the 1940s, is the subject of this American documentary.

This film includes recordings of an interview with Guggenheim shortly before her death. As the tapes had been thought lost, they add heft to the film. And the content itself is more than engaging.

Peggy is the niece of Solomon Guggenheim who founded the famous museum in New York. The stories of her family background make for great drama by themselves, sadly including tragedies in her childhood as well as in middle-age.

With fabulous footage and interviews, this film follows its subject's life and career at a fine pace. They include that great era of Paris in the 1920s, WWII, and the post-war years in New York and later, Venice. Taking the viewer through art history lessons is a bonus.

The viewer also gets to vicariously enjoy watching the lives of the jet-setting rich and famous with all the indulgences and many incidents of sleeping around. By the end, we feel internally richer getting to know a fascinating woman well ahead of her time. A fine doc, indeed.

It´s complicated...

[skepticskeptical · 7/10 · 9 September 2019]

I enjoyed watching Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict, even though I found the relentless insults hurled at her by John Richardson (a Picasso biographer) to be a bit grating. I wonder if he was simply jealous that she managed to accomplish so much while, according to him, lacking taste, intelligence, and basically anything aside from ambition? Anyway, the life story of this woman is definitely colorful and frankly remarkable, as she was far more liberated than the typical women of her time. The film would have been better without the snarky interjections of Richardson, but I suppose that it revealed a more general contempt endured by Peggy Guggenheim throughout her lifetime by people just like him.

Rather dull

[jcuccini · 3/10 · 1 February 2024]

In fairness the title does specifically state that this film is about Peggy Guggenheim but her story is not a new one or particularly interesting. She was the stereotypical poor little rich girl but this documentary seems to put her in some kind of heroic light. Yes she got some artists out of Nazi occupied Europe but it showed just how dim witted she was when she was asked if she was afraid that she might be put into a concentration camp if the Nazis caught her and she replied that being scared was not in her nature. That is pretty much the essence of this documentary, it's a puff piece on her to turn her into some kind of super hero.

There is a little about the art and artists she displayed in her gallery but not nearly enough, it was all about a woman who was born with a silver spoon in her mouth who used her money to showcase art that she personally liked. The truth is she was a woman completely devoid of any artistic talent herself but hung around artists in order to make her feel like she was in their world.