31 Women: Peggy Guggenheim and Her Groundbreaking Exhibition

Perhaps one the most influential women in shaping the art world of the 20th century, Peggy Guggenheim held an exhibition in 1943 that would be remembered as groundbreaking. Why is Peggy Guggenheim’s 31 Women exhibition so important for art history?

Who Was Peggy Guggenheim?

Peggy Guggenheim (1898–1979) was born into the wealthy New York Guggenheim family. She was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, an American businessman, and the niece of Solomon R. Guggenheim, the founder of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. This foundation remains a leading institution for the collection and research of contemporary and modern art to this day.

Peggy Guggenheim inherited a fortune and initially lived and worked in Manhattan, New York. In 1920 at the age of 22, she moved to Paris, France, where she immersed herself in circles of avant-garde writers and artists. Her artistic endeavors then moved her to London where she opened a gallery for modern art, featuring Jean Cocteau drawings.

Peggy’s Art Collection and Gallery Ventures

At this point, Peggy had begun to collect works of art, particularly those of abstract and surrealist styles. This included works by Piet Mondrian and Salvador Dalí, and interestingly did not include female artists at first. Her first gallery, called Guggenheim Jeune, held a number of exhibitions of both well-known and lesser-known artists.

In 1939, after financial loss, Peggy Guggenheim closed the gallery and left for Paris the following year to purchase artworks for a new project. However, when the Germans invaded France in 1941, as a Jewish woman, she was forced to flee to the south of France and then to New York. Artists including André Breton and Jacqueline Lamba also fled to America at this time.

In 1942, Peggy finally opened the gallery she had dreamt of, at 30 West 57th street, New York. The gallery was called Art of This Century and included Cubist and abstract art. It would later host the 31 Women exhibition.

By this point in time, Peggy was an art advocate, largely shaping the art world of the 20th century. For example, she helped advance the careers of currently well-known, world-famous artists, such as Jackson Pollock and Max Ernst—whom she married in 1941. Guggenheim was believed to have had three husbands, two of whom were artists and one a writer, as well as multiple affairs with men in the creative industries.

Mistress of Modernism

In a relatively short period of time, Peggy had amassed a large collection of art aligned with her distinct tastes. She valued and celebrated Cubist artworks, which others disregarded at the time. She even started being called the “Mistress of Modernism.”

Peggy Guggenheim wanted her gallery to bring people together while showcasing her collection and selling art. An innovative space was created on the 7th floor of the building located in the arts district. The interior was designed by Frederick Kiesler. The term Gesamtkunstwerk, meaning a total work of art, has been used to describe the space and how there was no barrier between the viewer and the art.

My motto was “buy a picture a day” and I lived up to it!

Peggy Guggenheim, Out of This Century: Confessions of an Art Addict, Andre Deutsch, London 1979. Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

Kiesler also invented new ways to display art. The artworks were freed from the constraints of walls and suspended in mid-air. Small artworks were set inside viewing devices, and some artworks were even presented in files which the visitor was encouraged to touch and look through. For this reason, it has been named the first interactive gallery in the world. It was both radical and innovative in equal measure. Importantly, it made viewing art more accessible and fun, and less elitist. This was helped by the mix of well-known and lesser-known artists too.

31 Women: A Landmark Exhibition of Avant-garde Female Artists

Just a year after the gallery’s opening, the gallery held a pivotal 31 Women exhibition in 1943. The show was one of the first-ever to exclusively showcase female artists. It amassed works by women of 16 different nationalities.

The exhibition lasted a month, from January to February, and showed works from the likes of Frida Kahlo, the famous Mexican painter, and Meret Oppenheim, a German-born Swiss Surrealist artist. However, of the 31 female avant-garde artists included, most were unknown artists in New York. It is believed that Marcel Duchamp was the one to suggest that Peggy should have an all-woman show, being one of just a few female gallery owners at the time.

As well as being unique for showing the work of just female artists, 31 Women was also juried—an unusual practice outside of Europe at the time. This meant that the work, before being shown in the exhibition, had to be reviewed and selected by a judging panel first. On this panel were the likes of Marcel Duchamp, André Breton, and Max Ernst, along with Peggy Guggenheim herself. The result was a mix of Surrealist and abstract artworks.

It is hard to trace the exact artworks featured in the exhibition. In the photograph above, Peggy Guggenheim sits with two works featured in it. At the top is Shepherdess of the Sphinxes by Leonor Fini. Below it is Horses of Lord Candlestick by Leonora Carrington.

Other works included two sculptures by Louise Nevelson and Xenia Cage. Sources also claim that Georgia O’Keeffe was meant to participate but later declined, refusing to be labeled as a woman artist for her involvement. While it was not a commercial success, the exhibition did receive positive reviews and was groundbreaking for its time—featuring exclusively female artists.

The Women: Pioneering Gender Equality in the Art World

The exhibition was even followed up with a another one, entitled The Women, in June 1945. This featured 33 women artists, including new artists such as Louise Bourgeois. Unfortunately, the Art of This Century Gallery closed its doors in May 1947.

The 31 Women exhibition clearly had a profound impact towards the recognition of female artists and towards contemporary exhibitions that explore similar themes. As the first of its kind, it paved the way for women to follow in those artists’ footsteps, showcasing their work in numerous all-female exhibitions. Peggy Guggenheim was undoubtedly a major inspiration to the 20th-century art world and continues to influence women in the arts today.