Customer Reviews:
Unerring Eye Meets Vacuous Mind.......2006-10-30
I opened Out Of This Century expecting guidance, a light that would show the way. How did Ms. Guggenheim pick the good stuff? What muse informed her choices? Think she'll clue you in? Not a chance. Ms. Guggenheim isn't up to the task. This autobiography reveals a stunningly superficial personality. If you like soap operas you'll love this embarrassment.
Addiction indeed - and not only to Art!.......2005-11-12
What a self-indulgent, rackety and restless life this woman has led, and she makes no bones about it! As a young woman she was part of a bohemian set in Paris, promiscuous, often drunk, dancing the night through, almost like a caricature of a flapper. She was quite neurotic, often had hysterical weeping fits, and her relationships were usually stormy and quarrelsome, punctuated by long sulks when she wouldn't speak to her husbands. The first of these, Laurence Vail, was as neurotic as she was and very violent, as often as not in public places. But she was obviously not easy to live with either, and tactful restraint in behaviour or utterance was never one of her qualities, even with men on whom she was dependent. (The book, too, is "frank" and completely lacking in reticence.)
Her immense wealth enabled her to travel constantly all across Europe (we always learn in which motor-car), and much of this book is an account of every journey she made. What she chooses to record seems quite undiscriminating, often jejune and sometimes positively verges on the Pooterish, not least because of its uninspired style.
She knew nothing about art or music until John Holms, her partner after her first divorce, began to teach her about it, and one always suspects that it was artists rather than art that really attracted her. She admits that even when in 1938 she decided to open an art gallery in London, at the time "I couldn't distinguish one thing in art from another" and acted on the advice of Marcel Duchamp who "taught me the difference between Abstract and Surrealist art"! (p.161). And "in spite of the fact that I was opening a modern art gallery in London, I much preferred old masters" (p.163). These of course were no longer sexually available, while living artists were. She slept with an amazing number of them (as well as with, for example, Samuel Beckett and the kinky Roland Penrose), so there must have been some powerful allure about her into her forties and beyond, which does not come across in the book.
She soon began to collect not only artists but also their works, making it a principle to buy at least one work of art from every show she gave (p.166), but in the whole book there is no genuine appraisal of any work of art - only an account of her perpetual acquisitiveness. However, one has to admit that her investments were excellent in commercial terms. She bought and gave the first showings to a number of modern artists whose work would become immensely more valuable in time, and she especially prides herself on having made Jackson Pollock famous.
She was living in occupied and then in Vichy France during the early years of the German occupation, getting out not long before the United States entered the war; but she never sets down any reflections on the war as such, not then nor after Pearl Harbour, commenting only on how bureaucratic matters (visas, currency transfers, restrictions on the movements in the United States of her second husband, Max Ernst, as "an enemy alien") affected her own activities. While France was in torment, she can write, "During the summer [of 1940] I got rather bored and started having my hair dyed a different color every few weeks to amuse myself. First it was chestnut ... but then I got the wild idea of having it bleached bright orange... As a result of all the time I spent in the beauty parlor, I conceived a sort of weakness for the little hairdresser who worked so hard on my beauty. From re-reading D.H.Lawrence I also got a romantic idea that I should have a man who belonged to a lower class" (p.221/2) and we are led to assume that she had a fling with him. "Soon this got boring, and I needed a change". (p.222). She was as promiscuous in her forties as she had been in her twenties.
The bulk of this book - 324 out of 385 pages - was first published in 1946 when she was 48 years old. One part of the rest she published first in 1960 when she was 62 and the other part in 1977 when she was nearly eighty. Those parts show her in a much more sober light, when she has become the grande dame of Venice. By that time she has no taste for what was then the avant garde: "I do not like art today. I think it has gone to hell, as the result of the financial attitude. People blame me for what is painted today because I had encouraged and helped this new movement to be born. In the early 1940s there was a pure pioneering spirit in America. A new art had to be born - Abstract Expressionism. I fostered it. I do not regret it. It produced Pollock or rather Pollock produced it. This alone justifies my effort. As to the others, I don't know what got into them. Some people say that I got stuck. Maybe it is true.... Today is the age of collecting, not of creating." H'm!
So at the end we have a rare moment of reflection. For the rest, this is basically a shallow, tedious and excessively long book written by a spoilt, wealthy and rather silly woman; and it would not have been worth persevering with if the incidents she records did not throw some light on the weird personalities and behaviour of some very famous people in the artistic world, most of whom were psychologically as mixed-up and temperamental as she was. One feels there must have been more to her than that, and perhaps the recent biographies written about her by Anton Gill or Mary Dearborn reveal another side of her; but after having read her own book, I have no interest in reading any more about her.
Peggy Guggenheim, Superstar.......2004-09-25
This woman is one in a Million. Period. She had sex with Max Ernst & Marcel Duchamp & who knows how many others? Where is her like in todays world?! This book is an uncensored look into modern art in the mid-century, & before. Peggy Guggenheim is a national treasure, & her life should be celebrated, postal employees let off, the whole nine yards...
I haven't read the book yet so I can't rate it but..........2004-05-22
...just a note. Peggy Guggenheim's collection of modern art does still reside in Venice contrary to what the review on this site states.
Life with the rich and decadent.......2004-02-12
I was intrigued to learn that the lead character, Poppy, of Laurie Graham's "The Great Husband Hunt" was based on none other than Peggy Guggenheim. And liking the fictional account, I worked through amazon.com to obtain Guggenheim's autobiography.
This is like visiting with a very self-absorbed woman, worldly and amazingly stupid in the realm of her rights to not be abused. She is victim to her own acceptance of licentious living and drunken behavior, as her first husband Lawrence Vail, batters her on a too regular basis. Peggy, a daughter of privilege, an American Jew, is one of three sisters. And her most greatly beloved sister, Benita is dead too young, though a young adult, before Peggy can fully reconnect with her. Peggy is a mystery to me: A wealthy woman who succumbs to her husband's wishes in many ways, and yet seems to ask for the brutal assaults on her person. She is not at all concerned about her moral behavior. Her personal lust for life and any man, often an artist, is blatant. I am not trying to place Puritan values on her; after all, she lived well and long, into her '80's. But she did sacrifice a possible conventional lifestyle for one in which she had numerous liaisons with Bohemian life across Europe. She was miraculously saved from being confined to a German concentration camp, but was eager to return to Europe and live amidst the dangers of German invasion and occupation.
In this giant mix, Peggy accumulates art, modern art, drastic, avant garde works, and amasses a collection that makes her famous. Because of her last name, she is possibly best connected to the collections of her uncle Solomon, who had Frank Lloyd Wright design and execute the construction of the famous Guggenheim Museum in New York City. And, indeed, her collection is now housed there, rather than in her beloved Venice, where she lived out her final years.
This volume, "Out of this Century" changes its tone dramatically when it ends the lively personal chatter of the first 320 pages, which were published in 1946. With the final 64 pages, the reader becomes acquainted with the older Peggy, now past 80 years of age, and her narrative is preoccupied with her listing of her travels and her life in her beloved palazzo in Venice, a living museum.
The photos and prints of art included in the book give life to the people who seem to be "characters". Peggy Guggenheim's addiction to art is almost a sideline to her addiction to the Bohemian lifestyle that she indulged in at the highest level her money could buy. She did experience a life of wealth, but was subject to the control of men even though she paid their way. What a strange life she knew. But she did indeed foster the work of many renown artists of the modern movement. And that was a passion for her that went beyond her sexual encounters with the artists and their circle.
Peggy Guggenheim was certainly not the conventional woman of home and hearth of her time period. To say that she was completely selfish and self-absorbed would be unfair, as she did help many people with her money. But she was no philanthropic giantess.
If you are fascinated by the lives of the rich and famous, although you may never have heard of Peggy Guggenheim, you will enjoy learning about her in her own words. Do not confuse her with the museum her uncle's money built, however, for she considered it to look like a parking garage with ramps for its patrons to view the works therein at a postage stamp distance. However, she did finally house her collection there, after her own death.
Amazon.com
Anyone who's ever perused the headbanger press can attest that, when writing about heavy metal, one should not attempt to emulate the music's crushing, extravagant, vehement brutality. No, the excess of metal is best conveyed in more subdued tones, and it would seem that Seb Hunter concurs. Thanks to the first-time London author's light touch, the part primer, part memoir works well. Chronicling his devotion to the genre from his first encounter with an AC/DC record as a 10 year old through stints as a guitarist for a progression of bands with names like Armageddon's Ring, Excalibur, Rag 'n' Bones, the Trash Can Junkies, Cool Hand Luke, Cat Ballou, and Love Knuckle (that last one signaling his split from metal in a post-Nirvana alternative universe), Hunter relies heavily on humor, peppered with pathos and stark realism. Hunter's sad sack telling of his own rags-to-leather story is interrupted periodically for lessons on the fundamentals of metal, like why keyboards suck and how to tell the difference between thrash metal and speed metal. Useful stuff, and, in Hunter's hands, deftly delivered. Metalheads will appreciate Hunter's keen understanding of their beloved music and its attendant folkways, but one needn't know the difference between Stryper and Slayer to get a rush from Hell Bent for Leather. --Steven Stolder
Book Description
Seb Hunter wasn't just a heavy metal fan. He was a blind devotee who threw away his education and future prospects to become a rock star. In
Hell Bent for Leather, he reaches into the most embarrassing depths of the family photo album to reveal his Wayne's World-esque teen years, taking readers on a (very loud) musical journey from his first guitar to his first gig and on, through groupies, girlfriends, too many drugs, spiraling egos, musical differences, and finally, the end of the dream -- and a much-needed haircut.In this nostalgic look at heavy metal culture,
Seb Hunter has given us a moving portrait of adolescence and chasing your dream, reminding us all that it's better to have lost in rock than never to have rocked at all.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
Customer Reviews:
A Lot Of Fun.......2007-06-15
I am currently half way through Seb's tale on Heavy Metal baby steps and enjoying every single page. It is amazing how the love for this sometimes controversal sometimes predictable musical genre can bring people together regardless their origins, age or sub-genre of choice.
I grew up here in Brazil and was a teenager in the 80's, but reading Seb's account on how he got hooked up in metal in Britain feels like I am reading my own life story.
Everyone who once worshiped Angus Young and Lemmy Kilminster will feel tremendous empathy for this book, and regardless of the turns one might have made in life (you may now be a respectable lawyer or a brain surgeon), if once you wore that ragged black t-shirt, long greasy hair and played air guitar in front of your mirror, after reading this book you'll feel metal pumping in your veins again. You might as weel go and buy all those Anthrax albums you sold years ago.
Former New Waver says, "It's Way Rad!".......2006-10-29
Fade back in time.... I'm at a party full of preppies, dancing to Depeche Mode 12 inches and having "good clean fun." (If you had short hair, a polo shirt, and good grades, you could party more than Peter O'Toole on his birthday -- and girls' parents were "pleased as punch" with you!) On the way home, I stop at a friend/musician's house. His bandmates sit around and drink Bud while watching heavy metal videos. "S'up, man!" we all say. "Man," they think, "We're almost at that level. We could be the next Skid Row!" (I quote what people think, just like Bob Woodward). "Boy," I think, "This stuff is ugly -- much darker than the pastel miniskirts at the party earlier." But I deconstruct the videos, and realize that behind the darkness it's all hairspray and fire, spandex and girls humping cars. The videos are like a confused TV commercial: Is the girl selling the car? Is the car selling the girl? Is the band selling the girl or vice versa? Is this band *really* "new and improved" Van Halen? And enough with the fire, already!
So I came to this book with a nostalgic interest in heavy metal - without ever having liked it... but respecting the people who did. The metal scene was in the air, so I'm familiar with most of Hunter's references. (How many festival seating lines did I wait in - for *new wave* concerts - while some yahoo 20 feet away cranked the Scorps on his boombox. Son of a bee sting!)
Hunter is an excellent writer. He's British and writes with nonchalance and self-effacing humor. Even when Hunter conveys his most trying struggles as a professional rocker -- homelessness, drugs, seedy characters -- he has a very charming "yeah, whatever" tone. The British are just cool. I like this guy. Hunter weaves three main subjects: 1) The history of heavy metal (groups, fashions, instruments, genres/subsets) 2) His critiques of heavy metal groups and albums 3) His life; from being electrified at age 10 by like-clad Angus Young, to the rest of his youth chasing a heavy metal career (through four or five bands, from small town to London).
Leaving home at 17 with stars in his eyes (or fire, hairspray, and girls in his eyes), Hunter exists on sixpence in his attempts to make it big. By the end of his journey, he's like a gypsy (but with more drugs) moving through the crazed London rock scene. Then he experiments with alternative music, and alienates the metal gang. He hears Kurt Cobain, and has an epiphany: Metal has become filled with pompous air [Or was it always? (me)].... And anyone who can't see the coming balloon poP is foolish. So Hunter steps away from his (increasingly crazed) heavy metal band life. The book's closing is very truncated. Maybe that's by design -- to show how hard Hunter slammed the door between the past he tells, and a more sober current life. (Like the affectless narrator in Less Than Zero, who returns to Beverly Hills from Serious East Coast College and plays tapes that he "used to like," part of Hunter's nonchalance toward metal is objective distance -- he's moved on).
In short, great writer, great nostalgia trips, great insight, great journey, great redemption. Great book.
An excellent read whether you're a fan or not........2006-06-02
"Hellbent for Leather: Confessions of a Heavy Metal Addict" by Seb Hunter is quite possibly one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read. Part autobiography and part heavy metal primer, the book would be funny for anyone, but is especially meaningful for those of us who love heavy metal. At times, the author looks back at himself and certain aspects of metal fandom with a roll of the eyes (after all, who doesn't have a picture of themselves from their teens with a somewhat ridiculous haircut and ripped jeans?) but overall he treats the subject with the respect one would expect from a life-long fan.
Hunter's life story parallels that of most metal fans. The book spans the author's history from the first time he heard ACDC's "Let's Get it Up" as a 10 year old, his introductions to all the various styles of metal as a teen, through various bands he played with, and eventually the crash when the realization that the career of Rock God has passed him by. Personally, I recall most of the same events in my own life, including the first time hearing Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" as a child, being mesmerized by it, expanding to Iron Maiden, Scorpions and Metallica in high school and then eventually joining a metal band in college, which ultimately went nowhere. For any of us with similar stories, this book is especially funny and interesting. However, Hunter's wry observations and dry English wit make this an entertaining read for just about anyone.
If you don't know anything about the metal subculture, you will by the end of this book, however, if you do, he really nails most aspects of what it means to be a fan of this type of music. When his band forced a keyboard player on Seb, over his protest, he points out the following: "Motorhead don't use keyboards. If Lemmy saw a keyboard, he'd vomit. Slayer couldn't even pronounce the word, let along plug one in." He discusses the long hair, of course, in detail, as well as how to dress metal. If a fan of a particular band were to bump into another fan of that particular band, "what you want to be wearing is the limited edition tour t-shirt, the faded one and, most importantly, the one with the tour dates on the back...preferably for a gigantic world tour with tons of dates in Germany and places you've never heard of in America". Metal guitars, the best live album of all time (need you even ask, "Live After Death" of course) and which bands he would have thrown a two-liter bottle of piss at during the various Castle Donnington concerts (Meat Loaf, Bon Jovi, Thunder, Extreme and Warrior Soul amongst others).
The author's father wanted him to get rid his first Venom album, and he argued "but it says they're At War With Satan....Dad!". I went through the same thing with mom and "Kill `em All". I was reading this book while traveling through Europe, usually on a train. People would often look at me strangely as I was laughing out loud like a loon, but it's impossible not to with some of the lines Hunter throws out there. Discussing the big Four of thrash, "Slayer couldn't do a ballad if you sprinkled their breakfast cereal with ecstasy and sleeping pills and locked them in a room with just harps". On Metallica's downward spiral post Master of Puppets (if you only ever buy one thrash album ever then buy this one), "They not only recorded a ballad...produced by Bob Rock no less, Bon Jovi's producer. It wasn't long before they'd cut their hair, recorded a live album with an orchestra, dressed in suits and....tried to sue their fans for downloading their music from Napster too....I would certainly call that a demise". Give this book a read, it goes by fast, has great pictures illustrating the author's points and will absolutely make you laugh out loud over and over.
fun read.......2006-04-26
This could have me or any one of my friends. Really fun to read, brought back a lot of memories!
Heavy Metal Parking Lot.......2005-12-20
Seb Hunter does just a brilliant job paying Metal it's long due respect, concurrently embdedding just the right bit of wry Brittish humor and colloquialism, so that we don't take any of it too seriously. The important take-a-way, is that for anyone...I mean anyone who felt the goosebumps up their back when they first really FELT metal, those feelings and that energy and affectation were real. Anyone can make fun of it now, but if you were there, you know who you are and you will be underlining passages in nearly every page of this book. Without necessarily cognating it at the time, Metal was a first glimpse for many to grab onto something to really feel passionate about. And now, as an older, "wiser" person, I realize those experiences are just too hard to come by.
Average customer rating:
- An Insider's Tale of Hollywood
- AuthorZone.Com Book Review
- A wonderful tale of a moviegoer's life at the cinema!
- An Insiders Tale Told with Grace, Candor, and Humor
|
Confessions of a Movie Addict
Betty Jo Tucker
Manufacturer: Hats Off Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Movies
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Guides & Reviews
| Movies
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
History & Criticism
| Movies
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Encyclopedias
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Performing Arts
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1587360853 |
Book Description
Film Stars! Dancing! Popcorn! At last, a life story with everything but the movie stuff edited out. CONFESSIONS OF A MOVIE ADDICT chronicles a love affair with film from the 1930s through the beginning of the new millennium. In addition to revealing personal movie-related experiences, film critic Betty Jo Tucker describes encounters with such veteran actors as Mickey Rooney and Charlton Heston, as well as with current stars like Angelina Jolie, Billy Crudup, Guy Pearce, and Brendan Fraser. This amusing memoir also contains the following ADDED ATTRACTIONS: a Movie Addiction Checklist; a compendium of books and Web sites for movie fans; selected interviews; photos; and reviews of more than 70 films released during 2000 and 2001 A.D.
Customer Reviews:
An Insider's Tale of Hollywood.......2006-12-08
Arts/Entertainment
An Insider's Tale
Book Review by Denise Cassino
Betty Jo Tucker is in love. She always has been. From early childhood, Betty Jo has been smitten with the silver screen. Her love started as an infatuation and grew into a mature study of film and renown as a world-class movie critic.
In her book, Confessions of a Movie Addict, Betty Jo takes us through those early childhood memories of movies, covering her eyes at the scary part, acting out the roles of her favorite stars. Then she landed herself some real jobs as a film critic which gave her a pass into all of the biggest movie events from premieres to the Academy Award Presentations.
This book takes us through many of the hilarious adventures of a movie critic, from embarrassing moments to dining with the stars. Betty Jo shares with her reader many of her best and most clever interviews, sometimes with animated characters! Betty Jo also includes a plethora of reviews on dozens of movies giving the reader a critical, but fun summation of everything from box office hits to cult sleepers. This is a real insider's tale of seeking, meeting and interviewing many of the hottest movie stars ever to flash across a marquee.
If you want to know what it's like to dish and dine with the Hollywood crowd, this book will do the trick. A great gift for any movie lover, Confessions will make you green with envy at Betty Jo's inside access to the stars.
AuthorZone.Com Book Review.......2003-07-17
Reviewed by Jill Cozzi,
Recently I received a press release announcing a Malcolm McDowell retrospective at the Walter Reade Theatre. I forwarded it to a friend, along with a message:
"Gee, do you think I should go to this, walk up to
Malcolm McDowell and say, 'I saw A CLOCKWORK
ORANGE at my college auditorium and three weeks later
was deflowered by a guy who looked an awful lot like
you did then?'"
Now, of course I would never do such a thing, because such an occasion would reduce me to a babbling idiot. But then, I'm not Betty Jo Tucker.
If I WERE Betty Jo Tucker, however, it wouldn't even be an issue, for she would just walk up, make her confession without batting an eye, and two hours later walk away with notes from a truly killer interview. That's just the way she is.
Tucker is arguably the most unique presence among the many film critics on the Web today. In a world dominated by snarky teenagers and twenty-something self-anointed cineastes, Betty Jo Tucker is a gleeful, unabashed movie-lover; not a film buff, but someone who loves the experience of filmgoing. At seventy-plus, she retains the same joy in moving pictures projected on a screen as she did that first time she walked into the "picture show" to see FRANKENSTEIN -- in its first run. A critic who came into the business late in life after raising two children, one divorce, one remarriage (to the same husband), and a distinguished academic career, she is an anomaly among Web critics in that she does NOT subscribe to the Alice Roosevelt credo of "If you can't say something nice, come sit by me."
In her new book CONFESSIONS OF A MOVIE ADDICT (Hats Off Books), Tucker shares her infectious joy in the moviegoing experience with the rest of us. It is truly "a life story with everything but the movies edited out." Written in a breezy tone, CONFESSIONS is truly a snark-free zone. Tucker, who has set herself up as the premier lobbyist for the Return of the Movie Musical has even managed to find the good in such crap-fests as the Britney Spears vehicle CROSSROADS. She doesn't love everything put on film, but you've got to love a critic who's eligible for Social Security but can still laugh her way through the likes of the surrealistically sophomoric CABIN BOY and who reacts to the ghastly THE PRINCESS DIARIES by remembering to call her granddaughters and tell them how terrific they are just as they are.
Where CONFESSIONS OF A MOVIE ADDICT falls short is in Tucker's underestimation of our interest in the journey of a woman through academia, homemaking, and into film criticism at an age when most of us have long since given up our dreams. This may be "a life story with everything but the movies edited out", but many of us would love to see what's left on the cutting-room floor.
A wonderful tale of a moviegoer's life at the cinema!.......2002-01-17
Whether she be recalling a mishap at an X-rated film, admitting she laughed out loud during 'Cabin Boy', or taking an imaginary film festival trip, film critic Betty Jo Tucker's novel 'Confessions of a Movie Addict' will have you envisioning her tales of a life at the movies as if she were talking directly to you. Betty Jo's stories are vivid, enthralling, and quite often amusing. Not only does it provide one wonderfully detailed story after another, Betty Jo's book comes with several of her to-the-point film reviews, a collection of celebrity interviews, a photo gallery, an index of movie-related books and websites, and a checklist to see if you indeed are a movie addict. I have read 'Confessions of a Movie Addict', and as a critic myself, I can proudly assure you that Betty Jo Tucker is one of the finest critics out there and a person who flat-out loves the movies, from the good to the bad. 'CoaMA' is an excellent slice of cinema life.
An Insiders Tale Told with Grace, Candor, and Humor.......2002-01-16
As a recently retired college professor who can go to more movies now, I was delighted by this substantive insiders tale told with such happy and light-hearted grace, candor, and humor. The sophisticate and the novice, young and old, will find Betty Jo Tucker's "show-don't-tell" approach solid, informative, and entertaining. She charmed the socks off me! Betty Jo takes us into her fascination with this dimensional art form, with her life story deftly stitched into the background. "Because confession is good for the soul," she tells us, "I admit enjoying films mostly for their escapist entertainment qualities. But I also love to be enchanted by cinematic artistry, enlightened by a great story, and inspired by memorable performances." We grow together with this unpretentions, knowledgeable professional hooked on movies as she moves from going it alone, to being mentored by the best, including the famous "UK Critic" Ian Waldron-Mangani--who, she tells us, could have been her grandson. I found "Confessions" to be a great three-in-one deal: HerStory, terrific interviews, and crisp reviews. We meet some of the greatest names in film from the U.S.--directors David Lynch and M. Night Shyamalan, Oscar winners Anjelica Huston and Angelina Jolie, and the legendary Debbie Reynolds, along with top international figures, including British actor Sir Ian Mckellen, French actress Judith Godrech, Japanese filmmaker Masayuki Suo, and Oscar-winning Czech director Jan Sverak. Stellar interviews include those with Annette Bening, Willem Dafoe, Tony Shalhoub, and Aidan Quinn. Among her top reviews are "Chocolat," "Bridget Jone's Diary," "Mouline Rouge," "Planet of the Apes," "Legally Blond," and "Scary Movie." Along the way, she tells some delightful stories on herself: great gaffs--foot in the mouth, clear to the knee, as Josh Wise, one of my former students, once wrote. After enjoying "Confessions," you'll never read a review the way you used to!
Book Description
A patron of art since the 1930s, Peggy Guggenheim, in a candid self-portrait, provides an insider's view of the early days of modern art, with revealing accounts of her eccentric wealthy family, her personal and professional relationships, and often surprising portrayals of the artists themselves. Here is a book that captures a valuable chapter in the history of modern art, as well as the spirit of one of its greatest advocates. 13 photos.
Customer Reviews:
Not only an art addict... .......2006-04-01
I became curious about Peggy Guggenheim, when last year, I visited her former home - Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, on the Grand Canal in Venice. Now a beautiful and exciting museum, made up of a great collection of paintings and sculptures.
I was very impressed by the famous artists I found there - Dali, Picasso, Max Ernst, Brancusi are just a few names. So I thought that such a woman must have had an interesting life.
But I have to say that the autobigraphy she wrote has no literary value whatsoever. Instead, it is a very honest, uninhibited story of a life dedicated to collecting pieces of art and their authors. Her motto was "buy one paiting per day" and she got much of the fame for her many affairs with artists. However, the efforts she made to promote XXth century art, by organizing exhibitions and art galleries can only be laudable.
A definite non conformist, she decided to quit college and left for Europe, where most of the American literary "nomads" of the time were going. Bohemian life style suited her perfectly. The vivid literary and artistic life in London and Paris, made her fall in love with these places.
I can only say "chapeau" to such a woman who was neither an artist, nor a critic, but loved art and artists, and who spent all her fortune to create what is today the most important museum in Italy for European and American art of the first half of the 20th century.
The story flows nicely and I also got the chance to find out a lot of interesting details about famous artists. The book can only be a pleasant and light reading on an intercontinental flight or on your coming soon vacation.
Brutal honesty?.......2005-08-19
Guggenheim doesn't seem to gilt her "Confessions" in velvet (or gold); she comes across as an honest soul wanting to relate her experiences--an influences--in the art world. Some of the things mentioned are her childhood, her marriages, Max Ernst, Brancusi, Kandinsky, Pollock, and Motherwell (to name but a few). Worth a read... and another read.
A strange an interesting book.......2005-02-16
Undoubtedly, Miss Guggenheim led a colourful and interesting life. She had either great artistic insight and intigrity or a bratish desire to boost of her wealth.
I didn't reach a conclusion having read this book, but then maybe she was doing a bit of both and wanted to keep us guessing? I found the book enormously entertaining and informative if a little disrespectful of it's subject.
One cannot help but to consider that this disrespect and the virtual anonymous space she occupies in history, might be very different had she been Peter and not Peggy.
A great read for modern art lovers, a fairly good one for anyone else.
Though it cannot be helped nor altered, it is a book very heavy on characters, plot, and at times, weighty information; which can be very offputting and confusing.
LOOK, THERE'S A LONG PRIAPUS ON YOUR HORSE!.......2000-08-25
Here's the story of a woman that knew them all, felt the earth move under her feet with many of them, and bought their art for pretty much nothing. She recognized them when they were starting, and this makes her a Princess. This book is her equivalent to Gore Vidal's "Palimpsest" and Lillian Hellman's "Pentimento". This is one of those books that almost transports you to a long gone era, and makes you wish you could have been there to see it all.
Confessions, Sort Of.......2000-02-08
Peggy was a trip. She also apparently had no editor, or so it seems, which adds to the air of entitlement and oblique charm that permeates this book. Her accounts are interesting historically, though PG's slant on history is sometimes its own beast. This is a quick read and some of her observations will make you laugh out loud ("I was worried about my virginity--I was twenty-three and I found it burdensome..."), while others are chilling, especially the question of which Jews she deemed worthy of her efforts to help them get to the States. This may be more entertaining than informative, but it's both.
Average customer rating:
|
Buy What You Love : Confessions of an Art Addict
Philip Schiller
Manufacturer: Chameleon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Collecting
| Instructional & How-To
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Art
| Antiques & Collectibles
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Antiques & Collectibles
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 091582969X |
Books:
- Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An Time Magazine Reporter and Vietnamese Communist Agent
- Positive Discipline for Preschoolers, Revised Second Edition: For Their Early Years - Raising Children Who Are Responsible, Respectful, and Resourceful
- Radical Forgiveness, Making Room for the Miracle, 2nd Edition
- Rat Pack Confidential: Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter, Joey and the Last Great Show Biz Party
- Rediscovering God in America: Reflections on the Role of Faith in Our Nation's History
- Reverse Mortgages For Dummies
- Rickshaw: The Novel Lo-t'o Hsiang Tzu
- Saint Joan (Penguin Classics)
- SIGN with your BABY Complete Learning Kit: US DVD Version, Book, Training Video (DVD), Quick Reference Guide
- Sophia Loren's Recipes and Memories
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Apprentice Mage, 1865-1914
- Gone Wild
- The Ways of White Folks: Stories
- X-Men: The Jewels of Cyttorak
- Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh
- Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer of Turbomachinery
- Contract Warriors
- The Icons of Their Bodies
- There's Lovely: An Autobiography
- Millionaires in Training : The Wealth Builder
Art Lover: A Biography of Peggy Guggenheim
Mistress of Modernism: The Life of Peggy Guggenheim
The Story of Modern Art
Confessions Of an Art Addict
The City of Falling Angels
