Venice Fellowship - Day 20

Today I was lucky enough to be allowed to join the Peggy Guggenheim team for a staff talk on Corporate Development, which meant an insider's look and overview of sponsorships, marketing, publicity events - all things fundraising, essentially. I won't write about what we heard in that as I don't know that it wouldn't land myself or the British Council in trouble. However, I can talk about what else I got up to during the day prior to this.

I got to have a look around the Guggenheim collection first, and spent a long time wandering around and listening in on talks when the interns were giving them throughout the converted palazzo. I overheard an in-depth talk on the only Frances Picabia piece in the collection, a walking tour of some select works by Max Ernst and Jackson Pollock, and then I listened to an introductory talk on Peggy Guggenheim's life for the second time.

I am writing my Dissertation on the threshold between Painting and Drawing, with a focus on mark-making, and I am writing two case studies on Jean-Michel Basquiat and Cy Twombly. Though Basquiat may have just missed Peggy as a collector, Twombly had three works in The Schulhof Collection which I spent a long time studying in depth.

I concluded from looking at Twombly's work in detail (specifically Untitled, 1967) that the work itself was a Drawing, even though it was on canvas and he had used heavy oil paint as well as crayon. The drawn marks were the main clue for me here, as the areas of colour were built up through scribbled lines with pigmented crayon. Even with the thick splodges of paint that were on the canvas, I could see drawing, as he actually teased the paint with the crayon while it was wet, which just made the drawn lines more elevated. I can't wait to write about this in the dissertation draft!

After leaving the Guggenheim I went in search of lunch, and found a beautiful cafe called Tea Room Beatrice. If you're ever in Venice, I highly recommend trying it. They've got a huge range of teas and veggie/vegan food, and the Cafe opens out at the back to a cosy little garden space. As I was enjoying my tea and soup, I did a little drawing of the area.

I then walked over to the Rezzonico museum,, a canalside palazzo with 18th century works of Art collections. On the third floor was one of the most beautiful marble sculptures I have ever seen of a veiled woman. Of course, that was drawn as well.

The next three days I will be working at the Biennale, so I am incredibly grateful for the last few days that I have had to widen my understanding of Venice and it's culture, broaden my horizons, see more of Italy and meet new people. I want to thank James for his wonderful crit session on Monday, and We Are Here Venice for the tour, Genevieve for organising connections with the Guggenheim, and Rada for allowing me to join them the last couple of days.