Surrealism and Magic: Peggy Guggenheim’s Venice Show Explores the Occult

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice presents 'Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity,' an exhibition curated by Gražina Subelytė, associate curator of the collection, developed in dialogue with the Museum Barberini in Potsdam. The show originates from Subelytė’s doctoral thesis at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, completed seven years ago, and examines the surrealists’ turn to magic and the occult as metaphors for change in an era of global conflict. The exhibition brings together works from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and international loans, highlighting the role of female artists such as Leonora Carrington, Leonor Fini, and Remedios Varo. Key motifs include eyes, mirrors, and androgyny as means to access hidden dimensions and challenge patriarchal binaries. The show traces a line from Peggy Guggenheim’s New York gallery Art of This Century to her Venetian home, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, where the collection is housed.