Iaphet Elli 
From March 19 to July 24, 2016, Palazzo Strozzi will host the grand exhibition “From Kandinsky to Pollock. The Great Art of the Guggenheims,” bringing over 100 masterpieces of European and American art from the 1920s to the 1960s to Florence. This exhibition explores the connections and relationships across the Atlantic, highlighting the influence of American collectors Peggy and Solomon Guggenheim.
Curated by Luca Massimo Barbero, the exhibition is a collaboration between the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation of New York. It presents an exceptional juxtaposition of key works by European modern art masters such as Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Man Ray, and European informals like Alberto Burri, Emilio Vedova, Jean Dubuffet, Lucio Fontana, alongside significant paintings and sculptures by prominent American artists of the 1950s and 1960s, including Jackson Pollock, Marc Rothko, Wilhelm de Kooning, Alexander Calder, Roy Lichtenstein, and Cy Twombly.
This exhibition dedicated to the Guggenheim collections tells the story of the emergence of post-war neo-avant-garde movements through a dynamic dialogue between European and American artists. Hosting this extraordinary event in Florence also celebrates a special historical connection. It was in Palazzo Strozzi, in the Strozzina spaces, that Peggy Guggenheim, shortly after arriving in Europe, decided to showcase her collection in February 1949, a collection that would later find its permanent home in Venice.
The major paintings, sculptures, prints, and photographs on display at Palazzo Strozzi, on loan from the Guggenheim collections in New York and Venice and other prestigious international museums, offer insight into the remarkable and thrilling era of 20th-century art in which Peggy and Solomon Guggenheim played a pivotal role.
The exhibition is promoted and organized by the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York and Venice, with support from the City of Florence, the Florence Chamber of Commerce, the Association Partners Palazzo Strozzi, and the Tuscany Region. It is made possible with the contribution of the Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze.
