"Peggy Guggenheim: a kind, open and simple woman." Speaks Živa Kraus, artist, gallerist and Peggy's collaborator

by Ilaria Baratta , published on 08/09/2019
Categories: Interviews / Disclaimer
Zcaron;iva Kraus, a Croatian artist and gallery owner, was Peggy Guggenheim's assistant in the 1970s. We interviewed her to hear about her relationship with the great American collector.

Živa Kraus (Zagreb, 1945), a Croatian artist and gallery owner who moved to Italy at a young age, was a longtime assistant to the great U.S. collector Peggy Guggenheim. She met her in Venice in the 1960s, and in 1973, after her move to the city, Peggy wanted her as her assistant. In 1979, Živa Kraus founded the IKONA gallery, which is now based in Campo del Ghetto Nuovo. She has curated numerous exhibitions, had roles in the Venice Biennale and worked together with prominent artists. On Monday, September 9, at 4:30 p.m., as part of the program The Continuity of a Vision, Živa Kraus will hold a meeting at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, during which she will reconstruct the figure of Peggy with the telling of anecdotes and personal memories. To get a preview of the tale, we caught up with Živa Kraus and got a brief account of her relationship with Peggy Guggenheim. The interview is edited by Ilaria Baratta.

<img class="lazy" src="https://www.finestresullarte.info/Grafica/placeholder.jpg" data-src=’https://cdn.finestresullarte.info/rivista/immagini/2019/1134/peggy-guggenheim-ziva-kraus.jpg’ ’ alt=“Peggy Guggenheim (left) with &Zcaron;iva Kraus (right) in Venice, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, in 1966 ” title=“Peggy Guggenheim (left) with &Zcaron;iva Kraus (right) in Venice, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, in 1966 ” /></td></tr><tr><td>Peggy Guggenheim (left) with &Zcaron;iva Kraus (right) in Venice, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, in 1966 </td></tr></table> </p> <p><strong>IB. As part of the <em>Storie</em> series of meetings, organized by The Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, which aims to tell the story of Peggy Guggenheim herself through illustrious personalities, you will narrate during your meeting on Monday, September 9, your personal relationship with the famous collector who entered the history of the twentieth century as a female role model of that era. Having been Peggy’s assistant in 1973, how would you define your relationship with her? What is one memory that immediately jumps to your mind thinking back to that time?
ZK. A simple, kind relationship, without mystification. Everything was natural between us and inside her house-museum you felt free in movement, among the artworks. Sometimes it was a bit like being inside the painting itself, with total freedom, and then you would look out the windows and there you would see the city, Venice.

What is your memory of Peggy Guggenheim as a woman?
I remember above all her kindness, openness, simplicity. She was always helpful, happy to defend her artists and her collection.

In 1979 she founded IKONA PHOTO GALLERY and ten years later, in 1989, she founded IKONA VENICE International School of Photography. How much and how did your knowledge of and relationship with Peggy Guggenheim influence these decisions? Also as a painter did you compare yourself with Peggy?
When I came to Venice I had already had my first solo exhibition and I knew that the only thing I was interested in was expressing myself, so I agreed to come to Venice precisely because I knew that, being an island, it also meant isolation and in a way concentration. I founded the photo gallery IKONA because there was nothing in the city dedicated to photography, for me it was a kind of categorical imperative. I always lived at the center of creativity. I never showed my work as a painter to Peggy Guggenheim, I was there for her collection and to be useful in her house-museum.

In Venice, she studied set design at the Academy of Fine Arts, worked in Emilio Vedova’s studio, for Peggy Guggenheim and with Paolo Cardazzo for Il Cavallino Gallery, and was also on several occasions coordinator of national pavilions and collateral events at the Venice Biennale. Could it be said, then, that she had a very good relationship with the lagoon? How much has the city of Venice influenced your artistic production and in general your work always related to art?
My work I think is a response to the city, I just did my duty and followed what I had started back in 1979, trying to give maximum value to the image. I opened more than fourteen venues in the city, I used all of Venice as a kind of exhibition space giving life to each of these spaces. In art the only important thing is the work, and the space is a function of the work. My gallery would be different if I founded it in another city, maybe it wouldn’t even be called Ikona.

<img class="lazy" src="https://www.finestresullarte.info/Grafica/placeholder.jpg" data-src='https://cdn.finestresullarte.info/rivista/immagini/2019/1134/ziva-kraus.jpg' ' alt="&Zcaron;iva Kraus in 1997. Ph. Credit Arne Hodali&cacute; " title="&Zcaron;iva Kraus in 1997. Ph. Credit Arne Hodali&cacute; " /></td></tr><tr><td>&Zcaron;iva Kraus in 1997. Ph. Credit Arne Hodali&cacute; </td></tr></table> </p>

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