“Having selected a primary form, such as a circle, I study its structural possibilities as a means of activating it, aiming for the best results with the maximum economy.” — Marina Apollonio

“From October 12, 2024, through March 2, 2025, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection presents Marina Apollonio: Beyond the Circle, the most comprehensive museum retrospective in Italy dedicated to Marina Apollonio, a leading figure in the international Optical and Kinetic avant-garde whose work was championed by Peggy Guggenheim.

Marina Apollonio: Beyond the Circle is a deserved tribute to the Triestine artist, tracing her career from 1963 to the present. The show highlights her rigorous visual investigations, encompassing painting, sculpture, drawing, as well as static, moving, and environmental works, black-and-white or chromatic paintings, and experimentations in a variety of media and techniques. The fact that this homage is presented in the galleries of Palazzo Venier dei Leoni is particularly fitting, not only because Venice is Apollonio’s adoptive city, where she lived as a girl and took her first steps as an artist, but also because it highlights the role of visionary collector Peggy Guggenheim in her career. Indeed, in 1968, after having visited the artist’s solo exhibition at the Galleria Paolo Barozzi in Venice, Guggenheim commissioned Rilievo n. 505 (ca. 1968), currently part of the museum’s collection, which testifies to her support of young Italian avant-garde artists.” — Peggy Guggenheim Collection

Installation views of Marina Apollonio: Beyond the Circle at Peggy Guggenheim Collection, October 12, 2024 – March 2, 2025. Photos by Matteo De Fina. Courtesy Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

Organized by independent art historian and curator Marianna Gelussi, the exhibition features about one hundred works on loan from the artist’s collection, as well as from national and international museums, including the Neue Gallery in Graz; the Fondation Villa Datris in L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, France; the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome; MART in Rovereto, Italy; the Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Turin; the Kunsthalle Recklinghausen and the Museum Ritter in Waldenbuch, Germany; and the Museum Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich.

Title image: Marina Apollonio. Dinamica circolare 6Z+H, 1968. Enamel on wood, rotating mechanism. Diameter: 100cm. Collection of the artist, Padua © Marina Apollonio.