For the first time, works by Pieter Bruegel, Giorgio de Chirico, Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol— among other notable artists—will be exhibited together in the eclectic exhibition For Your Eyes Only: A Private Collection, from Mannerism to Surrealism. With pieces from the private collection of Richard and Ulla Dreyfus-Best and curated by Andreas Beyer, the show is an exquisite juxtaposition of sculpture, paintings, drawings and art objects ranging from the Middle Ages to today. More about art and culture.

(L) after Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Air.
(R) follower of Hieronymus Bosch, The Last Judgment, 1515-20.

The exhibit will be on view from May 24 to August 31, 2014, at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, one of the most important museums in Italy dedicated to the art of the 20th century, housed at the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, Peggy Guggenheim’s former residence in Venice. The museum is owned by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York, which also participates in the programming of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

For Your Eyes Only: A Private Collection, from Mannerism to Surrealism covers diverse artistic styles and the artists who adopted them, such as Arnold Böcklin, Victor Brauner, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Giorgio de Chirico, Francesco Clemente, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Man Ray and Andy Warhol, among many others. The display consists of approximately 120 works that attempt to express the inescapable influence of art over time.

Andy Warhol. Skull, 1976-77.

Visitors can enjoy a preview of this excellent exhibition in the 288 pages of the monograph prefaced by Bernhard Mendes Bürgi, Bruno Monnier and Philip Rylands, released by the Museum for the great event. According to the experts, this exhibit is an amazing display of curiosities that seem to explore the depths of all possible art expressions. The viewer’s experience is enhanced by the confrontation of religious and erotic art, masterful baroque drawings, surrealist paintings and mannerist fantasies.

The Museum’s main mission is to exhibit Peggy Guggenheim’s personal collection, which covers cubism, futurism and abstract expressionism. It includes important works such as The Poet (1911) by Pablo Picasso, Sad Young Man in a Train (1911) by Marcel Duchamp and Joan Miró’s Seated Woman II (1939), among hundreds of other masterpieces.

(L) René Magritte, The Ready Made Bouquet, 1956.
(R) Salvador Dalí, Flying Giant Demi-Tasse with Incomprehensible Appendage Five Meters Long. 1944-45.

Since October 2012, the museum has added to its permanent collection 80 works of Italian, European and American art of the postwar from the Hannelore B. and Rudolph B. Schulhof collection; plus more than 26 works from Gianni Mattioli Collection. The Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Sculpture Garden is also part of the permanent collection and boasts sculptures by artists like Consagra, Giacometti, Holzer, Richier, Graham, Miró, Moore, Paladino, Duchamp-Villon, Minguzzi, Yoko Ono and David Smith.

Following its presentation at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, the exhibition will travel to the Kunstmuseum Basel in Switzerland, where it will be on view from 21 September to 4 January 2015. ■