1947

1947

Begins to frequent All'Angelo in Venice, a restaurant which was becoming a rendezvous for artists of the avant-garde. Here he meets Peggy Guggenheim: “One day in 1947 a lady with a repertory of Pekinese dogs sat down out of the blue at my table. She had my name scrawled on a cigarette packet. She spoke American – if only she had spoken French!... I could hardly understand a word she said. But Santomaso, as always with his ears pricked, appeared out of nowhere and called me over, asking “Who’s that with you? ... I saw a look of amazement, dismay even, come over his face and he gasped: “Guggenheim? – the big American collector?!”*

* Emilio Vedova, Blätter aus dem Tagebuch, Prestel Verlag, München 1960; translated as Pagine di diario, Galleria Blu editrice, Milan, 1961; reprinted in Italian by Marsilio Editori, Venice, in 2019