March 21 - May 17 2009 the Peggy Guggenheim Collection presents Themes and Variations: From the
Mark to Zero, curated by Luca Massimo Barbero. This exhibition draws upon the museum’s permanent
collections from the early 20th century to the post World War II period, enriched by loans from other
collections. It charts the progress of the pictorial mark chronologically and thematically: from typography
to collage, from letters to numbers, to the iteration of gesture, of signs, eventually sublimating into
monochrome, beyond which the only possible condition is the void. As a ‘variation’ of this theme, the
exhibition includes a one-man show of painting by British artist Jason Martin. Martin, one of the most
creative young British artists of his generation, has been invited to interpret grade zero with a series of
canvases specifically created for this exhibition. From the Mark to Zero benefits from the support of the
Regione del Veneto.