From February 1 to April 14, 2014, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection presents Themes & Variations. The Empire of Light. This innovative curatorial formula for the temporary exhibition spaces of the Venice museum originated in 2002 and is now in its fourth edition. Based on the theme of light, synthesized by René Magritte’s celebrated painting Empire of Light, which gives its name to the subtitle of the exhibition and which is one of Peggy Guggenheim’s most celebrated masterpieces, the exhibition combines a wide variety of images and media in a multi-layered dialogue touching three centuries of the history of art.
On display are works by Gabriele Basilico, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Agostino Bonalumi, Victor Brauner, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Leonora Carrington, Joseph Cornell, Salvador Dalí, Willem de Kooning, Edgar Degas, Paul Delvaux, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Lucio Fontana, Philippe Halsman, David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, Marcel Jean, Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Anish Kapoor, Ellsworth Kelly, Rita Kernn-Larsen, André Kertész, Nate Lowman, René Magritte, Henri Matisse, Jackson Pollock, Man Ray, Germaine Richier, Gerhard Richter, Mark Rothko, Thomas Ruff, Mario Sironi, Kiki Smith, Thomas Struth, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Antoni Tàpies, Cy Twombly, and Piotr Uklański.