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And perhaps proof that there is a Guggenheim everywhere. In the appropriately named “Pursuit of Pleasure” exhibition at the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum at the Venetian, masterworks from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna share rich chocolate brown walls in a building designed by visionary Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas.

How bizarre is this collaboration between the Guggenheim and the Hermitage? Let’s see. This museum resides in a hotel, one that remakes Venice in the middle of the desert? Strange, and strangely satisfying. There were a number of stellar works in this extravagant exhibition, highlighting the pursuits and pleasures that Las Vegas is infamous for. Standouts were Theodoor Rombouts “Card Playing” from the 17th Century and the small but voluptuous “A Game of Billiards” by Louis Leopold Boilly. Interesting to see Picasso, Rousseau and Boccioni together, and in an exhibition focusing on pleasure. Picasso, yes, absolutely, but the other two, I don’t know, perhaps anti-pleasure.  See for yourself at the Guggenheim Hermitage website.

- amy berk [Thursday, October 28th, 2004]

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