The Baroness Hilla von Rebay died in 1967 after years of close association with Solomon Guggenheim, his collection, and his museum. Today, mention of her name is likely to elicit a slight smirk and some clever remark about “the mistress of Solomon Guggenheim.” Only occasionally will she be given credit for her almost fanatical dedication to modernist art at a time when it was unfashionable and her important influence on the collection that came to form the Guggenheim Museum.

I began Joan M. Lukach’s Hilla Rebay: In Search of the Spirit in Art1 rally prepared for a biography that catalogued Rebay’s familiar eccentricities. But I hoped for one that did something more—that made some attempt to separate her life from her legend, to understand...

 
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