In the mid-1990s, film producer Jenna Segal‘s life changed during a European backpacking trip. All it took was a visit to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice with her best friend.
“This was before smartphones,” Segal told ARTnews from her office on West 57th Street in Manhattan, which, not coincidentally, was once home to Guggenheim’s gallery, Art of This Century. “We had a guidebook. It read ‘For art of a different kind, check out Peggy Guggenheim’s former home that now houses her art collection.” As soon as I walked in I felt this kind of connection, a kind of comfort.” At the gift shop, Segal bought Guggenheim’s autobiography, Out of this Century: Confessions of an Art Addict, and spent the train-journeys in Europe devouring the book.
More than 25 years later, Segal is still fascinated by Guggenheim, though now she’s no longer a backpacking college student, but a noted Broadway and film producer. Her production company and investment firm, Segal NYC, spotlights female-led productions like Suffs and Gigi, and is a major investor in the National Women’s Soccer League team Angel City F.C., and the all women owned-and-operated company Yola Mezcal.
Last week, the Museum of Contemporary Art Lisbon opened a traveling exhibition of paintings inspired by Guggenheim’s landmark 1943 exhibition “31 Women,” which holds the distinction of being the very first exhibition dedicated to female artists in the United States. The show is composed completely of works from Segal’s art collection, which she has dubbed “31 Women Collection.”
Segal started collecting in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, after she reread Guggenheim’s autobiography. Revisiting the book sparked a sense of duty in Segal. “I had to Sharpie these women into history,” she said. “To make sure they weren’t forgotten.”
The original “31 Women” show was an audacious statement at the time, bringing together figures like Leonora Carrington, Frida Kahlo, Dorothea Tanning, Meret Oppenheim, and Louise Nevelson, some of whom are only now getting the accolades they’ve long deserved. For proof, one need only look to last year when a Carrington’s 1945 painting Les Distractions de Dagobert sold for over $28 million, more than doubling its low estimate and nearly ten times more than the artist’s previous auction record, which was set in 2022. The fact that this pivotal moment in art history remained relatively obscure stunned Segal, and she began researching the exhibition with relentless curiosity.
Dorothea Tanning, Moeurs Espagnoles (1943). Photo: Copyright The Artist. Courtesy, The 31 Women Collection.
Segal told ARTnews that she began building the collection with a producer’s mindset, tracking down books and documents on Guggenheim and the women artists she championed. She then went on an acquisition spree, scouring eBay and contacting auction houses for old dealer catalogs and information on private collections. Slowly, she assembled works by the same 31 artists Guggenheim had exhibited in 1943. The goal, she said, was never to recreate the original show, but rather to reclaim the legacy of these women, who were often sidelined as muses, companions, or imitators of their more famous male contemporaries. Segal’s collection now includes several hundred works, a vast archive of ephemera, and a research library dedicated to the 31 artists.
Few collectors take their passion to Segal’s level—both figuratively and literally. She now works out of Peggy Guggenheim’s former Art of This Century gallery space on 57th Street in Manhattan, a full-circle moment that underscores just how deep her commitment runs.
When Segal speaks about Guggenheim and the 31 women, she becomes animated. Her hands move and her eyes brighten as she segues from one artist’s story to the next, speaking in intimate detail as if she were a personal friend. When she delves into Guggenheim’s past, it’s with the detail, drama, and narrative skill earned from years of producing for television and the stage.
In May 2023, after renovations to her Guggenheim-inspired office were done, Segal decided to stage an exhibition of works from the collection. The timing couldn’t have been better. It was the 80th anniversary of Guggenheim’s original exhibition, which took place in the very same space.
Leonora Carrington, Les chevaux de Lord Candlestick (1938). Photo: Copyright The Artist. Courtesy, The 31 Women Collection.
“We opened the doors for just 31 hours—it was free, and the response was overwhelming,” Segal said. Among the 2,000 visitors to that show was Nadia Arroyo Arce, the Creative Director at the Fundación Mapfre in Madrid. (Segal and the Mapfre were already connected after she loaned a work to their Leonora Carrington retrospective earlier that year.)
A short while later, Arroyo Arce asked Segal if she would be interested in letting Mapfre stage a version of “31 Women,” using works from her collection, in the Spanish capital. Last fall, the exhibition, curated by Spanish art historian Patricia Mayayo, opened in Madrid. According to the museum, the show shattered attendance records, drawing more than 70,000 visitors.
“It was a truly worthwhile show, and a way of supporting these women,” Arroyo Arce told ARTnews. “When we presented the show in Madrid many of these artists were still completely unknown. I think that there is a lot of exhibitions and scholarship that can still be done.”
Now, the show has traveled to Lisbon, where it runs until June 29.
At Segal’s office, a large scale, dynamic portrait of Peggy Guggenheim decorates one wall and works from her “31 Women” collection stand on easels around the room. On a sleek, light-colored wooden built in bookcase, there’s a copy of one of Segal’s favorite childhood stories, Caps for Sale. In what could be considered a strange coincidence—or sign that, perhaps she was destined to see Peggy Guggenhiem’s vision into the 21st century—the book was written and illustrated by Esphyr Slobodkina, one of the artists featured in Guggenheim’s original show and featured heavily in Segal’s collection.
“I never would have known how amazing this woman was if I didn’t start digging,” Segal said.
Before leaving the office, Segal returned to the bookshelves and grabbed a copy of Out of this Century: Confessions of an Art Addict, one of many that lined the higher shelves. “Have you read this yet? Here,” she said, handing the book over, “it could change your life.”
