Throughout the centuries, the vocabulary of pleasure—from joy to delight, from bliss to elation, and from indulgence to amusement— has been depicted in artworks in a variety of forms. Part of the nature of art itself, pleasure emerges from the rich qualities of color, shape, and texture and from the implied sounds, smells, and tastes imparted to the viewer. The shared activity of looking at art also provides pleasure, and in this, its pursuit is both an important social function and a welcome visual indulgence.

The Pursuit of Pleasure is the fifth exhibition presented in Las Vegas at the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum and the second to recognize the unique alliance among the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York, the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It was co-organized by Susan Davidson, Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Arkady Ippolitov, Curator of Italian Prints, State Hermitage Museum; and Karl Schütz, Director, Gemäldegalerie, Kunsthistorisches Museum.

Drawing on the rich holdings of each institution, The Pursuit of Pleasure explores images of leisure in Western art from the 16th century to the early 20th century. The exhibition is organized into four thematic sections—“Music and Dance,” “Celebration and Café Society,” “Gaming and Sport,” and “Flirtation and Romance”— which are represented in nearly 40 works by artists as diverse as Max Beckmann, Edgar Degas, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Pablo Picasso, Peter Paul Rubens, Jan Steen, Titian, and Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez.