Page 193 - The 60.Venice Biennial & MoMA issue of WOA Contemporary Art magazine

PICASSO IN FONTAINEBLEAU

THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART PRESENTS PICASSO IN
FONTAINEBLEAU, A FOCUSED EXHIBITION EXAMINING
THREE MONTHS IN A LEGENDARY ARTIST'S CAREER, WHEN
HE CREATED AN ASTONISHINGLY VARIED BODY OF WORK
BETWEEN JULY AND SEPTEMBER 1921 IN THE TOWN OF
FONTAINEBLEAU, FRANCE. THIS EXHIBITION REUNITES FOUR
MONUMENTAL WORKS ON CANVAS, BOTH VERSIONS OF
PICASSO’S THREE MUSICIANS AND THREE WOMEN AT THE
SPRING, WITH THE OTHER PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS, ETCHINGS,
AND PASTELS HE MADE IN FONTAINEBLEAU. ENCOMPASSING
BOTH CUBIST AND CLASSICIZING STYLES, THESE WORKS ARE
PRESENTED TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE THEIR
CREATION IN PICASSO’S MAKESHIFT GARAGE STUDIO AND
COMPLEMENTED BY NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN PHOTOGRAPHS AND
ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTS.

Pablo Picasso. Studies. Paris, 1920–1922. Oil on canvas, 39 3/8 × 31 7/8″ (100 ×
“Picasso’s decision to paint, virtually simultaneously and on a 81 cm). Musée National Picasso–Paris. Dation Pablo Picasso. © 2023 Estate of
Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
grand scale, MoMA’s startlingly different-looking Three Musicians
and Three Women at the Spring in Fontainebleau during the
summer of 1921 continues to disrupt expectations of artistic As the exhibition transitions into Picasso’s time in the town of
evolution and stylistic consistency,” said Umland. “This exhibition Fontainebleau, it presents his precisely dated line drawings of the
extends the Museum’s commitment to exploring new ways of interior and exterior of his rented villa, at 33 boulevard Gambetta
seeing, thinking about, and interpreting iconic works from the (now 33 boulevard du Général Leclerc) in Fontainebleau, along
collection.” with works on canvas, documents from the artist’s archives, and
Organized chronologically, Picasso in Fontainebleau begins with some 30 family and studio photographs, many of which are on
a prelude to the artist´s three months in Fontainebleau. Cubist view for the first time.
and classicizing works exhibited in Paris during early 1921 will Measuring 20 by 10 feet, the passageway that connects the two
be on view in the first gallery, accompanied by a selection of exhibition galleries occupies approximately the same footprint as
Picasso’s designs for the Ballets Russes and a related print project. Picasso’s Fontainebleau studio. Featuring ghostly, to-scale black-
and-white reproductions of Three Musicians and Three Women at
the Spring, this space recreates the compressed environment in
Installation view of Picasso in Fontainebleau, The Museum of Modern Art, New
York, October 8, 2023–February 17, 2024. Photo: Jonathan Dorado which Picasso worked during the summer of 1921.
The final gallery of Picasso in Fontainebleau brings together many
of Picasso’s Fontainebleau works for the first time, including both
versions of Three Musicians and Three Women at the Spring and
five large, pastel head drawings closely related to Three Women
at the Spring. Echoing the installation of Picasso’s Fontainebleau
studio, the exhibition presents the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s
Three Musicians and MoMA’s Three Women at the Spring side by
side for the first time since 1921. These two stylistically disjunctive,
six-feet high paintings, which were made roughly at the same time,
emphasize the interconnectedness of Picasso’s process across
works in various mediums, models, and visual idioms.

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