MoMA

Pablo Picasso. (Spanish, 1881-1973). Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Paris, June-July 1907. Oil on canvas, 8' x 7' 8" (243.9 x 233.7 cm). Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest. Gallery label text 2006 The result of months of preparation and revision, this painting revolutionized the art world when first seen in Picasso's studio. Its monumental size underscored the shocking incoherence resulting from the outright sabotage of conventional representation. Picasso drew on sources as diverse as Iberian sculpture, African tribal masks, and El Greco's painting to make this startling composition. In the preparatory studies, the figure at left was a sailor entering a brothel. Picasso, wanting no anecdotal detail to interfere with the sheer impact of the work, decided to eliminate it in the final painting. The only remaining allusion to the brothel lies in the title: Avignon was a street in Barcelona famed for its brothel. Publication excerpt The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, revised 2004, originally published 1999, p. 64 Les Demoiselles d'Avignon is one of the most important works in the genesis of modern art. The painting depicts five naked prostitutes in a brothel; two of them push aside curtains around the space where the other women strike seductive and erotic poses—but their figures are composed of flat, splintered planes rather than rounded volumes, their eyes are lopsided or staring or asymmetrical, and the two women at the right have threatening masks for heads. The space, too, which should recede, comes forward in jagged shards, like broken glass. In the still life at the bottom, a piece of melon slices the air like a scythe. The faces of the figures at the right are influenced by African masks, which Picasso assumed had functioned as magical protectors against dangerous spirits: this work, he said later, was his "first exorcism painting." A specific danger he had in mind was life-threatening sexual disease, a source of considerable anxiety in Paris at the time; earlier sketches for the painting more clearly link sexual pleasure to mortality. In its brutal treatment of the body and its clashes of color and style (other sources for this work include ancient Iberian statuary and the work of Paul Cézanne), Les Demoiselles d'Avignon marks a radical break from traditional composition and perspective. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=79766

Pablo Picasso. (Spanish, 1881-1973). Landscape. Paris, August or September 1908. Oil on canvas, 39 5/8 x 32" (100.8 x 81.3 cm). Gift of Mr. and Mrs. David Rockefeller. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=80660

Pablo Picasso. (Spanish, 1881-1973). Fruit Dish. Paris, winter 1908-09. Oil on canvas, 29 1/4 x 24" (74.3 x 61 cm). Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O:AD:...

Georges Braque. (French, 1882-1963). Road near L'Estaque. L'Estaque, late summer 1908. Oil on canvas, 23 3/4 x 19 3/4" (60.3 x 50.2 cm). Given anonymously (by exchange). Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O:AD:...

Georges Braque. (French, 1882-1963). Man with a Guitar. Céret, summer 1911-early 1912. Oil on canvas, 45 3/4 x 31 7/8" (116.2 x 80.9 cm). Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O:AD:...

Pablo Picasso. (Spanish, 1881-1973). The Architect's Table. Paris, early 1912. Oil on canvas mounted on panel, 28 5/8 x 23 1/2" (72.6 x 59.7 cm). The William S. Paley Collection. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=80280

Pablo Picasso. (Spanish, 1881-1973). "Ma Jolie". Paris, winter 1911-12. Oil on canvas, 39 3/8 x 25 3/4" (100 x 64.5 cm). Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest. Gallery label text 2006 "Ma Jolie!" (My pretty girl), the refrain of a popular French song, was Picasso's pet name for his lover Marcelle Humbert ("Eva"). These easily legible words form a stark contrast to the nearly indecipherable image of Eva playing a string instrument. A triangular form in the lower center is strung like a guitar; below the strings can be seen four fingers; an elbow juts to the right; and in the upper half, what may be a floating smile is barely discernable amid the network of flat, semitransparent planes. Publication excerpt The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, revised 2004, originally published 1999, p. 66 Numerous elusive clues connect "Ma Jolie" to reality: a triangular form in the lower center, strung like a guitar or zither; below the strings, four fingers, with an angular elbow to the right; and in the upper half, perhaps a floating smile. Together these elements suggest a woman holding a musical instrument, but the picture hints at reality only to deny it. Planes, lines, spatial cues, shadings, and other traces of painting's language of illusion are abstracted from descriptive uses; the figure almost disappears into a network of flat, straight-edged, semitransparent planes. Yet "Ma Jolie," an example of high Analytic Cubism, is actually a painting on a very traditional theme—a woman holding a musical instrument. The palette of brown and sepia is reminiscent of the work of Rembrandt, and Picasso emphasizes the handmade nature of the brushstrokes, underlining the artist's human presence. At the bottom of the canvas Picasso also inscribes a treble clef and the words "Ma Jolie," (my pretty one)—both a line from a popular song and a reference to his lover Marcelle Humbert. A kind of stand-in for the woman who can barely be seen, the phrase "Ma Jolie" is clear, legible, colloquial, and suggests conventional prettiness—although this was one of the most complex, abstract, and esoteric images of its day. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=79051

Pablo Picasso. (Spanish, 1881-1973). "Ma Jolie". Paris, winter 1911-12. Oil on canvas, 39 3/8 x 25 3/4" (100 x 64.5 cm). Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest. Gallery label text 2006 "Ma Jolie!" (My pretty girl), the refrain of a popular French song, was Picasso's pet name for his lover Marcelle Humbert ("Eva"). These easily legible words form a stark contrast to the nearly indecipherable image of Eva playing a string instrument. A triangular form in the lower center is strung like a guitar; below the strings can be seen four fingers; an elbow juts to the right; and in the upper half, what may be a floating smile is barely discernable amid the network of flat, semitransparent planes. Publication excerpt The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, revised 2004, originally published 1999, p. 66 Numerous elusive clues connect "Ma Jolie" to reality: a triangular form in the lower center, strung like a guitar or zither; below the strings, four fingers, with an angular elbow to the right; and in the upper half, perhaps a floating smile. Together these elements suggest a woman holding a musical instrument, but the picture hints at reality only to deny it. Planes, lines, spatial cues, shadings, and other traces of painting's language of illusion are abstracted from descriptive uses; the figure almost disappears into a network of flat, straight-edged, semitransparent planes. Yet "Ma Jolie," an example of high Analytic Cubism, is actually a painting on a very traditional theme—a woman holding a musical instrument. The palette of brown and sepia is reminiscent of the work of Rembrandt, and Picasso emphasizes the handmade nature of the brushstrokes, underlining the artist's human presence. At the bottom of the canvas Picasso also inscribes a treble clef and the words "Ma Jolie," (my pretty one)—both a line from a popular song and a reference to his lover Marcelle Humbert. A kind of stand-in for the woman who can barely be seen, the phrase "Ma Jolie" is clear, legible, colloquial, and suggests conventional prettiness—although this was one of the most complex, abstract, and esoteric images of its day. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=79051

Georges Braque. (French, 1882-1963). Soda. Paris, spring 1912. Oil on canvas, 14 1/4" (36.2 cm) in diameter. Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=78387

Pablo Picasso. (Spanish, 1881-1973). Violin and Grapes. Céret and Sorgues, spring-summer 1912. Oil on canvas, 24 x 20" (61 x 50.8 cm). Mrs. David M. Levy Bequest. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=78578

Pablo Picasso. (Spanish, 1881-1973). Girl with a Mandolin (Fanny Tellier). Paris, late spring 1910. Oil on canvas, 39 1/2 x 29" (100.3 x 73.6 cm). Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=80430

Pablo Picasso. (Spanish, 1881-1973). Green Still Life. Avignon, summer 1914. Oil on canvas, 23 1/2 x 31 1/4" (59.7 x 79.4 cm). Lillie P. Bliss Collection. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=78748

Lyubov Popova. (Russian, 1889-1924). Subject From a Dyer's Shop. 1914. Oil on canvas, 27 3/4 x 35" (71 x 89 cm). The Riklis Collection of McCrory Corporation Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O:AD:...

Diego Rivera. (Mexican, 1886-1957). Jacques Lipchitz (Portrait of a Young Man). Paris 1914. Oil on canvas, 25 5/8 x 21 5/8" (65.1 x 54.9 cm). Gift of T. Catesby Jones. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O:AD:...

Juan Gris. (Spanish, 1887-1927). Guitar and Glasses. 1914. Pasted papers, gouache, and crayon on canvas, 36 1/8 x 25 1/2" (91.5 x 64.6 cm). Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=80423

Juan Gris. (Spanish, 1887-1927). Grapes. October 1913. Oil on canvas, 36 1/4 x 23 5/8" (92.1 x 60 cm). Bequest of Anna Erickson Levene in memory of her husband, Dr. Phoebus Aaron Theodor Levene. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O:AD:...

Vasily Kandinsky. (French, born Russia. 1866-1944). Picture with an Archer. 1909. Oil on canvas, 68 7/8 x 57 3/8" (175 x 144.6 cm). Gift and bequest of Louise Reinhardt Smith. Publication excerpt The Museum of Modern Art , MoMA Highlights, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, revised 2004, originally published 1999, p. 61 The color in Picture with an Archer is vibrantly alive—so much so that the scene is initially hard to make out. The patchwork surface seems to be shrugging off the task of describing a space or form. Kandinsky was the first modern artist to paint an entirely abstract composition; at the time of Picture with an Archer, that work was just a few months away. Kandinsky took his approach from Paris—particularly from the Fauves—but used it to create an Eastern landscape suffused with a folktale mood. Galloping under the trees of a wildly radiant countryside, a horseman turns in his saddle and aims his bow. In the left foreground stand men in Russian dress; behind them are a house, a domed tower, and two bulbous mountainy pinnacles, cousins of the bent–necked spire in the picture's center. Russian icons show similar rocks, which do exist in places in the East, but even so have a fantastical air. The lone rider with his archaic weapon, the traditional costumes and buildings, and the rural setting intensify the note of fantasy or poetic romance. There is a nostalgia here for a time or perhaps for a place: in 1909 Kandinsky was living in Germany, far from his native Russia. But in the glowing energy of the painting's color there is also excitement and promise. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=80104

Franz Marc. (German, 1880-1916). The World Cow. 1913. Oil on canvas, 27 7/8 x 55 5/8" (70.7 x 141.3 cm). Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Morton D. May, and Mr. and Mrs. Arnold H. Maremont (both by exchange) Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=78879