MoMA

Fernand Léger. (French, 1881-1955). Three Women. 1921. Oil on canvas, 6' 1/4" x 8' 3" (183.5 x 251.5 cm). Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund. Gallery label text 2006 This painting represents a group of three reclining nudes drinking tea or coffee in a chic apartment. While the reclining nude is a common subject in art history, these women’s bodies have been simplified into rounded and dislocated forms, their skin not soft but firm, buffed, and polished. The machinelike precision and solidity with which Léger renders human form relates to his faith in modern industry and to his hope that art and the machine age would together reverse the chaos unleashed by World War I. Publication excerpt The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, revised 2004, originally published 1999, p. 100 In Three Women, Léger translates a common theme in art history—the reclining nude—into a modern idiom, simplifying the female figure into a mass of rounded and somewhat dislocated forms, the skin not soft but firm, even unyielding. The machinelike precision and solidity that Léger gives his women's bodies relate to his faith in modern industry, and to his hope that art and the machine age would together remake the world. The painting's geometric equilibrium, its black bands and panels of white, suggest his awareness of Mondrian, an artist then becoming popular. Another stylistic trait is the return to variants of classicism, which was widespread in French art after the chaos of World War I. Though buffed and polished, the simplified volumes of Lger's figures are, nonetheless, in the tradition of classicists of the previous century. A group of naked women taking tea, or coffee, together may also recall paintings of harem scenes, for example, by Jean-Auguste-Dominque Ingres, although there the drink might be wine. Updating the repast, Léger also updates the setting—a chic apartment, decorated with fashionable vibrancy. And the women, with their flat-ironed hair hanging to one side, have a Hollywood glamour. The painting is like a beautiful engine, its parts meshing smoothly and in harmony. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O:AD:...

Fernand Léger. (French, 1881-1955). Three Women. 1921. Oil on canvas, 6' 1/4" x 8' 3" (183.5 x 251.5 cm). Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund. Gallery label text 2006 This painting represents a group of three reclining nudes drinking tea or coffee in a chic apartment. While the reclining nude is a common subject in art history, these women’s bodies have been simplified into rounded and dislocated forms, their skin not soft but firm, buffed, and polished. The machinelike precision and solidity with which Léger renders human form relates to his faith in modern industry and to his hope that art and the machine age would together reverse the chaos unleashed by World War I. Publication excerpt The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, revised 2004, originally published 1999, p. 100 In Three Women, Léger translates a common theme in art history—the reclining nude—into a modern idiom, simplifying the female figure into a mass of rounded and somewhat dislocated forms, the skin not soft but firm, even unyielding. The machinelike precision and solidity that Léger gives his women's bodies relate to his faith in modern industry, and to his hope that art and the machine age would together remake the world. The painting's geometric equilibrium, its black bands and panels of white, suggest his awareness of Mondrian, an artist then becoming popular. Another stylistic trait is the return to variants of classicism, which was widespread in French art after the chaos of World War I. Though buffed and polished, the simplified volumes of Lger's figures are, nonetheless, in the tradition of classicists of the previous century. A group of naked women taking tea, or coffee, together may also recall paintings of harem scenes, for example, by Jean-Auguste-Dominque Ingres, although there the drink might be wine. Updating the repast, Léger also updates the setting—a chic apartment, decorated with fashionable vibrancy. And the women, with their flat-ironed hair hanging to one side, have a Hollywood glamour. The painting is like a beautiful engine, its parts meshing smoothly and in harmony. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O:AD:...

Fernand Léger. (French, 1881-1955). The Mirror. 1925. Oil on canvas, 51 x 39 1/4" (129.6 x 99.6 cm). Nina and Gordon Bunshaft Bequest. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=80147

Fernand Léger. (French, 1881-1955). The Mirror. 1925. Oil on canvas, 51 x 39 1/4" (129.6 x 99.6 cm). Nina and Gordon Bunshaft Bequest. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=80147

Fernand Léger. (French, 1881-1955). Woman with a Book. 1923. Oil on canvas, 45 3/4 x 32 1/8" (116 x 81.4 cm). Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest. Gallery label text 2007 "I had broken down the human body, so I set about putting it together again," Léger said. The smooth surfaces of this volumetric woman, bunch of flowers, and book evoke mechanical parts assembled together. The metallic sheen and tight geometry are stylistic treatments that recur in many of Léger's paintings of this period. After World War I he recast established subjects and themes the still–life, the figure, and interior scenes in simplified forms and primary colors, offering solid, enduring images as France recovered from the devastation of the war. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=80425

Pablo Picasso. (Spanish, 1881-1973). Three Musicians. Fontainebleau, summer 1921. Oil on canvas, 6' 7" x 7' 3 3/4" (200.7 x 222.9 cm). Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund. Gallery label text 2006 The three musicians and dog conjure a bygone period of bohemian life, enjoyed here by Picasso in the guise of a Harlequin flanked by two figures who may represent poet–friends of the artist's: Guillaume Apollinaire, who was recently deceased, and Max Jacob. The patterned flatness of the work is derived from cut–and–pasted paper, and stands in stark contrast to the sculptural monumentality of Picasso's Three Women at the Spring, also painted in the summer of 1921. Publication excerpt The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, revised 2004, originally published 1999, p. 101 At the left of a bare and boxlike space, a masked Pierrot plays the clarinet. At the right, a singing monk holds sheet music. And in the center, strumming a guitar, is a Harlequin, in Picasso's art a recurring stand-in for the artist himself. Pierrot and Harlequin are stock characters in the old Italian comic theater known as commedia dell'arte, a familiar theme in Picasso's work. The painting, then, has a whimsical side, epitomized by the near-invisible dog: its head is about halfway up the canvas on the left, one of several subtle browns, and we can also make out front paws, a hind leg, and a jaunty tail popping up between Harlequin's legs. Overall, though, the work's somber background and large size make the musicians a solemn, even majestic trio. The intricate, jigsaw-puzzle-like composition sums up the Synthetic Cubist style, the flat planes of unshaded color recalling the cutout and pasted paper forms with which the style began. These overlapping shapes are at their most complex at the center of the picture, which is also where the lightest hues are concentrated, so that an aura of darkness surrounds a brighter center. Along with the frontal poses of the figures, this creates a feeling of gravity and monumentality, and gives Three Musicians a mysterious, otherworldly air. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O:AD:...

Pablo Picasso. (Spanish, 1881-1973). Three Musicians. Fontainebleau, summer 1921. Oil on canvas, 6' 7" x 7' 3 3/4" (200.7 x 222.9 cm). Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund. Gallery label text 2006 The three musicians and dog conjure a bygone period of bohemian life, enjoyed here by Picasso in the guise of a Harlequin flanked by two figures who may represent poet–friends of the artist's: Guillaume Apollinaire, who was recently deceased, and Max Jacob. The patterned flatness of the work is derived from cut–and–pasted paper, and stands in stark contrast to the sculptural monumentality of Picasso's Three Women at the Spring, also painted in the summer of 1921. Publication excerpt The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, revised 2004, originally published 1999, p. 101 At the left of a bare and boxlike space, a masked Pierrot plays the clarinet. At the right, a singing monk holds sheet music. And in the center, strumming a guitar, is a Harlequin, in Picasso's art a recurring stand-in for the artist himself. Pierrot and Harlequin are stock characters in the old Italian comic theater known as commedia dell'arte, a familiar theme in Picasso's work. The painting, then, has a whimsical side, epitomized by the near-invisible dog: its head is about halfway up the canvas on the left, one of several subtle browns, and we can also make out front paws, a hind leg, and a jaunty tail popping up between Harlequin's legs. Overall, though, the work's somber background and large size make the musicians a solemn, even majestic trio. The intricate, jigsaw-puzzle-like composition sums up the Synthetic Cubist style, the flat planes of unshaded color recalling the cutout and pasted paper forms with which the style began. These overlapping shapes are at their most complex at the center of the picture, which is also where the lightest hues are concentrated, so that an aura of darkness surrounds a brighter center. Along with the frontal poses of the figures, this creates a feeling of gravity and monumentality, and gives Three Musicians a mysterious, otherworldly air. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O:AD:...

Giorgio de Chirico. (Italian, born Greece. 1888-1978). Playthings of the Prince. fall 1915. Oil on canvas, 21 7/8 x 10 1/4" (55.4 x 25.9 cm). Gift of Pierre Matisse in memory of Patricia Kane Matisse. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O:AD:...

Giorgio de Chirico. (Italian, born Greece. 1888-1978). Great Metaphysical Interior. Ferrara, April-August 1917. Oil on canvas, 37 3/4 x 27 3/4" (95.9 x 70.5 cm). Gift of James Thrall Soby. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=80539

Giorgio de Chirico. (Italian, born Greece. 1888-1978). Great Metaphysical Interior. Ferrara, April-August 1917. Oil on canvas, 37 3/4 x 27 3/4" (95.9 x 70.5 cm). Gift of James Thrall Soby. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=80539

Giorgio de Chirico. (Italian, born Greece. 1888-1978). Great Metaphysical Interior. Ferrara, April-August 1917. Oil on canvas, 37 3/4 x 27 3/4" (95.9 x 70.5 cm). Gift of James Thrall Soby. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=80539

Giorgio de Chirico. (Italian, born Greece. 1888-1978). The Serenity of the Scholar. Paris, April-May 1914. Oil and charcoal on canvas, 51 1/4 x 28 1/2" (130.1 x 72.4 cm). Gift of Sylvia Slifka in honor of Joseph Slifka. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O:AD:...

Pablo Picasso. (Spanish, 1881-1973). Studio with Plaster Head. Juan-les-Pins, summer 1925. Oil on canvas, 38 5/8 x 51 5/8" (97.9 x 131.1 cm). Purchase. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=78860

Pablo Picasso. (Spanish, 1881-1973). Studio with Plaster Head. Juan-les-Pins, summer 1925. Oil on canvas, 38 5/8 x 51 5/8" (97.9 x 131.1 cm). Purchase. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=78860

Pablo Picasso. (Spanish, 1881-1973). Studio with Plaster Head. Juan-les-Pins, summer 1925. Oil on canvas, 38 5/8 x 51 5/8" (97.9 x 131.1 cm). Purchase. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=78860

Giorgio de Chirico. (Italian, born Greece. 1888-1978). The Song of Love. Paris, June-July 1914. Oil on canvas, 28 3/4 x 23 3/8" (73 x 59.1 cm). Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest. Gallery label text 2006 This painting brings together incongruous and unrelated objects: the head of a Classical Greek statue, an oversized rubber glove, a green ball, and a train shrouded in darkness, silhouetted against a bright blue sky. By subverting the logical presence of objects, de Chirico created what he termed "metaphysical" paintings, representations of what lies "beyond the physical" world. Cloaked in an atmosphere of anxiety and melancholy, de Chirico's humanoid forms, vacuous architecture, shadowy passages, and eerily elongated streets evoke the profound absurdity of a universe torn apart by World War I. Publication excerpt The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, revised 2004, originally published 1999 "M. Giorgio de Chirico has just bought a red rubber glove"—so wrote the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire in July of 1914, noting the purchase because, he went on to say, he knew the glove's appearance in de Chirico's paintings would add to their uncanny power. Implying human presence, as a mold of the hand, yet also inhuman, a clammily limp fragment distinctly unfleshlike in color, the glove in The Song of Love has an unsettling authority. Why, too, is this surgical garment pinned to a board or canvas, alongside a plaster head copied from a classical statue, relic of a noble vanished age? What is the meaning of the green ball? And what is the whole ensemble doing in the outdoor setting insinuated by the building and the passing train? Unlikely meetings among dissimilar objects were to become a strong theme in modern art (they soon became an explicit goal of the Surrealists), but de Chirico sought more than surprise: in works like this one, for which Apollinaire used the term "metaphysical," he wanted to evoke an enduring level of reality hidden beyond outward appearances. Perhaps this is why he gives us a geometric form (the spherical ball), a schematic building rather than a specific one, and inert and partial images of the human body rather than a living, mortal being. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=80419

Giorgio de Chirico. (Italian, born Greece. 1888-1978). The Song of Love. Paris, June-July 1914. Oil on canvas, 28 3/4 x 23 3/8" (73 x 59.1 cm). Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest. Gallery label text 2006 This painting brings together incongruous and unrelated objects: the head of a Classical Greek statue, an oversized rubber glove, a green ball, and a train shrouded in darkness, silhouetted against a bright blue sky. By subverting the logical presence of objects, de Chirico created what he termed "metaphysical" paintings, representations of what lies "beyond the physical" world. Cloaked in an atmosphere of anxiety and melancholy, de Chirico's humanoid forms, vacuous architecture, shadowy passages, and eerily elongated streets evoke the profound absurdity of a universe torn apart by World War I. Publication excerpt The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, revised 2004, originally published 1999 "M. Giorgio de Chirico has just bought a red rubber glove"—so wrote the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire in July of 1914, noting the purchase because, he went on to say, he knew the glove's appearance in de Chirico's paintings would add to their uncanny power. Implying human presence, as a mold of the hand, yet also inhuman, a clammily limp fragment distinctly unfleshlike in color, the glove in The Song of Love has an unsettling authority. Why, too, is this surgical garment pinned to a board or canvas, alongside a plaster head copied from a classical statue, relic of a noble vanished age? What is the meaning of the green ball? And what is the whole ensemble doing in the outdoor setting insinuated by the building and the passing train? Unlikely meetings among dissimilar objects were to become a strong theme in modern art (they soon became an explicit goal of the Surrealists), but de Chirico sought more than surprise: in works like this one, for which Apollinaire used the term "metaphysical," he wanted to evoke an enduring level of reality hidden beyond outward appearances. Perhaps this is why he gives us a geometric form (the spherical ball), a schematic building rather than a specific one, and inert and partial images of the human body rather than a living, mortal being. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=80419

Giorgio de Chirico. (Italian, born Greece. 1888-1978). Gare Montparnasse (The Melancholy of Departure). Paris, early 1914. Oil on canvas, 55 1/8" x 6' 5/8" (140 x 184.5 cm). Gift of James Thrall Soby. Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O:AD:...