Page 77 - World of Art Contemporary Art magazine: The 2023 Guggenheim issue

YOUNG PICASSO IN PARIS

Exhibition: Young Picasso in Paris
Venue: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue,
New York, Tower Gallery 2

PART OF THE PICASSO CELEBRATION 1973–2023, THE
Pablo Picasso, Le Moulin de la Galette, Paris, ca. November 1900. Oil on
EXHIBITION WILL FEATURE LE MOULIN DE LA GALETTE.
canvas, 89.7 x 116.8 cm. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York,
The Guggenheim Museum will present Young Picasso Thannhauser Collection, Gift, Justin K. Thannhauser 78.2514.34. Photo:
in Paris, an intimate exhibition comprising a total David Heald, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York © 2023 Estate
of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
of ten paintings and works on paper executed
during Pablo Picasso’s introduction to the French
capital. Created over the course of one pivotal
year, these works exemplify a period of stylistic
experimentation and show his burgeoning mastery
The famous dance hall - formerly a mill engaged in
of character study.
the production of a brown bread, or galette - had
Picasso (b. 1881, Málaga, Spain; d. 1973, Mougins,
also been depicted by such avant-gardists as Ramon
France) arrived in Paris from Barcelona in autumn
Casas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-
1900, during the final weeks of the Universal
Lautrec, and Vincent van Gogh. In his version,
Exhibition that included his own art in the Spanish
Picasso rendered a vibrant and expressionistic frieze
pavilion. The ville lumière, or “city of lights,”
of diverse patrons comingling under the dance
captivated, and ultimately transformed, the
hall’s electric lights. Among other notable features,
nineteen-year-old Spaniard. He absorbed everything
Picasso’s painting represents the gender fluidity
Paris had to offer over his initial two-month stay
present in fin-de-siècle Paris, and also foreshadows
and during his return the following May through
the social disenfranchisement of the working
the end of 1901. Picasso patronized not only the
classes that he brought into sharper focus with his
art galleries, but also the bohemian cafés, raucous
subsequent Blue Period (1901–04). The tragic suicide
nightclubs, and sensational dance halls in the hilltop
in Paris of Picasso’s close friend, the painter and
neighborhood of Montmartre. These sites of social
poet Carles Casagemas, in February 1901, undeniably
gathering and the various types of people who
impacted this year of artistic and personal evolution
frequented them quickly became a primary source
as well. All told, his time in Paris left a strong
of inspiration.
impression; Picasso would settle there in 1904.
Coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of Picasso’s
Young Picasso in Paris is organized by Megan
death, Young Picasso in Paris will highlight
Fontanella, Curator, Modern Art and Provenance.
a defining work, Le Moulin de la Galette (ca.
Julie Barten, Senior Painting Conservator and
November 1900), from the Guggenheim collection.
Associate Director of Conservation Affairs, is
One of his first paintings executed in Paris, and
leading the conservation research and treatment of
sold by the artist shortly thereafter, Le Moulin
Picasso’s Le Moulin de la Galette. This exhibition is
de la Galette is also the subject of an extensive
part of the Picasso Celebration 1973–2023 program,
conservation analysis and treatment project that
organized with the support of the Musée national
will be unveiled with the exhibition.
Picasso, Paris.

WORLD of ART 75