Picasso and Maya: Father and Daughter

Gagosian Paris
October 19 - December 22, 2017  

Gagosian is presenting  “Picasso and Maya: Father and Daughter,” the first exhibition dedicated to the artist’s diverse portrayals of his eldest daughter, Maya.

Pablo Picasso, Portrait de Maya de profil, 1943, graphite, chalk, and pastel on vellum paper from spiral notebook, 14 5/8 × 12 1/4 inches (37 × 31 cm) © Succession Picasso 201

María de la Concepción, known as Maya, was born on September 5, 1935. During the first ten years of her life she was a constant subject in her father’s drawings and paintings, who observed with fascination and tenderness her physical and mental development. Her mother, Marie-Thérèse Walter, was the artist’s most iconic model. After meeting in 1927 at the Galeries Lafayette in Paris, Picasso and Marie-Thérèse began a long-lasting love affair, resulting in Picasso’s first daughter Maya.

Following Maya’s birth, Picasso chronicled intimate details of their private life together en famille, exploring the archetypal theme of maternity. Maya’s portraits reflect the great joy that she brought into the artist's life, even in the looming shadow of World War II. Out of all of Picasso’s children Maya was most frequently depicted—a muse in the image of her mother.

This exhibition presents major works from the 1930s to the 1950s, including a collection of intimate portraits of Maya and Marie-Thérèse, sculptures and little paper cuts-out fashioned especially for his daughter. Like many of his favorite portraits of family members, most of the pieces remained in Picasso's personal collection until his death in 1973.

Alongside the artist’s works, a selection of archival material—unpublished photographs, films, letters, and poems—will explore the relationship between father and daughter, while providing an invaluable testimony of this new-found happiness.

This collection of works and archival documents retraces the childhood and youth of Maya, spanning her birth to her coming of age. In the first months after Maya was born, Picasso captured moments of intimacy between a young mother and her daughter  (Marie-Thérèse allaitant Maya, 1935; Maya à dix mois avec Marie-Thérèse, 1936), secretly living in an apartment rented for them by Picasso at 44 rue de La Boétie, only steps away from his own at number 23.

Numerous drawings of Maya, lovingly composed, present realistic portraits in a classic style, similar to those of Marie-Thérèse realized by the artist during this time (Maya à l’âge de trois mois, 1935). His paintings of Maya stray from this academic style, reflecting rather a complex artistic analysis by the artist culminating in a Cubism that can only be qualified as "psychological".

In a vibrant series of portraits realized in 1938, Picasso reveals the energy and curiosity that animated his young daughter. We see Maya embracing her doll against her cheek





(Maya à la poupée et au cheval, 1938) in a posture that recalls the Virgin and Child,

 or in the midst of playing with a boat



(Maya au tablier rouge, 1938; 





La fille de l'artiste à deux ans et demi avec un bateau (Maya), 1938).


At the beginning of the 1950s, Maya’s doll-faced visage transformed into the delicate profile of a young woman in a series of pencil drawings (Maya, profil gauche, 1951).


The relationship between father and daughter is one formed by a unique bond, as can be seen through Maya’s active role during Henri-Georges Clouzot’s filming of Le Mystère Picasso in 1955 at the Victorine Studios in Nice (photographs by Edward Quinn).

Maya’s daughter, art historian Diana Widmaier Picasso, has curated the show. She is a Picasso sculpture expert and has organized several exhibitions including “Picasso’s Picassos: A Selection from the Collection of Maya Ruiz-Picasso” (Gagosian, New York, 2016), “Picasso.mania” (Grand Palais, Paris, 2015) and “Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L’amour fou” (Gagosian, New York, 2011). In 2005, she wrote a book about Picasso’s erotic works called Picasso:“Art Can Only Be Erotic” (Munich, Prestel).

A fully illustrated catalogue, with an essay by Elizabeth Cowling, Professor Emeritus of the History of Art at the University of Edimburgh, will be produced for the exhibition.

Related article

Also from 1938:

Beyond Impressionism – Paris, Fin de Siècle: Signac, Redon, Toulouse-Lautrec and Their Contemporaries.

Columbus Museum of Art 
October 21, 2017 – January 21, 2018
 

In partnership with the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain, Columbus Museum of Art presents Beyond Impressionism – Paris, Fin de Siècle:  Signac, Redon, Toulouse-Lautrec and Their Contemporaries. CMA is the only U.S. venue for this extraordinary exhibition. Featuring approximately 100 paintings, drawings, prints, and works on paper, the exhibition explores the Parisian art scene, focusing on the most important French avant-garde artists of the late 19th century, including Paul Signac, Maximilien Luce, Maurice Denis, Pierre Bonnard, Félix Vallotton, Odilon Redon, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

The Parisian fin de siècle was a time of political upheaval and intense cultural transformation. Mirroring the many facets of an anxious, unsettled era, this period saw the emergence of a broad spectrum of new artistic movements. Despite the diversity of styles, their subject matter remained largely that of their still-active Impressionist predecessors: landscapes, the modern city, and leisure-time activities, though the avant gardes added introspective scenes and fantastical visions to the repertoire.


Muchmore information and more images: https://parisfindesiecle.guggenheim-bilbao.eus/en/works




Nymphéas by Claude Monet, (1914), Private Collection



Briqueterie Delafolie à Eragny by Camille Pissarro, (1888), Private Collection



Pégase by Odilon Redon, circa 1895-1900, Private Collection



Avril Les Anémones by Maurice Denis, (1891), Private Collection



 Signac, Saint Tropez Fontaine des Lices



Maximilien Luce View of London

Dali & Schiaparelli

Dali & Schiaparelli opened at The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, FL, Wednesday, October 18, 2017. Running through January 14, 2018 Dali & Schiaparelli is the first exhibition dedicated to the creative relationship and masterpieces of Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dali. The exhibit, presented in collaboration by The Dali Museum and Schiaparelli Paris, explores how each artist’s innovative approach both delighted and shocked the worlds of fashion and art. Sensuality and a daring beauty were trademarks of their collaborations. Dali & Schiaparelli will feature Haute Couture gowns and accessories, jewelry, paintings, drawings, objects and photos, as well as new designs by Maison Schiaparelli design director Bertrand Guyon.

Elsa Schiaparelli, regarded as the most prominent figure in fashion between the two World Wars, explored bold Surrealistic themes in her designs. She was heavily influenced by artists, particularly Dali, with whom she often collaborated. Schiaparelli’s designs were like Dali’s paintings in that they combined Renaissance precision with wild imagination and dreamlike visions. Many of Schiaparelli’s devotees were the glitterati of the time, notables like The Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson, heiress Millicent Rogers and actresses Mae West and Marlene Dietrich. Dali, celebrated as the best-known and most prolific Surrealist, was equally comfortable with celebrity – his own and others’ – and also acknowledged influences beyond his particular artistic milieu, citing politics, religion and science as impacting his aesthetic.

“We are honored to present this exhibition which highlights not only the bold collaborations of Salvador Dali and Elsa Schiaparelli, but conveys their kindred spirits and individual styles,” said Dr. Hank Hine, Dali Museum Executive Director and curator of this exhibit. Dali & Schiaparelli provides a look into their friendship and partnership – one of the first and most innovative in art and fashion. Visitors can expect to be both captivated and seduced by the groundbreaking works of this duo.”
Beyond the exhibition in the galleries, The Dali appreciates this celebration of fashion and art is an opportunity to recognize the relevance of style as a function of the universal need for personal expression, influencing self-perception as well as the impressions we make on others. A variety of corresponding events and programs will accompany the exhibition, including the popular monthly Coffee with a Curator lecture series; Artflix, the Museum’s themed movie series; activities for families in The Dali’s, free first-floor Stavros Education Room and more. Also in conjunction with the exhibition, the Museum has introduced specialty programming including:

• “Fashion Design at The Dali” for aspiring high school fashion design students: thedali.org/fashion
• An online educational program and fashion design contest featuring a grand prize trip to St. Petersburg, FL: thedali.org/challenge
• A unique partnership with Dress for Success of Tampa Bay to raise awareness of, and drive accessory donations for, women working toward thriving in work and life: thedali.org/success.

The Dali & Schiaparelli exhibition is accompanied by a catalog with essays by Dilys Blum, Curator of Costume and Textiles for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Dali Museum Curator of Exhibitions William Jeffett, Dali Museum Director Hank Hine, Director of Vogue Runway, Nicole Phelps, and exhibition consultant John William Barger III. Four variations of the catalog – including a deluxe boxed edition with a photogravure – are all available at The Dali Museum Store along with a wide variety of Dali- and Schiaparelli- inspired merchandise.

The exhibition is organized by The Dali, St. Petersburg, FL in collaboration with Schiaparelli Paris with loans from the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Metropolitan Museum; the Collection of Mark Walsh & Leslie Chin, Luxury Vintage; and other private collections.


Related article

Woman’s Dinner Dress. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of Mme Elsa Schiaparelli, 1969-232-52.	Aphrodisiac Telephone (Lobster Telephone). Salvador Dali, 1938. Worldwide rights ©Salvador Dali. Fundacio Gala-Salvador Dali (Artists Rights Society), 2017 / In the USA ©Salvador Dali Museum, Inc. St. Petersburg, FL 2017.	Schiaparelli telephone dial powder compact, c. 1935 Courtesy of © Schiaparelli archives.	Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dali, circa 1949. Image Rights of Salvador Dali reserved. Fundacio Gala-Salvador Dali, Figueres, 2017.
Anthropomorphic Cabinet. Salvador Dali, 1936. © Salvador Dali, Fundacio Gala-Salvador Dali, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 2017.	Illustration of the Bureau-Drawer Suit, Schiaparelli Haute Couture, Fall/Winter 1936-1937. © Schiaparelli.	Woman’s Evening Dress and Veil, (Tear Dress), Summer 1938. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of Mme Elsa Schiaparelli, 1969-232-45a,b.	Three Young Surrealist Women Holding in their Arms the Skins of an Orchestra, 1936, Oil on canvas. Worldwide rights ©Salvador Dali. Fundacio Gala-Salvador Dali (Artists Rights Society), 2017 / In the USA ©Salvador Dali Museum, Inc. St. Petersburg, FL 2017.
Woman’s Evening Coat, Fall 1937 Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of Mme Elsa Schiaparelli, 1969-232-7.	Tristan and Isolde, 1953 4.2 cm x 4.5 cm x 1 cm ©Salvador Dali. Fundacio Gala-Salvador Dali, (Artist Rights Society), 2017 / Collection of the Salvador Dali Museum, Inc., St. Petersburg, FL, 2017.	Evening Dress (Skeleton Dress), 1938 Collection of the Salvador Dali. Fundacio Gala-Salvador Dali, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 2017; Courtesy of © Schiaparelli archives.	Study of figures for Skeleton Dress, 1938. Ink on paper. Collection of the Schiaparelli archives, Paris; © Salvador Dali. Fundacio Gala-Salvador Dali (Artists Rights Society), 2017.

“Le Roy Soleil” magazine advertisement. ©Salvador Dali. Fundacio Gala-Salvador Dali, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 2017/ Collection of the Salvador Dali Museum, Inc., St. Petersburg, FL, 2017.	“Le Roy Soleil” perfume bottle by Schiaparelli, 1946. ©Salvador Dali. Fundacio Gala-Salvador Dali, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 2017; Courtesy of © Schiaparelli archives	Schiaparelli Haute Couture, Spring/Summer 2017	Schiaparelli Haute Couture, Fall/Winter 2016-17

ABOUT THE DALI

The Dali Museum, located in the heart of beautiful downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, is home to an unparalleled collection of Salvador Dali art, featuring more than 2,000 works comprising nearly 100 oil paintings; over 100 watercolors and drawings; and 1,300 prints, photographs, sculptures and objets d’art.

The building is itself a work of art, featuring 1,062 triangular-shaped glass panels – the only structure of its kind in North America. Nicknamed The Enigma, it provides an unprecedented view of St. Petersburg’s picturesque waterfront. The Museum has attracted the world’s attention, and among the other distinguished awards it has received, it was listed by AOL Travel News as “one of the top buildings to see in your lifetime.”

The Dali Museum is located at One Dali Boulevard, St. Petersburg, Florida 33701. For additional information contact 727-823-3767 or visit TheDali.org.

ABOUT SCHIAPARELLI

Schiaparelli is a French couture house located 21 Place Vendome in Paris, the very place where Elsa Schiaparelli had left it in 1954 when she decided to close it to write her autobiography Shocking Life.
Elsa Schiaparelli was the first designer to give a theme to her collections. She pioneered the fusion of art and fashion by collaborating with her artist friends such as Dali and Cocteau. She invented shocking pink, the zipper in Haute Couture, trompe l’oeil garments, culottes and the newspaper print. Throughout her entire life, she has been an independent strong woman and a daring creative force pushing boundaries, building bridges between worlds that were previously not linked and anticipating more than once what would become mainstream culture.

Today Schiaparelli’s unique spirit of Haute Couture merging art, innovation, craftsmanship, quality and audacity enters a new chapter of its story. Created in 1927 by Elsa Schiaparelli, the house of Schiaparelli celebrates its 90th anniversary this year.

Picasso/Lautrec

Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza

17 October 2017 to 21 January 2018

The Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza presents Picasso/Lautrec, the first monographic exhibition devoted to comparing these two great masters of modern art. Although their artistic link has been repeatedly established by literature and contemporary critics, this is the first time their works have been displayed alongside each other in an exhibition.The show also examines this fascinating relationship from new viewpoints, as it does not merely explore the cliché of the young Picasso as an admirer of Lautrec in Barcelona and his early years in Paris, but traces the latter’s lingering influence throughout the Spanish artist’s lengthy career, including his final period.

Curated by Professor Francisco Calvo Serraller, head of the department of Art History at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, and Paloma Alarcó, chief curator of Modern Painting at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Picasso/Lautrec brings together more than a hundred works from some sixty public and private collections from all over the world, grouped around the themes that interested both artists: caricature portraits; nightlife in cafés, cabarets and theatres; the harsh reality of marginal individuals; the spectacle of the circus; and the erotic universe of brothels. 

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (Albi, 1864‒Château Malromé, Saint-André-du-Bois, 1901) and Pablo Picasso (Málaga, 1881‒Mougins, 1973) never met. By the time Picasso visited Paris for the first time in October 1900, Lautrec was seriously ill and died prematurely the following year. Even so, Lautrec’s radical oeuvre and his conception of modernity made a very powerful impact on the young  Picasso. Through him, Picasso discovered the many facets of modern society, which influenced his approach to art. 

Lautrec’s artistic career lasted barely fifteen years, whereas Picasso’s spanned more than seven decades. Both were brilliant artists from childhood, were attracted by Paris during their youth and rejected the academic teachings imposed on them, and both borrowed successively from very similar historical sources, such as the French artists Ingres and Degas as well as El Greco. But above all, their mastery of drawing was one of the key factors that gave meaning to both artists’ oeuvre. 

Both Lautrec and Picasso drew compulsively throughout their lives, had a special fondness for line and caricature, and filled hundreds of notebooks with extraordinarily skilled drawings from a very early age. It can be said that both men thought and expressed themselves in drawing and that any new work was preceded by endless testing and experimentation on
paper. 


Divided into five sections based on the themes that linked the two artists’ worlds symbolically and formally – Bohemians, Underworld, Wanderers, Elles and Hidden Eros –Picasso/Lautrec also provides an insight into the evolution of contemporary art. 

BOHEMIANS

Lautrec soon became aware of the extraordinary ability of caricature to probe his sitters’ personality. He made many caricatures of himself and exploited his unusual appearance. In 1893, he portrayed himself on the reverse of the poster Jane Avril on the Japanese Divan, drawing – or reading the newspapers according to some interpretations – with his characteristic hat. Picasso also used caricature to experiment with his own image in 

 

Picasso in a Top Hat  (1901), where the prostitutes in the background emulate the nocturnal settings of Lautrec’s works. The same is true of the portrait painted that year of the writer Gustave Coquiot caricaturised as a libertine watching a cabaret performance; and of the female portraits he showed in his first exhibition held in Paris in 1901 – 



Woman with a Plumed Hat, 



Woman with a Cape

• Picasso. Bust of Smiling Woman, 1901, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid

and Bust of Smiling Woman –painted in the same characteristic style and pointillist technique used by the French artist in works such as 

• Jane Avril, c. 1891‒92, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts 

Jane Avril (c. 1891‒92). 

UNDERWORLD

Lautrec was one of the first artists to break away from the old hierarchies and blaze a trail towards a new artistic language that incorporated aspects of mass culture. The prolific French artist left an unrivalled repertoire of images of a marginal and bohemian environment in his paintings and colourful commercial posters. 

Woman in a Café (1886) is a moving example of his masterful depictions of solitary women in cafés; 

 

Lautrec At the Café: The Customer and the Anaemic Cashier, 1898 Kunsthaus Zürich

others such as At the Café: The Customer and the Anaemic Cashier (1898) and 

• Herni de Toulouse-Lautrec, In a Private Dining Room (At the Rat Mort), c. 1899. The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London /

In a Private Dining Room (at the Rat Mort)(c. 1899) are caustic portrayals of bar scenes of Lautrec.

Lautrec also painted the famous stars of the night shows, the singers Aristide Bruant and Yvette Guilbert, and the cabaret artists La Goulue and Jane Avril; the latter was a great friend of Lautrec’s, whose image became firmly established thanks to the painter’s posters. 

Like Lautrec, Picasso developed an insatiable curiosity for the excesses of Parisian nightlife. 



In The Moulin Rouge (1901), he exaggerates the silhouettes, heightening the figures’ caricature-like appearance and his satirical vision of sexual relations in the private rooms in cafés. He takes a similar approach in 

• Pablo Picasso.The Wait (Margot), Paris, spring 1901. Museu Picasso, Barcelona

The Wait (Margot), a depiction of a courtesan or pierreuse sitting in a café executed with loose, expressive brushstrokes and bright colours that exaggerate her makeup, and 

Picasso.The Diners, Paris, 1901. Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence

The Diners, both dated 1901. 

WANDERERS

The world of the circus, inhabited by riders, clowns, tumblers and acrobats, was powerfully present in the imagination of Picasso and Toulouse-Lautrec. Their fascination with the playful and spontaneous side of the circus and its visual magic was accompanied by an identification with the harlequin and the clown, marginal beings with whom both artists found similarities with the figure of the artist in modern society. Lautrec was particularly interested in equestrian acts and, while recovering from his health problems and alcoholism in Neuilly hospital in 1899, he made numerous drawings on this subject from memory, such as



 At the Circus: Classical Dressage. The Bow 

 

Lautrec.At the Circus: Entering the Ring, 1899. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

 and At the Circus: Entering the Ring. 

Beginning in 1902, Picasso shifted towards a more melancholic and dramatic approach, and his harlequins and tumblers personified the outcasts of Parisian nightlife. 


 

Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973)
printed by Eugène Delâtre (French, 1864-1938)

The Frugal Meal, from The Saltimbanques, September 1904

© 2017 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

The Frugal Meal (1904), one of his first forays into engraving, is a good example of the tragic vein that characterises this period. This alienation is also found in 

 

Poor Man’s Meal (1903‒4) 



and The Milk Bottle (1905). 



Works such as Woman from Majorca (1905), a female acrobat portrayed as the sorceress Circe, Ulysses’s mistress, and 

Picasso.Seated Harlequin, Paris, 1905. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Museum Berggruen 

Seated Harlequin, dating from the same year, attest to the evident survival of Lautrec’s influence during Picasso’s rose period. 

ELLES

Prostitution was another subject in which Picasso displayed close affinities with Lautrec. However, the French artist’s empathetic approach is far removed from Picasso’s erotic and sometimes pornographic gaze. During the year he lived with prostitutes in the maison close on the Rue des Moulins, Lautrec portrayed them at their toilette, dressing, pampering each other, playing cards or simply sitting on a chair.  

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Desnudo de pelirroja agachada, 1897. (Femme rousse nue accroupie). Óleo sobre cartón, 46,4 x 60 cm. San Diego Museum of Art. Donación de la Baldwin M. Baldwin Foundation, 1987