Pending
As part of Picasso Celebration 1973-2023, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opens The Young Picasso in Paris, an intimate exhibition comprised of a total of ten paintings and works on paper created during Picasso's first stay in the French capital. The exhibition will be open from May 12 through August 6.
Picasso arrived in Paris from Barcelona in 1900, during the last weeks of the Universal Exposition, which included his own work in the Spanish pavilion. During his initial two-month stay and his return in May of the following year until the end of 1901, he absorbed all that Paris had to offer. From its art galleries, to its bohemian cafés and the sensational dance halls in the Montmartre district. These corners of the ville lumière, or "city of lights", where he met people who captivated and transformed him at his youngest stage, as Picasso was only nineteen years old. Paris quickly became one of his sources of inspiration.
Young Picasso in Paris exhibits one of Picasso's most outstanding works, Le Moulin de la Galette, which is preserved at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and is one of the first pieces Picasso produced in Paris, to be sold shortly thereafter.
The famous ballroom, once a mill dedicated to the production of a brown bread cake, or galette, had also been depicted by contemporary artists such as Ramon Casas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Vincent van Gogh. In his version, Picasso stands as an observer of the spectacle. The vibrant colors show a new luminosity not seen in the artist's earlier works and represent the fluidity of genre that enveloped turn-of-the-century Paris. At the same time, the social reality of the working classes stands out, a theme he brought out more clearly in his later blue period (1901-1904).
Paris was fundamental to Picasso's artistic and personal evolution, and among the events that most marked him was the tragic suicide of his close friend, the painter and poet Carles Casagemas, in February 1901.
Young Picasso in Paris includes works created during a crucial period for the artist that exemplify the stylistic experimentation he underwent and show his growing mastery of character studies. The exhibition has been organized by Megan Fontanella, Curator of Modern Art and Provenance; while Julie Barten, Senior Curator of Paintings and Associate Director of Conservation Affairs, has led the research and conservation treatment of Picasso's Le Moulin de la Galette.
The United States pays tribute to Picasso with seven exhibitions as part of the Picasso Celebration 1973-2023 initiative: 'Cubism and the Trompe-l'oeil Tradition,' on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, October-January; 'Picasso's Landscapes: Out of Bounds,' on view at The Mint Museum, February-May, and at the Cincinnati Art Museum, June-October; 'The Young Picasso in Paris' (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, May-August).
Between July and September there will be another Picasso show at the Brooklyn Museum, the title of which is yet to be defined, while in the fall 'Picasso and La Celestina' will open at the Hispanic Society of America in New York and from September to January 2024 'Picasso's Paintings for Hamilton Easter Field' will be on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.