Picasso The Making of Cubism, 1912-1914 by Gerson, Scott Hartzell, Blair Picasso, Pablo Umland, Anne [PDF]

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Studies in Modern Art 10



The Making of Cubism 1912–1914 Anne Umland and Blair Hartzell with Scott Gerson, Editors



The Museum of Modern Art, New York



Contents



1. Study for a Construction Paris or Sorgues, spring or summer 1912



Foreword



2. Guitar on a Table Paris, autumn 1912



Introduction



3. Guitar Paris, October–December 1912



Note to the Reader



4. Guitar and Sheet Music Paris, autumn–winter 1912 5. Bottle and Wineglass Paris, December 1912 6. Guitar Paris, December 1912 7. Composition with a Violin Paris, December 1912 8. Head of a Man with a Hat Paris, December 1912 9. Glass, Guitar, and Bottle Paris, early 1913 10. Head of a Man Paris, early 1913



Epilogue



11. Bar Table with Guitar Céret, spring 1913



Glossary



12. Guitar Céret, spring 1913



Acknowledgments



13. Head of a Man Céret, spring 1913



Contributors



14. Student with a Pipe Paris, autumn 1913–early 1914



Credits



15. Guitar Paris, January–February 1914



Trustees



Foreword



The photograph of Pablo Picasso in his studio that introduces this publication is a revelatory image. Its intimate character; its hints of aesthetic decision making and process; and the interrelated material and structural qualities of the works documented in it manifest key features of the watershed moment that is the focus of Picasso: The Making of Cubism 1912–1914. This publication is the first to highlight The Museum of Modern Art’s rich holdings of works created by Picasso between 1912 and 1914, among which his cardboard and sheet metal Guitar constructions—both gifts of the artist—may be the most famous. Here they are considered along with significant paintings and works on paper from that pivotal period, during which ideas about what art can be made of, and how it can be made, changed fundamentally. The project’s core focus is on materials and process, augmented by a wealth of documentation made accessible through the innovative features and infinite real estate of a digital format. Its



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overarching goal is to publish new scholarship and to provide the spark for future research and interpretation. This project was catalyzed by the exhibition Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914, presented at MoMA in 2011 and documented in a print catalogue of the same name. This second, digital publication, produced following the exhibition’s close, enables us to share with a larger public the insights gained from seeing the works of art assembled in the exhibition galleries and in the conservation lab. The realization of this project is due to an extraordinarily talented team. It was conceived by Anne Umland, The Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Curator of Painting and Sculpture, whose commitment to “after the fact” publications was first demonstrated by Dada in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art (2008). Blair Hartzell, an independent art historian and former Curatorial Assistant, Department of Painting and Sculpture, served as co-editor, bringing her expertise and exceptional writing and research skills to bear on all aspects of this project. The curators were joined as co-editors by Scott Gerson, Associate Conservator, whose insights have enriched this publication in countless ways. Scholars Elizabeth Cowling, Jeremy Melius, and Jeffrey Weiss each contributed fresh and thought-provoking essays. They were assisted with great skill and sensitivity by Rebecca Roberts, Associate Editor, Department of Publications. The support of the Picasso family has been essential to the realization of this project, which continues the Museum’s long commitment to the art of Pablo Picasso. In particular, we thank Bernard Ruiz-Picasso for sharing with us newly discovered archival materials, especially the previously unpublished photograph of Picasso in his studio.



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Picasso: The Making of Cubism 1912–1914 is published under the auspices of the Museum’s Research and Scholarly Publications Program. It expands MoMA’s Studies in Modern Art series into the digital realm. We are deeply grateful for the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Edward John Noble Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Perry R. Bass, and the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Challenge Grant Program, whose initial grants made possible the establishment and continuation of the Museum’s Research and Scholarly Publications Program. MoMA’s Department of Publications, led by Christopher Hudson, Publisher, was instrumental in the development and realization of this pioneering project. Picasso: The Making of Cubism 1912–1914 is unprecedented in its use of technology, highlighting MoMA’s commitment to new forms of publishing. It emphasizes collaborative scholarship that marshals both the technical and the archival resources of the Museum, presenting a wealth of material in new and dynamic ways. This dialogue between the established and the experimental is at the heart of Picasso’s Cubism, and at the core of MoMA’s mission. —Glenn D. Lowry Director, The Museum of Modern Art



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Introduction



1



The years 1912 to 1914 mark a watershed moment in the history of Cubism and of twentieth-century art. Over the course of this short period, Pablo Picasso, then in his early thirties and working in dialogue with fellow artist Georges Braque, pioneered radically new modes of art-making [1]. Assemblage, collage, constructed relief sculpture, and mixed-medium painting were all introduced as artistic strategies at this time. As Picasso incorporated commercially produced materials, artisans’ techniques, and crude craft processes into the aesthetic vocabulary of Cubism, its unity of material, method, and structure gave way to bold and irreverent heterogeneity in works remarkable for their limited vocabulary of shapes and forms. This publication is predicated on the idea that not only was the look of modern art radically altered by Cubism, but, beginning in 1912, so too was its physical constitution. From this point on through the beginning of World War I, Cubism’s visual and material revolutions were inexorably linked.



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Picasso: The Making of Cubism 1912–1914 reexamines and reconsiders works from this break­ through period through the lens of artistic process, with particular emphasis on what can be learned from material and technical examinations, from primary sources, and from archival research. 1 Its title highlights the way that Picasso’s works from these pivotal years advertise, to an unprecedented degree, the means of their making: Cutting, folding, pinning, and pasting. Shading, scumbling, and fine line drawing. Painted passages of simulated wood and marble. Relief surfaces created to capture the play of real light and real shadows, conceived in tandem with simulated representations of the same. 2 The play of oppositions is constant, and it is critical to these works’ larger meanings; so, too, is their radically heterogeneous mix of artisanal, experimental, and traditional fine art materials and techniques. 3 This publication builds on the unique opportunity for systematic inquiry and first-hand observation occasioned by the exhibition Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914, presented at The Museum of Modern Art in 2011.4 The exhibition brought together some sixty-five closely related collages, constructions, drawings, paintings, and photographs created by the artist as he moved between studios in Paris and the South of France in the years immediately prior to World War I. Its goal was to provoke new thinking about one of the great episodes in modern art’s history and in Picasso’s legendary career by reconstellating his landmark cardboard and sheet metal Guitar constructions (made in 1912 and 1914, respectively) with the other inventive works produced during the same period. In late 1912, or early 1913, Picasso took, or had taken, several photographs of his cardboard Guitar construction juxtaposed on the studio wall with different



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2



3



4



5



groups of papiers collés and drawings [ 2–5]. For the exhibition’s organizers, these photographs underscored the importance of judging Picasso’s works from this moment in relation to one another, as the artist himself did, both within the real, lived space of his studio and as photographed.5 By bringing together works produced in physical and temporal proximity, the show provided an occasion to observe a great deal about Picasso’s complex, cross-medium practices in the studio between 1912 and 1914. Given that a catalogue must usually be available when an exhibition opens, the potential for losing the information gleaned while the works are assembled in the galleries has presented a longstanding curatorial dilemma. Various attempts have been made at MoMA to capture the new insights gained during the course of an exhibition. For example, a symposium was held during the 1989 exhibition Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism, organized by William Rubin, the proceedings of which were published three years later. 6 The 2008 book Dada in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art followed the exhibition Dada, co-organized by Leah Dickerman and Laurent Le Bon, presented at MoMA in 2006. 7 Now, new publishing technologies afford new possibilities. From the start, two publications were planned for Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. The first, a print catalogue, was produced at the time of the exhibition and functions as a handbook and document. 8 It includes color plates of all the works in the show, along with a brief chronology and an introductory essay, primarily focused on the history of the cardboard and sheet metal Guitar constructions; the conditions of their making; their relation, in terms of process, materials, style, and dating, to the other objects in the exhibition; and the



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circumstances of their entry into MoMA’s collection. The second, this volume, presents in-depth discussions of individual objects, the Guitar constructions included, written after scholars, curators, and conservators had the opportunity to study the assembled works during the course of the show. For some readers—among them, perhaps, those who are not digital natives—there may be irony in the fact that the seemingly immaterial medium of the digital publication has allowed us to produce a richly detailed material study of these objects. Yet it is the virtually unlimited spatial capacity of digital publications relative to their traditional print counterparts, along with the multiple modes of interaction and navigation they afford, that make them uniquely suited for presenting such an extraordinary array of visual and verbal information. Fifteen object-focused essays compose the core of Picasso: The Making of Cubism 1912–1914, each devoted to a single work included in the 2011 exhibition. The featured objects are drawn primarily from MoMA’s own, unparalleled collection of the artist’s works, complemented by a small number of others, whose owners kindly agreed to allow us to carefully examine and image them unframed in our conservation lab. As a group, these works represent the range of materials, mediums, and techniques Picasso used in this period. We are grateful to a number of private collectors and to the Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, for allowing us to include their works in the present study, after they generously supported the exhibition with their loans. The contributors to this volume include scholars from the university and museum worlds: Elizabeth Cowling, Professor Emeritus and Honorary Fellow, History of Art, The University of Edinburgh; Blair Hartzell, independent art historian and



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former Curatorial Assistant, Department of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art; Jeremy Melius, Assistant Professor, Department of Art and Art History, Tufts University; and Jeffrey Weiss, Adjunct Professor, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and Senior Curator, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Each author spent time in the exhibition, and subsequently in the conservation lab, with Scott Gerson, Associate Conservator at MoMA, and his colleagues, Cindy Albertson, Anny Aviram, Michael Duffy, and Lynda Zycherman. The insights and analyses of conservators play an important role in this publication, illuminating Picasso’s material choices and working processes, the effects of time’s passage, and the deliberate variation of his art-making techniques. Detailed conservation notes are provided for each work, along with a portfolio of technical images, including 360-degree views of three-dimensional constructions, X-rays, and ultraviolet, infrared, and raking-light images. Provenance, exhibition history, and a list of published references complete the dossier for each object, augmenting the physical history of the work with details of its ownership, display, and reception.9 This information is richly documented through rare primary-source materials, including images of the works in the homes of early collectors, in historical gallery installations, and in early publications. In their essays, the authors make use of this wealth of images and historical documentation in different ways, pursuing how the works are situated within the arc of Picasso’s career, what they suggest about Cubism, what they mean for modern art, and what they tell us about twentieth-century artistic practice in the broadest sense. The chief constant, methodologically, is that the artwork is positioned at the fore and is closely scrutinized, allowing the particularities



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of individual objects to illuminate this important period in Picasso’s work. By making in-depth research available and inviting a multiplicity of voices to contribute, we hope to begin as others may continue; that is, we wish to encourage readers to find their own emphases within this material and the materials of Picasso’s art. Our desire has been to take advantage of the many possibilities of digital publishing and to propose a new model for the presentation of dedicated object research. It is this publication’s format that makes it possible to present such an extensive range of visual, interpretive, and archival information, allowing intimate and enhanced access to these remarkable works of art for readers far beyond the Museum’s walls. —Anne Umland and Blair Hartzell Editors —Scott Gerson Conservation Editor



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Notes 1. Few scholars have done more to advance the critical understanding of Picasso’s constructions and papiers collés than Yve-Alain Bois, Rosalind Krauss, and Christine Poggi. All students and scholars of this material remain indebted to their work. Notable publications on Picasso’s Cubism include: Bois, “Kahnweiler’s Lesson” (1987), in Painting as Model (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1993), pp. 65–97; Krauss, The Picasso Papers (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1999); and the recent study by Poggi, “Picasso’s First Constructed Sculpture: A Tale of Two Guitars,” The Art Bulletin 94, no. 2 (June 2012): 274–98. Important work regarding the chronology of these objects was developed by Pierre Daix, Edward Fry, William Rubin, and Bois. All the aforementioned authors contributed important papers and/or roundtable discussion to the 1989 closed-door symposium for the exhibition Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, published in Lynn Zelevansky, ed., Picasso and Braque: A Symposium (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992). 2. This characterization of the technical and material issues in the 1912– 14 period is intended to differentiate it from, and thereby acknowledge, the immediately preceding years of Picasso and Braque’s Cubist painting. Moreover, this emphasis on “making” is not intended to imply invention, for Braque is well established as the innovator within the Picasso-Braque collaboration. For an exceptionally thorough and nuanced study of Braque’s work in the years covered by the present project, see Isabelle Monod-Fontaine with E. A. Carmean, Braque: The Papiers Collés (Washington, D.C.: The National Gallery of Art, 1982). See also William Rubin, Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1989). 3. Yve-Alain Bois articulated the system of oppositions within this body of work as a semiological principle, drawn from structural linguistics, by which meaning is constituted through difference. See Bois, “The Semiology of Cubism,” in Lynn Zelevansky, ed., Picasso and Braque: A Symposium (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992), pp. 173–74. For further discussion of oppositional pairings, see Rosalind Krauss, “The Circulation of the Sign,” The Picasso Papers (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1999), pp. 27–28. As Christine Poggi has noted, this structuralist paradigm has illuminated aspects of Picasso’s Cubism while neglecting issues of material and process; this is a topic to which she directs readers in “Picasso’s First Constructed Sculpture: A Tale of Two Guitars,” The Art Bulletin 94, no. 2 (June 2012): 274–98. While the Guitar constructions are structurally and materially nonmimetic, as Poggi emphasizes, these qualities should not eclipse the fundamental concern with referentiality that is at the heart of Picasso’s Cubist project.



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4. Organized by Anne Umland with Blair Hartzell, the exhibition was presented from February 13 to June 6, 2011. See www.moma.org / interactives/exhibitions/2011/picassoguitars/. 5. With thanks to the Archives Olga Ruiz-Picasso and the Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte, Madrid, especially Cécile Godefroy, for identifying and sharing the fourth known studio photograph in this series, published here for the first time (fig. 2). 6. Lynn Zelevansky, ed., Picasso and Braque: A Symposium (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992). The exhibition Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism was presented at The Museum of Modern Art in 1989–90; the show subsequently traveled to the Kunstmuseum Basel, in 1990. 7. Anne Umland and Adrian Sudhalter, with Scott Gerson, eds., Dada in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, Studies in Modern Art 9 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2008). Dada was presented at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2005–06), and at The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (2006). The 2006 MoMA presentation was coordinated by Anne Umland. 8. Anne Umland, Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2011). 9. See the essay by Jeffrey Weiss on Head of a Man with a Hat (December 1912) in Chapter 8 of this publication. Weiss discusses anthropologist Alfred Gell’s observation that objects are not dated; events are dated in a singular way, while objects have histories that include the date they were created. While common to earlier art historical practices, notably connoisseurship and provenance research, the idea of object histories was marginalized by structuralist and poststructuralist theories.



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Note to the Reader



Organization and Navigation Each of this publication’s fifteen chapters is devoted to a single object created by Picasso between 1912 and 1914. Each chapter has six components: Portfolio of Images, Essay, Conservation Notes, Provenance, Selected Exhibitions, and Selected References, accessible through the persistent navigation bar running along the bottom of each page. The chapters are arranged chronologically by the date of the artwork discussed and can be paged through in sequence, from beginning to end. Alternatively, chapters (along with front and back matter) can be accessed through the Table of Contents. Tapping or clicking a comparative figure brings up a full-page view of that image, with caption. Selected artworks (the artist’s Guitar constructions) may be “rotated,” or viewed in the round.



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Examination and Technical Imaging Works of art were examined using a stereobinocular microscope, standard nondestructive analytical techniques, and X-radiography. They were imaged under various lighting conditions, as appropriate to the given medium, including normal light (recto and verso), raking light, transmitted light, infrared illumination, and ultraviolet illumination. These images provide information about the surface or material constitution of Picasso’s works. The artist’s two Guitar constructions were imaged so as to provide 360-degree views of the works. The goal is to share technical information about these relief constructions; it is understood that Picasso intended them to be viewed primarily hanging on a wall.



Portfolio of Images An extensive portfolio of conservation images of the artwork, compiled and created for this publication, is presented at the beginning of each chapter without comment. At the authors’ discretion, selected images are integrated into the Essay, Conservation Notes, and other texts. In this way, the authors engage with a newly expanded and detailed body of information about the work of art.



Essay Each essay offers a fresh perspective on an individual artwork. Authors were invited to examine works unframed, study imaging and object research compiled by the staff of The Museum of Modern Art, and consult with the Museum’s conservators. Essays are complemented by text figures and by detail images of



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the artwork discussed. Translations are provided by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Bylines for the authors appear below the texts.



Conservation Notes The Conservation Notes discuss the artist’s materials and methods, based on technical examination and archival documentation of the artwork, and record physical changes observed through historical photographs of the work. They include information about significant conservation treatments of the work undertaken since it entered the collection of The Museum of Modern Art (omitting routine treatments such as the mending of tears and superficial surface cleaning). Important information about the facture and materials of the fifteen objects and other, closely related works of art was gathered during the exhibition Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914, held at The Museum of Modern Art in 2011. The Conservation Notes are authored by Scott Gerson (SG).



Provenance The Provenance lists all known owners of the artwork and their dates of ownership. The first owner listed was the first to own the work after the artist, unless otherwise noted. Approximate dates are preceded by “c.” “By” precedes the earliest date a work is recorded as part of a collection when the exact date of acquisition is not known. The means of acquisition, if known, is indicated after the collection name. Speculative information is presented in square brackets. Archival photographs documenting a work installed in a private home are provided in select instances. The notes to the Provenance provide essential Foreword  |  Introduction  |  Note to the Reader



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biographical background about each owner, identify key evidence and secondary sources that support the ownership history as outlined, and suggest additional literature for further reading on a dealer or collector. The notes include full citations for published references and for archival materials consulted. Provenance notes are authored by Blair Hartzell (BH), based on primary and secondary research.



Selected Exhibitions Exhibitions that included the artwork are listed chronologically. The list aims to be comprehensive through the 1930s, a decade that saw the first Picasso retrospectives in Europe and the United States. Thereafter, the list is selective. Historical installation views of the work are provided in some instances, highlighting the context in which it was exhibited at a given moment. Exhibition titles and dates derive from the records of The Museum of Modern Art and published sources. The exhibition catalogue or checklist number assigned to a work (“Cat. no.” or “Checklist no.”) or the catalogue page on which it is listed or reproduced (“Cat. p.”) is included when available. The title under which a work was exhibited is noted parenthetically if it differs significantly from the widely accepted title. Unconfirmed information appears in square brackets. When an exhibition traveled, additional venues and dates of exhibition are listed wherever known, though it has not been possible to determine that a work was displayed at every venue. Confirmed information about a work’s exhibition at selected venues is provided wherever possible. An effort has been made to list those instances



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when a work was exhibited for the first time, exhibited in a new country, or exhibited to a new audience. However, exhibitions organized by The Museum of Modern Art’s Department of Circulating Exhibitions or International Council generally are excluded, with the exception of a few select tours run through these departments that contributed to the visibility and history of the works in a unique way.



Selected References Published references to the artwork are listed chrono­ logically. All known reproductions of the work and references to it are included through 1942, when the first catalogue raisonné volume covering Picasso’s Cubist work from late 1912 onward was published by Christian Zervos. An image of the earliest known reproduction of the work accompanies the References (usually picturing the two-page spread in which the photograph was published), providing information about the context in which reproductions first circulated and critical documentation of the condition of the work. While many of the works featured in this publication have been widely reproduced and cited, few sources to date have studied them in depth. The selected references provide new information or situate a work in a new context for discussion, though that discussion is not always extensive. Catalogues raisonnés are consistently included. Exhibition catalogues listed under Exhibitions may appear in the References as a bibliographic citation. Many museum catalogues and synthetic, introductory texts are omitted. English editions or translations are favored. When the caption that accompanies a reproduction of an artwork differs significantly from the widely accepted



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title for the work, the caption information is noted parenthetically. The page on which a work is discussed is noted, preceded by “Ref. p.” For a reproduction of a work, catalogue number (“Repr. cat. no.”), page number (“Repr. p.”), plate number (“Pl.”), or text-figure number (“Fig.”) is given.



Glossary The Glossary provides general information about the materials and techniques discussed in this publication. Glossary entries describe materials in the forms in which they were available to the artist in France in 1912–14 and define techniques as they were practiced most commonly at that time. Often, Picasso’s approach in employing a craft technique or incorporating a fine art material ran counter to its widespread, traditional use. The Glossary is authored by Scott Gerson (SG).



Titles Picasso seldom assigned titles to his works. The titles used here have been formalized from descriptive titles used by generations of dealers, collectors, and scholars. English titles are not always literal translations from the French, but rather represent how the works are known in this language.



Places and Dates of Execution The 1979 catalogue raisonné of Picasso’s Cubist years by Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet is the primary reference consulted here for dates and locations. It was prepared in consultation with the artist and refines or corrects



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many dating inaccuracies regarding 1912–14 that were introduced by Christian Zervos in his 1942 catalogue raisonné. In some instances, it is superseded by revised dating proposed in connection with the 1989 exhibition Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism at The Museum of Modern Art. Dating of works is also informed by documentary evidence regarding the artist’s location and activities at a given moment, inscriptions on the works, and the date that the works entered into the inventory of Picasso’s dealer, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. Scholarly disagreement over issues of dating is sometimes discussed in essays and notes. Small but significant divergences of opinion are to be expected when an artist’s output over a very short period of time is being considered.



Mediums and Dimensions Mediums and dimensions are based on observations recorded by conservators at The Museum of Modern Art. The dimensions of a work are given in inches and centimeters. Height precedes width, followed, when applicable, by depth.



Collections Most of the works featured in this publication are in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art. Credit line and accession number, which indicates the year in which the work entered the Museum’s collection, are provided for all works owned by MoMA. Other collections are cited as requested by the owners or custodians of the works.



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Catalogues Raisonnés Works catalogued in the key sources listed below are identified by the corresponding abbreviation, followed by the reference number assigned in that publication: Z Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso. 33 vols. Paris: Éditions Cahiers d’art, 1932–78. DR Daix, Pierre, and Joan Rosselet. Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907– 1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. Trans. Dorothy S. Blair. London: Thames & Hudson, 1979. S Spies, Werner, with Christine Piot. Picasso: The Sculptures. Trans. Melissa Thorson Hause and Margie Mounier. Ostfildern and Stuttgart: Hatje Cantz, 2000.



Locations, Inscriptions, and Labels “Recto” refers to the front of a work. “Verso” refers to the back. Inscriptions and labels, especially those applied prior to MoMA’s acquisition of a work, are referred to throughout the Conservation Notes and Provenance.



How to Cite Sample bibliographic citations follow The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition. You may wish to indicate which version of Picasso: The Making of Cubism 1912–1914 you consult—app or PDF—though the pagination is consistent across versions. ESSAY Cowling, Elizabeth. “Student with a Pipe.” In Picasso: The Making of Cubism 1912–1914, edited by Anne Umland and Blair Hartzell, 14.2–14.7. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2014.



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C O N S E R VA T I O N N O T E S Gerson, Scott. “Guitar: Conservation Notes.” In Picasso: The Making of Cubism 1912–1914, edited by Anne Umland and Blair Hartzell, 3.23–3.27. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2014. PROVENANCE Hartzell, Blair. “Composition with a Violin: Provenance.” In Picasso: The Making of Cubism 1912–1914, edited by Anne Umland and Blair Hartzell, 7.11–7.18. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2014. EXHIBITIONS Umland, Anne, and Blair Hartzell, eds. “Bottle and Wineglass: Selected Exhibitions.” In Picasso: The Making of Cubism 1912–1914, 5.19–5.20. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2014. REFERENCES Umland, Anne, and Blair Hartzell, eds. “Head of a Man with a Hat: Selected References.” In Picasso: The Making of Cubism 1912– 1914, 8.19–8.21. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2014.



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Study for a Construction Paris or Sorgues, spring or summer 1912. Ink on paper, 6 ¾ × 5" (17.1 × 12.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase, 754.1943. Z II (1) 296, Z XXVIII 135



Study for a Construction Paris or Sorgues, spring or summer 1912. Ink on paper, 6 ¾ × 5" (17.1 × 12.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase, 80.1981. Z II (1) 296 



Recto 



Essay 



Conservation



 



Provenance



Verso



Exhibitions



References



1.1



Study for a Construction Paris or Sorgues, spring or summer 1912. Ink on paper, 6 ¾ × 5" (17.1 × 12.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase, 754.1943. Z II (1) 296, Z XXVIII 135



Study for a Construction Paris or Sorgues, spring or summer 1912. Ink on paper, 6 ¾ × 5" (17.1 × 12.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase, 80.1981. Z II (1) 296  1



2



3



   Study for a Construction  



These drawings were among twelve small pen-andink sketches that Alfred H. Barr, Jr., founding director of The Museum of Modern Art, saw in the home of the Parisian dealer Pierre Loeb in the summer of 1939 [1] and subsequently requested to borrow for MoMA’s first retrospective of the artist, Picasso: Forty Years of His Art (1939–40).1 In the catalogue, all twelve were grouped together in a single photograph [ 2], these two drawings placed far apart. 2 When Barr saw them again in 1942 in Cuba, where Loeb was living in wartime exile, he purchased only one of them (the drawing signed lower left) and Loeb presented to the Museum as a gift another sketch from the catalogue, Cubist Study [ 3].3 The sum of these decisions suggests that neither Barr nor Loeb realized that the supports of the two drawings each now known by the title Study for a Construction once were a single sheet of wove paper that Picasso had folded and torn in two. The Museum acquired the right portion of the sheet in 1980, but it was not until 2007 that its intimate relationship to the left portion was noticed



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1.2



4



5



   Study for a Construction  



and the two were exhibited side by side: their perfect fit is even clearer from a view of their versos [ 4].4 Their reunion at MoMA was, in short, a happy accident. It is hard to be sure exactly when Picasso divided the sheet, although examination of the torn edges has revealed that he drew—or perhaps continued to draw— after this happened.5 In any case, the bust-length figure in the center of the left portion appears to be purposefully complemented by the figure on the right side of the other page, for they face in opposite directions, thus offering different views of what is essentially the same teetering, openwork structure. Nudging against them, other figures fill the surrounding space, the most striking and carefully rendered being the stiff-backed female guitarist to the right of the torn edge, who attracts and casts dramatic shadows and seems to be constructed from different types of components than her neighbors—closed, boxy forms rather than flat planes, cylindrical poles, shaded spheres, and wires. A female guitarist was the subject of many of Picasso’s drawings in 1912. Usually, as here, the instrument is held low down, by the lap, rather like a zither.6 In that position its curvy form evokes the musician’s hips and buttocks and the sound hole her sex—a visual pun that became something of a Cubist cliché. It occurs, for instance, in the diminutive paper Guitarist with Sheet Music of spring 1913 [5] that Picasso presented to Gertrude Stein. Guitars offered more than an opportunity for risqué puns, however. Along with other stringed instruments, they proved an inspiring model for Picasso.7 The sculptural solution they offered was a boxlike structure built with planar elements around a hollow core, and in some of his sketches Picasso developed the analogy between the forms of the body



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1.3



6



7



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and these instruments. Thus the guitarist in the MoMA drawings is as imposing as a double bass, and the intricate mechanism of the head of the openwork, bustlength figures is somewhat reminiscent of a stringed instrument’s scroll, pegbox, and neck. In contemporaneous drawings, such as Guitar Player (Study for a Construction) [6], a row of strings stretches down from the knoblike head to the guitar resting on the figure’s lap, so that the torso is strung like a harp. Stringing appealed to Picasso as a visually intriguing means of connecting disparate parts of a body without recourse to solid forms that would compromise the light, airy, delicate structures that haunted his sculptural imagination in the summer of 1912. The taut strings of the openwork figures in the Museum’s paired drawings perform this function, while also suggesting strands of hair and reinforcing the musical analogy. If stringed instruments served initially as structural models for hypothetical figure sculptures of unprecedented type, they were elevated to the status of subject when Picasso actually made his first cardboard constructions— including MoMA’s Guitar [7]—in the autumn of 1912. It was a momentous step, for it involved dethroning the human figure—the prime subject of Western sculpture since time immemorial—in favor of still-life objects, which had hitherto functioned purely as accessories or as architectural decoration. For all their stylistic and technical similarities, the twelve Loeb drawings fall into different categories. 8 In his catalogue note for the works [see 2], Barr connected only “some” of them with Picasso’s Cubist constructions, illustrating his point with a photograph of a relief made largely from scrap wood, which no longer survives. Among



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1.4



8



9



10



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that “some,” Barr surely had in mind the drawing he subsequently purchased for the Museum. Like its other half, it belongs to a large corpus of sketches depicting figures shown in perspective against a featureless background and constructed from numerous geometrical elements.9 Most are endowed with human attributes and in structure bear a distant resemblance to the human skeleton, but some might be mistaken for exercises in pure abstraction. By contrast, the drawings at the far right of the first and second rows in the catalogue reproduction [including 8] are read quite easily as female guitarists; but rather than anticipating Picasso’s relief constructions, they seem to be clarifications or rationalizations of the more elusive protagonists of such major paintings as “Ma Jolie,” of winter 1911–12 [9]. More painterly still—and not visibly connected with Picasso’s constructions—are the four drawings, including the one Loeb donated to MoMA [see 3], in which patches of shading evoke the surrounding atmosphere rather than the three-dimensionality of the depicted forms. 10 Most scholars now agree that the studies of multipart constructed figures belong to the spring or summer of 1912, when Picasso was staying in Céret and Sorgues.11 Their relationship to his first constructions is oblique, for they appear to propose highly complex, freestanding figure sculptures that have more in common with Vladimir Baranoff-Rossiné’s quirkish assemblage Symphony No. 1, of 1913 [10], than with any Cubist construction Picasso actually fabricated. In making these sketches Picasso was, it seems, allowing his sculptural imagination free rein, not planning with a defined artistic outcome in mind. The two MoMA drawings exemplify his experimental approach and, especially when viewed together, reveal the footloose dynamism of his creative



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1.5



11



thinking as he hastened to commit his ideas to paper in the bold, fluent medium of pen and ink. Arguably, it was not until Picasso created his welded iron constructions with the aid of Julio González in 1928–32 [ 11] that he gave form to these earlier sculptural fantasies. —Elizabeth Cowling



Notes 1. See Provenance. Pierre Loeb is the first known owner of the twelve drawings and probably acquired them from the artist, who in all likelihood signed them at a moment much closer to the date of sale than their execution. Loeb had agreed to lend several works to MoMA for the exhibition, including “12 ink drawings in one frame, 1912.” Alfred H. Barr, Jr., letter to Pierre Loeb, August 16, 1939. MoMA Archives, Registrar Exhibition Files, Exh. #91. The drawings appear in the exhibition catalogue, but the shipment was cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II, and Loeb’s gallery closed in September 1939. On Loeb and the activities of Galerie Pierre, see Sonia and Albert Loeb, Il y a cent ans: Pierre et Édouard Loeb (Paris: Galerie Albert Loeb, 1997); and André Berne Joffry et al., L’Aventure de Pierre Loeb: La Galerie Pierre 1924–1964 (Paris: Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1979). 2. Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Picasso: Forty Years of His Art (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1939), cat. no. 114. The photograph (reproduced here) pictures Loeb’s framed arrangement of the twelve drawings. Christian Zervos reprinted this photograph in the second volume of his catalogue raisonné, published in two parts in 1942, grouping all twelve drawings in a single, generalizing entry, without supplying dimensions (Z II [1] 296). MoMA 754.1943 was catalogued with full details in the supplementary volume of the Zervos catalogue, published in 1974 (Z XXVIII 135). 3. See Provenance, note 2. 4. See Provenance. The right-hand portion of the sheet was acquired from Adler/Castillo Inc., New York, in 1980. The two drawings were matted and framed together and exhibited in Gallery 2 in the Museum’s fifth-floor collection galleries, August 22, 2007–January 29, 2008. They were reproduced side by side for the first time in Anne Umland, Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2011), cat. nos. 57–58.



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1.6



5. See Conservation Notes. 6. For example, in Z XXVIII 127–31, 134, 146, and 151. 7. No record survives of the paper sculptures Georges Braque began making in 1911–12, and it is impossible to gauge the extent of Picasso’s debt to them. 8. Examination of several located drawings has revealed that Picasso used a variety of papers. For example, the support of the drawing Loeb donated to MoMA (fig. 3) is an opaque, fibrous page torn from the front or back matter of a book that had been printed by Imprimerie de la Goutte d’Or, Paris. 9. Closely related drawings include Z II (1) 296.5 and 296.6; Z XXVIII 134, 136, and 149; and Josep Palau i Fabre, Picasso Cubism: 1907–1917, trans. Susan Branyas, Richard-Lewis Rees, and Patrick Zabalbeascoa (New York: Rizzoli, 1990), cat. nos. 800 and 802. 1 0. The three other “painterly” drawings are: top row, second from the right (National Gallery of Australia, inv. 81.738); bottom row, left (National Gallery of Australia, inv. 81.737); and bottom row, right (private collection). 1 1. For example, William Rubin, Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1989), pp. 242–43; and Pepe Karmel, Picasso and the Invention of Cubism (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2003), pp. 168–73.



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1.7



Study for a Construction Paris or Sorgues, spring or summer 1912. Ink on paper, 6 ¾ × 5" (17.1 × 12.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase, 754.1943. Z II (1) 296, Z XXVIII 135



Study for a Construction Paris or Sorgues, spring or summer 1912. Ink on paper, 6 ¾ × 5" (17.1 × 12.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase, 80.1981. Z II (1) 296



Conservation Notes



12



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Both drawings were executed on small, scraplike pieces of smooth wove paper resembling the type often used for sketching or writing. They are both executed exclusively in the same brown ink; the double parallel lines that compose each pen stroke and their abrupt square ends indicate that the ink was applied using a pen with a metal nib. There is no evidence of underdrawings or of the use of drafting tools, suggesting that both works were made freehand. When the drawings are laid side by side [12, 13], the physical relationship between the torn edges of their supports reveals that they were derived from a single piece of paper that was folded in half and then torn along the fold line into two pieces. The brown ink has saturated the ragged fibers along the torn edges, indicating that the paper was torn before the ink was applied, at least along these edges. The artist applied the pen forcefully in areas, especially where the lines are crosshatched for shading, which disrupted the paper fibers and caused ink to bleed into the thin sheets. —SG |  Conservation  Provenance  Exhibitions  References



1.8



Study for a Construction Paris or Sorgues, spring or summer 1912. Ink on paper, 6 ¾ × 5" (17.1 × 12.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase, 754.1943. Z II (1) 296, Z XXVIII 135



Study for a Construction Paris or Sorgues, spring or summer 1912. Ink on paper, 6 ¾ × 5" (17.1 × 12.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase, 80.1981. Z II (1) 296



Provenance 14



754.1943 BY 1939 Pierre Loeb or Galerie Pierre, Paris (and later Cuba, 1941–45) [14] 1 DECEMBER 2, 1943 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchased from the above 2 80.1981 BY 1939 Pierre Loeb or Galerie Pierre, Paris (and later Cuba, 1941–45) [14] 3 BY 1964 Albert Loeb or Galerie Albert Loeb, Paris. [By gift or descent from the above] 4 J U LY 1 9 8 0 Adler/Castillo Inc., New York. Purchased from the above 5 DECEMBER 18, 1980 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchased from the above 6 —BH



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Notes 1. Galerie Pierre was founded in 1924 by Pierre Loeb (French, 1897– 1964) at 13, rue Bonaparte, Paris. In 1926, the gallery moved to 2, rue des Beaux-Arts. In the 1920s and 1930s, Picasso did not have an exclusive contract with his primary dealer, Paul Rosenberg, and he often sold work—especially Cubist work—through Loeb. Galerie Pierre’s first solo show of Picasso’s work, which was devoted to the artist’s Cubist period, was held in December 1927. An exhibition of Picasso’s drawings was presented at Galerie Pierre, January 14–30, 1939, and this work and its counterpart, MoMA 80.1981, might have been included in that show, or they might have been acquired from the artist by Pierre Loeb around the same time. Alfred H. Barr, Jr., MoMA’s founding director, first saw the two Study for a Construction drawings in Pierre Loeb’s home in Paris, and noted in his travel notebook from summer 1939: “ ✓✓ 12 small ink drawings c 1912” (MoMA Archives, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Papers, 9.E.2). Loeb agreed to loan this group of twelve drawings, plus five additional works, to Barr’s 1939 MoMA exhibition Picasso: Forty Years of His Art. However, the loans never left France. Following the outbreak of World War II, Barr wrote to Loeb: “I am much concerned about you and the safety of Mme. Loeb and the children. While I suppose there is little chance of getting your pictures please let us know how you are” (Barr, letter to Pierre Loeb, September 8, 1939, MoMA Archives, Registrar Exhibition Files, Exh. #91). Loeb cabled in reply: “IMPOSSIBLE ENVOYER TABLEAUX PICASSO GALERIE FERMEE SUIS IMMOBILISE” (Loeb, cable to Alfred H. Barr, Jr., September 29, 1939, MoMA Archives, REG, Exh. #91). After closing his gallery, Loeb departed for Cuba, traveling via Marseille and Casablanca. Circumstances indicate that he took works of art with him to Cuba, including some or all of these twelve small Cubist drawings. Loeb reopened his business in Paris in 1945. The following published sources list Pierre Loeb or Galerie Pierre as an owner of the work: Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Picasso: Forty Years of His Art (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1939), repr. cat. no. 114 (“Twelve Cubist Studies. 1912?–1913. Ink. Lent by Pierre Loeb”); and Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917, vol. II (2) (Paris: Cahiers d’art, 1942), cat. no. 296, pl. 144 (“Études. Paris. Printemps 1912. Dessins à la plume. Galerie Pierre, Paris”). The drawing was also included, as a work formerly owned by Loeb, in André Berne Joffroy et al., L’Aventure de Pierre Loeb: La Galerie Pierre, Paris, 1924–1964 (Paris: Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1979), repr. cat. no. 157.



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For further reading on Loeb and Galerie Pierre, see Pierre Loeb, Voyages à travers la peinture (Paris: Bordas, 1946); André Berne Joffroy et al., L’Aventure de Pierre Loeb: La Galerie Pierre, Paris, 1924–1964 (Paris: Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1979); and Sonia and Albert Loeb, Il y a cent ans (Paris: Galerie Albert Loeb, 1997). 2. See manuscript receipt for sale to Alfred H. Barr, Jr., of this drawing from “l’époque Cubiste (vers 1912) par Picasso,” dated August 12, 1942, and signed by Pierre Loeb. A MoMA collection worksheet notes that the work was “Brought from Cuba by AHB, summer 1942.” Given the small size of these Cubist drawings, it would have been relatively easy for Loeb to transport some or all of them to Cuba with him. MoMA 753.1943 (Cubist Study, fig. 3) was acquired at the same time as a gift of Pierre Loeb. Reimbursement to Barr and formal accession of the work by the Museum followed on December 2, 1943. See documentation in MoMA, Department of Drawings and Prints, Museum Collection Files, 754.1943. 3. See note 1, above, for information about Pierre Loeb and Galerie Pierre. The following published sources list Loeb or Galerie Pierre as an owner of the work: Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Picasso: Forty Years of His Art (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1939), repr. cat. no. 114 (“Twelve Cubist Studies. 1912?–1913. Ink. Lent by Pierre Loeb”); and Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917, vol. II (2) (Paris: Cahiers d’art, 1942), cat. no. 296, pl. 144 (“Études. Paris. Printemps 1912. Dessins à la plume. Galerie Pierre, Paris”). 4. Galerie Albert Loeb was founded by Albert Loeb (French, born 1932), son of Pierre and Silvia Loeb (née Luzzatto). He operated a New York gallery from 1956 to 1971 and opened his Paris gallery in 1966. A questionnaire completed by Rachel E. Adler of Adler/Castillo Inc., dated December 2, 1982, indicates Galerie Albert Loeb, Paris, as the source for this drawing; see also Adler/Castillo invoice (no. 43), October 21, 1980 (MoMA, Department of Drawings and Prints, Museum Collection Files, 80.1981). 5. Adler/Castillo Inc. was a New York gallery operated by Rachel E. Adler and Jose Guillermo Castillo. See Adler/Castillo invoice (no. 43), October 21, 1980, and a questionnaire completed by Adler, December 2, 1982 (MoMA, Department of Drawings and Prints, Museum Collection Files, 80.1981). With thanks to Rachel Adler for confirming the details of this acquisition (verbal communication with Blair Hartzell, May 14, 2013). 6. Check request signed by John Elderfield, February 13, 1981, notes that the work (TR5149) was approved for acquisition at a meeting held on December 18, 1980 (MoMA, Department of Drawings and Prints, Museum Collection Files, 80.1981).



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1.11



Study for a Construction Paris or Sorgues, spring or summer 1912. Ink on paper, 6 ¾ × 5" (17.1 × 12.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase, 754.1943. Z II (1) 296, Z XXVIII 135



Study for a Construction Paris or Sorgues, spring or summer 1912. Ink on paper, 6 ¾ × 5" (17.1 × 12.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase, 80.1981. Z II (1) 296



Selected Exhibitions 754.1943 1939 [Paris, Galerie Pierre. Dessins. January 14–30 (No catalogue)] 1944 Mexico City, Sociedad de Arte Moderno. Picasso. June 26– September 10. Cat. p. 41 1945 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Recent Acquisitions. February 15–March 18. Checklist p. 3 1947 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Drawings in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art. April 15–June 1. Checklist p. 5 1949 Princeton, N.J., Princeton Art Museum. Loan Exhibition of Picasso Drawings. January 10–January 31. Cat. no. 16 New York, Buchholz Gallery. Cubism: Braque, Gris, Laurens, Léger, Lipchitz, Picasso. April 5–30. Cat. no. 45



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1.12



1962 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso in The Museum of Modern Art: 80th Birthday Exhibition. The Museum’s Collection, Present and Future. May 14–September 18. Checklist p. 3 1967 London, Tate Gallery. Pablo Picasso: Sculpture, Ceramics, Graphic Work. June 9–August 13. Cat. no. 242 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. The Sculpture of Picasso. October 11, 1967–January 1, 1968. Cat. no. 241 1972 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art. February 3–April 2. Cat. p. 71 1976 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Cubism and Its Affinities. February 9–May 9. Checklist p. 19 1979 Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. L’Aventure de Pierre Loeb: La Galerie Pierre: Paris 1924–1964. June 7–September 16. Cat. no. 157. Tour venue: Brussels, Musée d’Ixelles. October 4– December 23 1980 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective. May 16–September 30. Checklist p. 28 15



1989 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. September 24, 1989–January 16, 1990. Cat. p. 242. Tour venue: Kunstmuseum Basel. February 22–June 18, 1990 2011 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. February 13–June 6. Cat. no. 57 [ 15]



16



2012 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Inventing Abstraction, 1910– 1925. December 23, 2012–April 15, 2013. Checklist p. 65 [ 16]



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1.13



80.1981 1939 [Paris, Galerie Pierre. Dessins. January 14–30 (No catalogue)] 1981 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Recent Acquisitions: Drawings. March 19–June 2. Checklist p. 8 2011 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. February 13–June 6. Cat. no. 58 [ 15] 2012 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Inventing Abstraction, 1910– 1925. December 23, 2012–April 15, 2013. Checklist p. 65 [ 16]



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1.14



Study for a Construction Paris or Sorgues, spring or summer 1912. Ink on paper, 6 ¾ × 5" (17.1 × 12.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase, 754.1943. Z II (1) 296, Z XXVIII 135



Study for a Construction Paris or Sorgues, spring or summer 1912. Ink on paper, 6 ¾ × 5" (17.1 × 12.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase, 80.1981. Z II (1) 296



Selected References 17



754.1943 1939 Barr, Alfred H., Jr. Picasso: Forty Years of His Art. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 84. Repr. cat. no. 114 (in an arrangement of twelve Cubist drawings) (“Twelve Cubist Studies”) [ 17] 1942 Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917. Vol. II (2). Paris: Cahiers d’art. Cat. no. 296. Pl. 144 (in an arrangement of twelve Cubist drawings) (“Études”) 1946 Barr, Alfred H., Jr. Picasso: Fifty Years of His Art. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 86. Repr. p. 86 1967 Penrose, Roland. Pablo Picasso: Sculpture, Ceramics, Graphic Work. London: The Arts Council of Great Britain. Ref. pp. 8, 120 (general drawing /sculpture discussion). Repr. cat. no. 242 ———. The Sculpture of Picasso. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 16 (general drawing /sculpture discussion). Repr. cat. no. 241



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1972 Rubin, William S. Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, Including Remainder-Interest and Promised Gifts. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 206. Repr. p. 71 1 9 74 Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso: Supplément aux années 1910–1913. Vol. XXVIII. Paris: Cahiers d’art. Cat. no. 135. Pl. 69 1993 Karmel, Joseph Low. Picasso’s Laboratory: The Role of His Drawings in the Development of Cubism, 1910–14. Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, PhD diss. Ref. pp. 416–17. Fig. 136 80.1981 1939 Barr, Alfred H., Jr. Picasso: Forty Years of His Art. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 84. Repr. cat. no. 114 (in an arrangement of twelve Cubist drawings) (“Twelve Cubist Studies”) [ 17] 1942 Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917. Vol. II (2). Paris: Cahiers d’art. Cat. no. 296. Pl. 144 (in an arrangement of twelve Cubist drawings) (“Études”)



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1.16



Guitar on a Table Paris, autumn 1912. Oil, grit, and charcoal on canvas, 20 ⅛ × 24 ¼" (51.1 × 61.6 cm). Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H. Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller, Class of 1930. Z II (2) 373, DR 509



Recto



Verso



Raking



UV



Reflected IR



Transmitted IR



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2.1



Guitar on a Table Paris, autumn 1912. Oil, grit, and charcoal on canvas, 20 ⅛ × 24 ¼" (51.1 × 61.6 cm). Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H. Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller, Class of 1930. Z II (2) 373, DR 509



1



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“The framing of life . . . was over,” wrote Gertrude Stein. “A picture remaining in its frame was a thing that always had existed and now pictures commenced to want to leave their frames and this also created the necessity for cubism.”1 This began with painting’s surface. The threshold at which real space stops and the virtual begins had been a charged site of experimentation for Western painting at least since Cimabue and Giotto. For Cubism, it became the site of ever more obsessive regard. In his drive to reimagine the relation between picture and world and to achieve the “base kind of materialism” that in retrospect he considered to be early Cubism’s greatest achievement, Picasso took to the surface with restless, anxious energy. 2 Guitar on a Table provides a curiously vivid and complex instance of these tendencies. Picasso began by drawing the work’s crucial outlines directly onto the canvas in charcoal. In the ghostly geometry at bottom left [1], intimations of this emptiness remain. There followed an intricate process of paint



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application in which various areas of pink, green, and blue were thinly applied to a surface that remained as much plain, unpainted canvas as one covered in marks, a fact made clear under ultraviolet illumination [2]. These colored areas pay careful homage to the initial charcoal lines, keeping discretely within the limits they articulate. Indeed, in places Picasso scratched through the paint layers, probably with the sharp handle end of his brush, excavating the picture’s initial geometries lest they be lost [3]. (The forms themselves were worked out in relation to a number of other pictures, achieving tentative crystallization in the present work; Picasso bid farewell to them in a minimal collage at the end of 1912 [4], in which all the fuss of the painted guitar has evaporated.) 3 In the present work, oil paint apes the traditionally bright palette of pastel, imparting something of a “feminine” air.4 And along with mimicry of pastel came mimicry of collage, as Picasso painted four areas, two large and two small, of imitation faux bois wallpaper in a lively, brushy manner, the levels of falsity piling up [ 5]. Alongside such faux faux bois, Picasso applied to the surface another collagelike subversion of pictorial effect, one of the work’s most prominent features. The rough, grainy texture of the painting’s off-white areas, especially visible under raking light [6], was made by mixing grit into the paint before application—most likely ash and bits of coal from the studio’s stove.5 The stuff of the studio is literally incorporated into the picture, creating an abstract, dispersed tactility that materializes the surface of the painting more than any object it depicts. Indeed, if anything, the grit renders those objects (table, guitar), already interpenetrating, even more remote. The grit was applied in the work’s final stages, occluding what had begun as a much more colorful canvas—still visible, here



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and there, through intervening layers [ 7]. This gritty top layer inhibits the vibrant optical play of color and cancels whatever virtualizing work the charcoal orthogonals might still do. Surface could not be allowed to become transparent; it needed to be dirtied, roughened, clotted up. Depth had to disappear, even (especially) where we might most look for it. Rather than concavity, the halfcircle of black at the painting’s center [ 8], one of two forms depicting the guitar’s sound hole, 6 gives us only an apprehension of salience: embedded with large, gritty particles, it seems almost to intrude into our space, reminding us that this is a guitar with no inside. Guitar on a Table asks to be read as a sequential accretion of layers. But all its force derives from how those layers interfere with each other, coming forward and receding backward in paradoxical ways. In at least one place (the arc at upper right), the charcoal crosses over the faux bois, rendering even more uncertain whether the painting presents a tabletop or guitar in its make-believe solidity. The halting diagonal of the central sea-green line stutters as it moves across what one takes to be the face of the guitar, threading through the sketchy strings of the instrument as if it might tie their unruly energy down [9]. Most elusively of all, blue gives way to white, and green seeps over a homeless patch of faux bois within the gentle overlapping of planes at the very bottom center of the picture [10]. For every defined edge there is an under-defined boundary in which the painting’s various forms melt into one another. Such cultivated play betrays a level of sophistication at odds with the jaunty, energetic roughness the picture offers at first glance. All this play, all this fuss, it reminds us, is less about stitching up a coherent, solid surface than about traffic in ever more elaborate forms of counterfeit. 7



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So much for surface. What happens when we step back and take the distant view? Imagine, for instance, taking Stein’s view, looking up from her desk at the painting on the wall of her rue de Fleurus atelier, captured in Man Ray’s famous photograph of 1922 and immortalized on the cover of Stein’s The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas in 1933 [11].8 What did she see? First, perhaps, a resistant surface; soon after, a virtualizing play of planes. From several feet away, the rough texture of the grit remains palpable, but it also participates in a more cohesive fiction of pictorial vibrancy: an effect not of depth, exactly, so much as planar oscillation—a “never-ending vibration from front to back and back to front,” to borrow from Clement Greenberg’s description of Cézanne’s painterly effects. 9 Distance, that is, activates the beholder, motivates her to play the picture’s games of seeing-in and seeing-as, making its dead material forms dance for the eye.10 In this light, the picture becomes a kind of self-conscious puzzle, encoding perceptual work as intellectual play, and one can imagine it serving as a conversation piece in the Stein atelier—a detached and relatively unthreatening sample of mature Cubist spatiality. For all its materialism, that is, the picture’s delights are mostly cerebral. And with them comes a kind of loss. What happens here to the extremism of Cubism’s high moments of pictorial subversion—to the jumbled no-space of Still Life with Chair Caning [12], for instance, or the grim, unyielding shallowness of “Ma Jolie” [13]? It begins to seem the wrong question to ask. Deep anxieties concerning the character and coherence of surface remain— the restlessness driving the picture’s production is unimaginable without them. But here they have been recruited to a gentler set of effects. For all its



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2.5



dizzying play, that is, Guitar on a Table seems more or less content with its limits, working within as much as against its bounding frame. The painting seems polite, almost, settling into the texture of domestic habitation. It pictures a Cubist sort of everyday life. —Jeremy Melius



Notes 1. Gertrude Stein, Picasso (1938; repr., New York: Dover, 1984), p. 12. 2. Picasso in Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, “Gespräche mit Picasso,” Jahresing, no. 59/60 (1959): 85–86. This conversation with the artist dates from 1933. Eng. trans. in Yve-Alain Bois, “The Semiology of Cubism,” in Lynn Zelevansky, ed., Picasso and Braque: A Symposium (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992), p. 170. For further discussion of the phrase, see T. J. Clark, “Cubism and Collectivity,” in Farewell to an Idea: Episodes from a History of Modernism (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1999), p. 179. 3. For what appears to be the initial drawing, see Pepe Karmel, Picasso and the Invention of Cubism (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2003), p. 72, fig. 239, and related discussion. 4. On the gendered associations of Picasso’s work in this period, see Elizabeth Cowling, “The Fine Art of Cutting: Picasso’s Papiers Collés and Constructions in 1912–1914,” Apollo 142, no. 405 (November 1995): 10–18; and Cowling’s discussion, in Chapter 4 of this publication, of Guitar and Sheet Music of autumn–winter 1912, a work partly executed in pastel and to which the present painting is deeply related. 5. The material is not, as is often noted, sand, which Picasso used to provide texture in other works of this moment; clean sand is traditionally used in textured wall painting and fresco. My thanks to Scott Gerson for clarifying this (in conversation with the author, March 5, 2012). See Conservation Notes. 6. A ghostly white counterpart hovers above.



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7. For the great account of counterfeit and falsity in Cubism, see T. J. Clark, “Cubism and Collectivity,” in Farewell to an Idea: Episodes from a History of Modernism (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1999), pp. 169–223. 8. See Provenance. 9. Clement Greenberg, “Cézanne and the Unity of Modern Art” (1951), in The Collected Essays and Criticism, vol. 3, Affirmations and Refusals, 1950–1956, ed. John O’Brian (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), p. 86. 1 0. On “seeing-in,” see Richard Wollheim, Painting as an Art (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1987). On “seeing-as,” see Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, trans. G. E. M. Anscombe (New York: Macmillan, 1953), part 2, section 11; and E. H. Gombrich, Art and Illusion (New York: Pantheon Books, 1960). On the distinction between them, see Richard Wollheim, “Seeingas, Seeing-in, and Pictorial Representation,” in Art and Its Objects (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), pp. 205–26.



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Guitar on a Table Paris, autumn 1912. Oil, grit, and charcoal on canvas, 20 ⅛ × 24 ¼" (51.1 × 61.6 cm). Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H. Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller, Class of 1930. Z II (2) 373, DR 509



Conservation Notes The primary support for this painting is a piece of very finely woven linen with a thinly applied ground layer. Many tears and creases, with associated losses to the ground layer, suggest that the primed canvas was distressed before Picasso used it for this painting. Picasso drew the initial composition using charcoal across the full expanse of the canvas. He next applied discrete patches of artist’s oil paint in pastel hues within and around the drawn lines, occasionally using a stick of charcoal or incising with the end of a paintbrush to reinforce a line or an edge [14]. Areas of somewhat crude faux bois were also painted in oil, without any of the many specialized tools and graining techniques that would have produced a more convincing result. The topmost layers on this painting’s surface consist of standard white oil paint, which Picasso modified by adding a heterogeneous mix of gritty particulate matter, most likely prior to applying the paint to the canvas. Most of the particles are black or dark and



14



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some are very large, and they are therefore unlikely to be sand as this material has been historically identified. X-ray fluorescence analysis of individual particles reveals elevated levels of calcium, ruling out charcoal and suggesting coal ash or incompletely burnt coal, perhaps originating from a heating furnace. This gritty paint mixture was applied in very discrete regions that mask earlier-painted portions in some parts of the composition. Where present, these painted underlayers are especially visible under ultraviolet illumination [ 15]. This painting was treated by MoMA conservators in 1968–70, one in a group of works purchased from the Estate of Gertrude Stein and brought to the Museum for evaluation and conservation [ 16] (see Provenance). Documentation shows that a heavy layer of grime was cleaned from the surface of the painting and that many of the losses associated with the creases mentioned above were retouched; this is visible under ultraviolet illumination [see 15]. The original butt-type stretcher was replaced, and the restretched painting was lined with a double layer of nylon mesh [17]. The surface was most likely sprayed with a matte varnish. After treatment, the works were dispersed to members of the syndicate that had purchased them from the Stein estate. It is widely understood that the artist created this work as a horizontal composition. This is how Gertrude Stein displayed it in her atelier for decades [ 18] and how it is reproduced in the catalogues raisonnés by Christian Zervos (1942) and Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet (1979). While in the collection of Nelson A. Rockefeller, the canvas was often hung in a vertical orientation, and a number of labels on the backing board from that period relate to this orientation [19]. —SG



15



16



17



18



19



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Guitar on a Table Paris, autumn 1912. Oil, grit, and charcoal on canvas, 20 ⅛ × 24 ¼" (51.1 × 61.6 cm). Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H. Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller, Class of 1930. Z II (2) 373, DR 509



Provenance 20



BY SUMMER 1914–1946 Gertrude Stein, Paris. [Gift of or purchase from the artist] [ 20–22] 1 1946–1967 Estate of Gertrude Stein (c/o Alice B. Toklas, Paris, 1946–61). By bequest from the above [ 23, 24] 2 1968 The Museum of Modern Art Syndicate, New York. Purchased from the above 3



21



DECEMBER 1968–DECEMBER 1975 Nelson A. Rockefeller, New York. Purchased from/through the above [ 25] 4 DECEMBER 1975 Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, N.H. Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller, Class of 1930 5



22



—BH



23



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24



25



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Notes 1. Gertrude Stein (American, 1874–1946) was an author, collector, and close friend of Picasso. Archival photographs confirm that the work was installed in the atelier of her Paris home at 27, rue de Fleurus, by c. 1914–15, and for several decades thereafter. One of these photographs, taken by Man Ray in 1922 (reproduced here), was featured on the dust jacket of the first edition of Stein’s The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1933). According to the provenance research compiled by the current owner, the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, the work was a gift from the artist to Stein in 1913 (Provenance Project Database, Hood Museum of Art [object no. P.975.79], http://hoodmuseum. dartmouth.edu/collections/provenance.html.) This same information was published in Robert Parker, “Catalogue of the Stein Collection,” in Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow, eds., The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde (San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2011), p. 433. No evidence has been identified to support the assertion that this work passed as a gift from the artist to Stein, though such a transfer is not improbable. The work was photographed by Galerie Kahnweiler, photo file no. 273 (“la guitare”), suggesting that it was a finished painting available for acquisition sometime prior to the outbreak of World War I, in the summer of 1914 (at which time the operations of Galerie Kahnweiler were suspended). No entry matching this work has been identified, to date, in Kahnweiler’s inventory book. Nor have any identifying marks or labels on the work been found to link it to the German dealer. The existence of the Kahnweiler photograph for Guitar on a Table would not prohibit the possibility that Stein obtained the work directly from the artist, as at least a few works photographed by Kahnweiler were never part of gallery stock. For example, the Cubist constructions DR 629a (photo file no. 300), 630 (no. 297), 631 (no. 298), and 633 (no. 299) were photographed by Kahnweiler but never entered his inventory, though one could argue that these works constituted a very exceptional case. My thanks to Pepe Karmel for sharing his 1991 transcription of Kahnweiler’s inventory book and photo files. Guitar on a Table was included in the following exhibition catalogues devoted to Stein’s collection (and those of her family members): Margaret Potter, ed., Four Americans in Paris: The Collections of Gertrude Stein and Her Family (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1970), pl. 52 (image rotated), repr. p. 95 (installation view); and Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow, eds., The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde (San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2011), cat. no. 263, pl. 232 and pls. 182,



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200, 287, 357, 358, 360, 361 (installation views). The work was also included in an important compilation of Stein materials: Edward Burns, ed., Gertrude Stein on Picasso (New York: Liveright, 1970), repr. pp. 84 (image rotated), 136 (image rotated). The relevant catalogue raisonné volumes also list Stein as the owner or past owner, as appropriate. See Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917, vol. II (2) (Paris: Cahiers d’art, 1942), cat. no. 373, pl. 180 (“Guitare sur une table. Paris. Hiver 1912–1913. Huile sur toile. Coll. Mlle. Gertrude Stein, Paris”); and Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. no. 509 (“Prov. Gertrude Stein, Paris”). 2. Alice B. Toklas (American, 1877–1967) was the longtime partner of Gertrude Stein. Toklas and Stein first met in 1907 and lived together until Stein’s death in 1946. The bulk of Stein’s estate, including her art collection, was bequeathed to Toklas for use in her lifetime. A photograph from 1956 (reproduced here) records Guitar on a Table hanging near the telephone in the 5, rue Christine, Paris, apartment Toklas lived in and had shared with Stein from 1938 to 1946. The canvas support of Guitar on Table is marked on its verso with a red stamp associated with the Estate of Gertrude Stein, indicating, “Propriété de la Succession Gertrude Stein / Ne peut être ni vendu ni cédé sans l’autorisation de l’Administration / Morgan, Smith & SainteCroix / 52 Avenue des Champs-Elysées / Paris 8ème.” Subsequent legal disputes, c. 1961, between Toklas and the Stein family resulted in the transfer of the collection to a Chase Manhattan Bank vault in Paris. For further information, see Edward Burns, “Alice Toklas and the Gertrude Stein Collection, 1946–67,” in Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow, eds., The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde (San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2011), pp. 259–65. 3. A syndicate of MoMA trustees David and Nelson Rockefeller, John Hay Whitney, and William S. Paley, plus André Meyer of Lazard Frères & Co., was formed for the purpose of purchasing works from the Estate of Gertrude Stein. It was understood that the bulk of these purchases ultimately were to be donated to the Museum. For a brief summary of the syndicate’s activities, see Grace Glueck, “Modern Museum Gets Stein’s Art,” The New York Times, January 10, 1969. See also MoMA Archives, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Papers, 12.II.0, and MoMA, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Estate of Gertrude Stein Files. The provenance published by the current owner includes, in lieu of the estate or the syndicate, “Marlborough Gallery, 1968.” This is likely due to a mix-up with the related charcoal drawing, Guitar on a Table, which was sold through Marlborough Gallery (Provenance



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2.12



Project Database, Hood Museum of Art [object no. P.975.79], http:// hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu/collections/provenance.html). This information also appears in Robert Parker, “Catalogue of the Stein Collection,” in Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow, eds., The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde (San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2011), p. 433. 4. Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (American, 1908–1979) was the son of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, one of the founders of The Museum of Modern Art. A collector and MoMA trustee, Nelson A. Rockefeller served as governor of the state of New York (1959–73) and as vice president of the United States (1974–77). This work is listed as inv. 25-2052, “Guitar on Table (Composition guitar, escalier, imitation bois),” in Nelson Rockefeller’s collection records, and was installed in his apartment at 812 Fifth Avenue, New York, where it hung over the television in his bedroom (Rockefeller Archives Center, Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., The Rockefeller Family Archives, Nelson A. Rockefeller Personal Papers, RG4.C.3, Box 59, Folder 508). A label for “Collection Nelson A. Rockefeller” is pasted on the backing board of the framed work. While in the Rockefeller collection, the work was regularly hung on a vertical or “portrait” axis, instead of in the horizontal orientation in which Stein hung it and Christian Zervos reproduced it in his catalogue raisonné. See figs. 20–23 in this chapter and Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917, vol. II (2) (Paris: Cahiers d’art, 1942), cat. no. 373, pl. 180. Prior to the dispersal of the syndicate’s purchases from the Stein estate in December 1968, Alfred H. Barr, Jr., MoMA’s founding director, had advised Rockefeller on Guitar on a Table, which he referred to in his working records as Composition guitare, escalier, imitation bois: “use of color interesting / an excellent drawing, 27A, is a complete study of this painting, even to scale, try to get both!” (Barr, letter to Nelson A. Rockefeller, December 6, 1968, MoMA Archives, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Papers, 12.II.O). Records indicate that Rockefeller picked this painting in his third selection round with the syndicate (handwritten list, n.d., MoMA, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Estate of Gertrude Stein Files). Rockefeller loaned the work to the 1970 MoMA exhibition Four Americans in Paris: The Collections of Gertrude Stein and Her Family, as indicated by a label on the backing board of the work and as listed in the exhibition catalogue: Margaret Potter, ed., Four Americans in Paris: The Collections of Gertrude Stein and Her Family (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1970), p. 171, pl. 52 (“Guitar on a Table. Collection Nelson A. Rockefeller, New York”). For further reading on Rockefeller’s collection, see Dorothy Canning Miller, ed., The Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection: Masterpieces of Modern Art (New York: Hudson Hill Press, 1981).



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5. In 1975 Nelson A. Rockefeller and his curator Carol Uht began to pursue the possibility of donating Guitar on a Table to The Museum of Modern Art or to Dartmouth College, Rockefeller’s alma mater, in fulfillment of prior financial pledges. In late 1975 an agreement was reached with Dartmouth College. For detailed correspondence, see the Rockefeller Archives Center, Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., The Rockefeller Family Archives, Nelson A. Rockefeller Personal Papers, RG4.C.6, Box 8, Folder 40. The work was first exhibited at Dartmouth College in the show Cubism and Its Affinities, from July 9 to September 5, 1976. The painting has been on view regularly since its acquisition. See T. Barton Thurber, European Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art (Hanover, N.H.: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2008), pp. 15, 103–4, repr. cat. no. 52, pp. 15, 103, 104 (installation views), back cover.



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2.14



Guitar on a Table Paris, autumn 1912. Oil, grit, and charcoal on canvas, 20 ⅛ × 24 ¼" (51.1 × 61.6 cm). Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H. Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller, Class of 1930. Z II (2) 373, DR 509



Selected Exhibitions 1970 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Four Americans in Paris: The Collections of Gertrude Stein and Her Family. December 19, 1970– March 1, 1971. Cat. pl. 52 (image rotated in reproduction but not in exhibition). Tour venues: Baltimore Museum of Art. April 4– June 13, 1971; San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts. September 9– October 31, 1971 [26]



26



1976 Hanover, N.H., Dartmouth College Museum. Cubism and Its Affinities. July 9–September 5 (No catalogue)



27



1989 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. September 24, 1989–January 16, 1990. Cat. p. 255. (Note: Exhibited only at the New York venue. The work did not travel with the exhibition to Kunstmuseum Basel.) [ 27] 1992 Basel, Kunstmuseum und Kunsthalle. Transform: BildObjektSkulptur im 20. Jahrhundert. June 14–September 27. Cat. no. 30



28



2011 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. February 13–May 12. Cat. no. 9. (Note: Work was de-installed prior to the closing of the exhibition on June 8, 2011.) [ 28]



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2.15



San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde. May 21–September 6. Cat. no. 263. Tour venues: Paris, Grand Palais. October 3, 2011– January 16, 2012; New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. February 21–June 3, 2012



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2.16



Guitar on a Table Paris, autumn 1912. Oil, grit, and charcoal on canvas, 20 ⅛ × 24 ¼" (51.1 × 61.6 cm). Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H. Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller, Class of 1930. Z II (2) 373, DR 509



Selected References



29



1933 Stein, Gertrude. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co. Repr. cover (installation view) [ 29] 1934 Stein, Gertrude. “L’Atelier de Gertrude Stein.” Gazette des Beaux-Arts (April). Fig. 5 (installation view) 1942 Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917. Vol II (2). Paris: Cahiers d’art. Cat. no. 373. Pl. 180 1979 Daix, Pierre, and Joan Rosselet. Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. Trans. Dorothy S. Blair. London: Thames & Hudson. Ref. p. 287. Repr. cat. no. 509 1982 Daix, Pierre. “Braque and Picasso at the Time of the Papiers Collés.” In Isabelle Monod-Fontaine with E. A. Carmean, eds. Braque: The Papiers Collés. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art. Ref. p. 37. Fig. 24 1989 Rubin, William S. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 31–32. Repr. p. 255



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1990 Palau i Fabre, Josep. Picasso: Cubism (1907–1917). Trans. Susan Branyas, Richard-Lewis Rees, and Patrick Zabalbeascoa. New York: Rizzoli. Ref. pp. 290–91. Fig. 830 2000 Karmel, Pepe. “Francis Picabia, 1915: The Sex of a New Machine.” In Sarah Greenough, ed. Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art. Ref. p. 212. Fig. 78 Léal, Brigitte, Christine Piot, and Marie-Laure Bernadac. The Ultimate Picasso. Trans. Molly Stevens and Marjolin de Jager. New York: Harry N. Abrams. Ref. p. 162. Fig. 355 2003 Karmel, Pepe. Picasso and the Invention of Cubism. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. Ref. p. 173. Fig. 240 2008 Thurber, T. Barton. European Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art. Hanover, N.H.: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College. Ref. pp. 15, 103–4. Repr. cat. no. 52, pp. 15, 103, 104 (installation views), back cover 2011 Bishop, Janet, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow, eds. The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde. San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 229, 282, 433. Cat. no. 263. Pl. 232 and pls. 182, 200, 287, 357, 358, 360, 361 (installation views) Umland, Anne. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 20. Repr. cat. no. 9



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Guitar Paris, October–December 1912. Paperboard, paper, thread, string, twine, and coated wire, 25 ¾ × 13 × 7 ½" (65.1 × 33 × 19 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist, 640.1973. S 27A



360°



Front



X-ray



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3.1



Guitar Paris, October–December 1912. Paperboard, paper, thread, string, twine, and coated wire, 25 ¾ × 13 × 7 ½" (65.1 × 33 × 19 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist, 640.1973. S 27A



Picasso constructed Guitar in the final months of 1912, sometime between October and December. 1 For most of the following 102 years the work sat, disassembled and hidden from view, inside an Old England department store box.2 But it was not unknown. The publication of photographs of Guitar, taken as Picasso repositioned it in ever-varying installations in his studio between 1912 and 1916, conditioned public knowledge of the work, and continued to do so even after the artist had packed away the object.3 Its history is characterized by discontinuous yet overlapping narratives: of the work in the artist’s studio; as it was presented through the medium of photography; and as it has been, or can be, installed within the museum. In his childhood, Picasso’s virtuoso cutting skills were a source of delight to his family and friends. They marveled at how he could capture, for example, the turn of a paw and a scruffy fur throat in a tiny paper cutout of a dog [1].4 The awkward contours of Guitar evoke the hand



1



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2



3



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of the artist in a very different way, as he manipulated his ordinary materials.5 Picasso built Guitar, one of the earliest known surviving Cubist constructions, out of paperboard, tacks, glue, thread, and a few lengths of twine, string, and coated wire [2].6 Cutting, folding, bending, pinning, pasting, and sewing, he solved whatever technical issues arose as he encountered them. Picasso’s unrehearsed methods bore little resemblance to the codified practices of the academy or the workshop. 7 His approach to forming a three-dimensional object out of flat planes might recall craft techniques, such as those of a luthier, but the resulting work has none of the fine finish valued by master craftsmen.8 For some period prior to making Guitar, Picasso had been drawing dozens of impossible-to-build guitarists [3].9 As he pursued this constructive vein further, stringed instruments became objects of investigation in drawing, papier collé, mixed-medium painting, and relief sculpture. In autumn–winter 1912 Picasso was interested most keenly in how negative space figures and how it can be activated in different mediums. For example, in one work from the period [4], painted planes stop at passages of bare canvas, which the artist held in reserve on either side of his drawn charcoal lines. Similarly, the cut-out shapes of Violin [5] suggest a preoccupation with different methods of framing emptiness so that it registers as positive. In his slight, fragile Guitar, Picasso engineered openness as a defining feature. Picasso made Guitar at a critical juncture in his dialogue with the French artist Georges Braque, whose paper sculptures, now lost, served as a precedent and reference.10 While the two artists had worked closely for years—in Braque’s words, “like mountain-climbers



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roped together”—their work in the last months of 1912 grew visibly distinct, even as they shared mediums and techniques.11 Correspondence between the two artists documents that by October 9, 1912, once settled back in Paris after spending the summer in Céret and Sorgues, Picasso was developing a new work, probably the cardboard construction we now call Guitar. 12 Guitar is defined by the gestures of cutting and shaping rather than painting, but the work is nonetheless oriented toward certain pictorial issues, such as planarity and cast shadows.13 As a relief sculpture, it hangs on the wall like a painting but engages with space like an object. While it would be stingy to limit the inspiration for the work to something “real,” Guitar evokes the instruments commonly seen hanging in the studios of Picasso, Braque [6], and their contemporaries—and in the studios of generations of artists before them—one of many objets waiting to be recombined into endless variations on a still life arrangement. The poet, critic, and editor Guillaume Apollinaire described, in early 1913, that recently Picasso had “renounced ordinary paints to compose relief pictures made of cardboard, or papiers collés.” 14 Apollinaire must have seen works like those captured in at least four photographs of Picasso’s Paris studio at 242, boulevard Raspail [7–10].15 Did he visit the studio, around December 14–21, after these works were finished but before Picasso left for Céret and Barcelona? 16 Or did he see the photographs? The pictures appear to have been taken in a single session in mid-December 1912 (or perhaps February 1913).17 These photographs offered Picasso insight in addition to documentation.18 Across the images, Guitar is central and constant, with different drawings and papiers



6



7



8



9



10



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collés pinned around it for consideration, presumably in relation to one another and to Guitar.19 The works feature different means of signaling depth—alternatives to longstanding codes of illusionistic representation—whether drawn, collaged, or constructed. 20 The photographs bring this multiplicity of techniques together for investigation through the unifying, pictorializing, flattening qualities of mechanical reproduction. Picasso’s process for making assemblages and collages in this period was described in the first monograph on the artist, written by Russian critic Ivan Aksenov: He puts different household trash—pieces of boxes, ink bottles, visiting cards, pieces of cardboard, rules, violin fragments—on wooden panels, ties them all together with string, impales them on nails, and hangs it on the wall; sometimes he calls in a photographer.21



11



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One such purposefully cobbled-together work, no longer extant as photographed, was the still life with Guitar [11]. This work dates to 1912/1913, for it includes the 1912 construction within a novel 1913 context. The new arrangement incorporated pieces of printed faux bois wallpaper (with selvage margin visible) and an image of a bottle, perhaps made by a stenciling process, which bore the unique patterning of the liquor brand Anis del Mono.22 Beneath Guitar, Picasso pinned a curving tabletop cut from a commercially made cardboard box, under which he affixed a folded piece of paper as a faux support pedestal. To the right of this composition he added a length of what was perhaps wood molding. 23 These elements were hung above an object whose edge is visible in the shadowy left corner of the photographic



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3.5



12



13



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frame, possibly a wood panel or a piece of furniture. Thus the arrangement did not sit directly above the baseboard or floor but at some elevation on the wall. The photographer of the 1913 still life composition was most likely Émile Delétang, who worked with Paris gallerists such as Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (Picasso’s exclusive dealer per their December 1912 contract) and Ambroise Vollard (Picasso’s former dealer). 24 Delétang’s photographs had various uses: they were sent to Picasso, who was eager to see images of his latest work; they were assembled into albums for visitors to Galerie Kahnweiler, at 28, rue Vignon, to consult and purchase copies of; and they were sent out for publication or for consideration by potential buyers. 25 The restricted scope of the photographer’s camera lens functioned not unlike a traditional frame for the still life with Guitar. Following the conventions of fine art photography, Delétang (presumably with Picasso’s approval) mediated its relationship to its surroundings, cutting out the temporal and spatial specifics of the artist’s workspace. We can surmise, however, from comparison of the uncropped and the published versions of a contemporaneous photograph by Delétang [12, 13], what the overall environment at such a session in Picasso’s studio was like. 26 Even within the very circumscribed visual field of the 1913 photograph, Guitar and its surrounding paper and wood elements complicated the status of the “support,” transforming the wall into an essential, if variable and replaceable, part of the artwork. Picasso’s incorporation of non-art objects into his work, such as the insertion of Gertrude Stein’s calling card into a collage or the addition of a silver absinthe spoon to a cast sculpture [14], are often cited as irreverent and disjunctive triumphs of Cubism.27 However, Picasso’s still life with Guitar, as



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15



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arranged and as photographed, was perhaps more subtly and more radically destabilizing to artistic conventions. The installation activated space, marshaling it into service as a critical component of the work. 28 The brief run of the avant-garde journal Les Soirées de Paris [15] included many modern firsts, including the first publication of an image of Guitar, inserted into its new still life arrangement, in November 1913 [ 16].29 At that time the journal had been reorganized and refinanced and was under the direction of Apollinaire and Jean Cérusse (a pseudonym for the Russian duo of Serge Jastrebzoff and Baroness Hélène d’Oettingen), and the five blackand-white reproductions in the November issue were a new feature.30 All were identified as “Nature morte” and attributed to Picasso in the accompanying captions. From the moment this image of the still life with Guitar was published, it was critically recognized in journals such as L’Art décoratif as a kind of work that was “momentary and destined only to be photographed.” 31 A fictional conversation between visitors to the Salon d’Automne, published in L’Occident in December 1913, highlights how, if you were not invited to cross the threshold of the artist’s studio, you had but two venues in which to find reproductions of Picasso’s latest work: “Have you seen Picasso’s still lifes, at Kahnweiler’s, or those reproduced in Les Soirées de Paris?”32 Records maintained by the directors of Les Soirées de Paris provide more precise insights into the circle of readers who first saw reproductions of Picasso’s still life constructions.33 It has been repeated, and probably a little exaggerated, that the appearance of the “cinq natures mortes de Picasso” in November 1913 caused a kerfuffle among readers, many of whom cancelled their subscriptions.34 Those devoted to modern art, including



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17



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Sonia Delaunay, Raoul Dufy, and Vollard, maintained their subscriptions from 1912 through 1914. And certainly a number of new subscribers from throughout the French capital [17, 18] and across Europe [19, 20] who joined up in December 1913 were attracted, rather than scandalized, by material like the still life with Guitar. 35 A page from the notebook in which subscriptions were recorded [ 21] gives a sample of the international network of artists, dealers, and collectors who made up the journal’s core readership. For these readers—and for today’s—Les Soirées de Paris captured not only Picasso’s ephemeral still life assemblages but also a fleeting moment in the European art world, before the outbreak of World War I. The journal’s last issue is dated July/August 1914. Shortly before the still life with Guitar was launched into the world by Les Soirées de Paris, Picasso moved from boulevard Raspail to a nearby studio and living space at 5 bis, rue Schoelcher.36 There, in early 1914, he made a new, closely related Guitar construction in sheet metal, possibly disassembling the cardboard version and tracing its components to make templates for shapes to be cut in metal.37 The complex history of the cardboard Guitar indicates that it was not made solely for this purpose, though for a period it was referred to in the Picasso literature as a “maquette” for the sheet metal iteration. 38 Picasso continued to adjust and augment the still life context for Guitar, as documented in a studio portrait from 1914–16 [22]. This image shows the Les Soirées de Paris assemblage with additional paper elements to the upper right and lower left.39 These hard-to-decipher additions indicate that the construction was ever evolving for the artist, that Guitar and its attendant circumstances were not set, even after it was photographically “fixed” and published in a particular formulation.



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23



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Guitar was never publicly exhibited during Picasso’s lifetime as a solo object or as part of a still life assemblage, and no photographs of the work hanging in any of his later homes or studios are known. In October 1916, when the artist moved to 22, rue Victor Hugo in Montrouge, on the outskirts of Paris, Apollinaire and French poet Jean Cocteau helped Picasso pack. 40 Gertrude Stein recalled that “it was during this moving that the objects made of paper and zinc and tin were lost and broken.”41 Guitar certainly was disassembled, though it was not lost. Later Picasso confirmed for French Surrealist André Breton that those “early constructions have long since been dismembered.” 42 Picasso did not recall saving what William Rubin described as “the ancillary paper forms which were added to make up the Still Life of 1913.”43 He did, however, indicate that he had saved Guitar and the cardboard tabletop. 44 In the last years of his life, Picasso promised The Museum of Modern Art that the cardboard Guitar and its accompanying tabletop would, ultimately, join his 1971 gift of the sheet metal Guitar. 45 Sometime in the summer following the artist’s death, in April 1973, Rubin (director of the Museum’s Department of Painting and Sculpture) travelled to Mougins, France, to retrieve this promised gift. The constituent pieces arrived at MoMA squashed and dirty [23, 24], and the work was reassembled by Museum conservation staff several years later.46 Picasso had initially tacked pieces like the curving face of Guitar into position [25]; during the conservation treatment, this component (still bearing holes) was more securely attached [26].47 Guitar, in its reconstructed state, was first photographed on view in the Museum’s 1980 retrospective devoted to Picasso [27]. At that time the decision



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was made, presumably at the discretion of Rubin, to install the work without the additional cardboard element, and the tabletop was carefully tucked away in the Museum’s storage, where it was to remain for several decades.48 The decision to install Guitar in this way was not without precedent among the artist’s Cubist constructions. In particular, Violin [28] is an important touchstone. Picasso moved Violin around his studio, photographing it in early 1913 within a temporary assemblage [29].49 Some months later, Delétang photographed the construction within a composed arrangement of wallpaper and artists’ papers [ 30], which was published among the five “Nature morte” plates in the November 1913 issue of Les Soirées de Paris. From this composition, Picasso appears to have saved and stored only Violin, much as he saved Guitar, which he packed away in that Old England box. Moreover, Picasso selected or approved Violin—the individual construction— for inclusion among the many loans from his private collection to the landmark 1966 Paris retrospective Hommage à Pablo Picasso.50 While the loans for this show were being inventoried and packed at Picasso’s Mougins home, art historian Roland Penrose observed the artist’s delight as he retrieved from the depths of storage his Cubist reliefs, “which he had formerly discarded as hopelessly damaged and is now putting together again.”51 Violin was among the works repaired prior to the exhibition, where it hung above the sheet metal Guitar in a vitrine in the Petit Palais installation [ 31]. Its inclusion suggests that Picasso considered his selectively saved relief components to have an exhibition value, that they were more than fragments of a missing whole. In 2011, Guitar was installed at MoMA in the exhibition Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914, reunited with the



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cardboard tabletop to form a still life [ 32]. Recognition of this exhibition possibility had not come until 2005, when art historian Christine Poggi prompted the rediscovery of the cardboard tabletop in the Museum’s holdings. 52 Alone, Guitar is quietly straightforward, despite all that is radical, for the history of modern art, about the techniques that Picasso used to construct it. Combined with the tabletop [33], its spatial gambits are made more apparent, and its distinctness from the sheet metal Guitar is more pronounced. Guitar belongs to a class of objects counted in history as “firsts” because it is a sculpture that is neither carved nor cast. This primacy, this condition of firstness, has had the effect of eclipsing another revolutionary quality: the work’s absence of resolution. What was fixed and enduring in the mediums of marble and bronze is in cardboard and paper a constellation of parts, a set of relationships. In truth, it is a moving target in modern art. One can only discuss Picasso’s construction as it was presented in a given moment, in a particular iteration. The artist’s resituating and repurposing of Guitar highlights a certain hallmark of his Cubism, insofar as it was bound by perpetual practice and not a set manifesto. On October 9, 1912, Picasso wrote to Braque that he was “in the process of imagining a guitar.” 53 It was a process that would continue for many years. —Blair Hartzell



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Notes 1. Much of the important work to establish the (now widely accepted) October–December 1912 date for the execution of the cardboard Guitar was presented by Yve-Alain Bois, Edward Fry, and William Rubin in the 1980s. See Bois, “Kahnweiler’s Lesson” (1987), in Painting as Model (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1993), pp. 66–97; Fry, “Picasso, Cubism, and Reflexivity,” Art Journal 47, no. 4 (Winter 1988): 296–310; and Rubin, Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1989). Bois argued persuasively for the significance of matters of chronology: “It is a question of articulating the development of a certain formal logic (that of the ‘Picasso system’), and not of retracing the biography of the individual Picasso” (p. 79). He also posited that Picasso’s encounter with a Grebo mask in 1912 was pivotal to the artist’s new conception of space. My understanding of this work has been informed by countless opportunities to study it in exceptional company, which has included: Elizabeth Cowling, Scott Gerson, Megan Luke, Jeremy Melius, Claude Picasso, Christine Poggi, Anne Umland, Jeffrey Weiss, Diana Widmaier Picasso, and Lynda Zycherman. 2. Old England, purveyor of all things natty and British, closed its historic retail shop at 12, boulevard des Capucines, Paris in 2012. According to William Rubin, former director of the Department of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art, Picasso had stored the cardboard Guitar in an Old England box with a 1913 label, addressed to the artist at 5 bis, rue Schoelcher. The label read “DEUX PANTALONS ROUGES.” Per Rubin the box looked as if it had not been opened since the First World War, though Picasso knew, c. 1971, exactly where in his large villa in Mougins, France, it was stored. See Rubin in Lynn Zelevansky, ed., Picasso and Braque: A Symposium (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992), pp. 241 and 260n9. The complete transcript of this symposium discussion is stored in The Museum of Modern Art Archives, Curatorial Files, Exh. #1529, Box 790, Folder “Monday November 13 (am).” The Old England box could not be located at the time of publication. 3. Related topics were explored in a panel chaired by Catherine Craft and Janine Mileaf, “The Photographic Record: Images of and as Objects” (panel discussion, College Art Association, 101st Annual Conference, New York, February 15, 2013). On the relationship between photography and sculpture, see Roxana Marcoci, The Original Copy: Photography of Sculpture, 1839 to Today (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2010).



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4. For charming anecdotes about the cutouts Picasso made as a child, see Jaime Sabartès, Picasso: Documents iconographiques, trans. Félia Leal and Alfred Rosset (Geneva: Pierre Cailler, 1954), pp. 305–6. On Picasso’s juegos de papel (games with paper) and his connection to “the visual and ludic culture of childhood,” see Natasha Staller, A Sum of Destructions: Picasso’s Cultures and the Creation of Cubism (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 42. On the significance of cutting and cutouts throughout Picasso’s career, see Elizabeth Cowling, Picasso’s Late Sculpture: Woman. The Collection in Context (Málaga: Museo Picasso Málaga, 2009). 5. For discussion of Cubist gestures, such as cutting, see Richard Shiff, “Constructing Physicality,” Art Journal 50, no. 1 (Spring 1991): 42–47. 6. See Conservation Notes for details on the artist’s materials and techniques. The 1912 Guitar construction is commonly referred to as the “cardboard Guitar” and that convention is observed in this essay and elsewhere in this publication. It is, however, possible to identify the material more precisely as paperboard, composed of low-quality paper pulp sandwiched between two smooth, lighter-colored surface papers. Around this time, Picasso also made a Violin construction (DR 629b) and two smaller Guitar constructions (DR 555 and DR 556). These two Guitars, incorporating newspaper clippings from December 3, 1912, merit a thorough study in their own right. 7. Christine Poggi has linked Picasso’s practice to the idea of bricolage, borrowed from Claude Lévi-Strauss. For a detailed reassertion of the historically specific conditions of the cardboard Guitar, independent of the sheet metal version that followed it, and the connection to bricolage, see Poggi, “Picasso’s First Constructed Sculpture: A Tale of Two Guitars,” The Art Bulletin 94, no. 2 (June 2012): 274–97. See also Anne Umland, Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2011). 8. For a discussion of the crafts of box making, dressmaking, and tailoring, and Picasso’s possible familiarity with the workshops in rue Rodier, where violins and guitars were made, see Elizabeth Cowling, “The Fine Art of Cutting: Picasso’s Papiers Collés and Constructions in 1912–14,” Apollo 142, no. 95 (November 1995): 10–18. 9. See Chapter 1 in this publication for a discussion of the two Study for a Construction drawings of spring or summer 1912. On the significance of Picasso’s drawings in this period, see Pepe Karmel, Picasso’s Laboratory: The Role of His Drawings in the Development of Cubism, 1910–14 (PhD diss., New York University, 1993). 1 0. Braque described these works as “sculpture en papier” in a letter to his dealer, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, c. August 24, 1912. See Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, ed., Donation Louise et Michel Leiris: Collection



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Kahnweiler-Leiris (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984), p. 27. For more on Braque’s innovations, see Monod-Fontaine with E. A. Carmean, Braque: The Papiers Collés (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1982). 1 1. Georges Braque, quoted in Dora Vallier, “Braque, la peinture et nous,” Cahiers d’art 29, no. 1 (October 1954): 14. Braque and Picasso’s papiers collés visibly differ, much more than the almost indistinguishable paintings they had been producing for several years. The relationship between their constructed sculptures of c. 1912 is a matter for speculation, since none of Braque’s work in the medium survives. For an introduction to the Picasso/Braque dialogue, see William Rubin, Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1989). 1 2. Picasso, letter to Georges Braque, October 9, 1912 (this and other materials from the Archives Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, are not available to researchers at present). This letter was first mentioned in Christian Zervos, “Georges Braque et le développement du cubisme,” Cahiers d’art 7, nos. 1–2 (1932): 23. The full letter was reproduced in Isabelle Monod-Fontaine with E. A. Carmean, Braque: The Papiers Collés (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1982), figs. 39–40. Edward Fry was the first to tentatively suggest the significance of this letter in connection with the cardboard Guitar. See Fry, “Picasso, Cubism, and Reflexivity,” Art Journal 47, no. 4 (Winter 1988): 305n24. 1 3. Werner Spies argued that constructions such as Guitar “owe their existence to a criticism of the pictorial.” See Spies, Sculpture by Picasso, trans. J. Maxwell Brownjohn (New York: Harry Abrams, 1971), p. 46. See also Margit Rowell, The Planar Dimension: Europe, 1912–1932 (New York: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1979). Several early 1913 canvases are indicative of how interrelated Picasso’s projects in construction and painting could be. Pepe Karmel argued that Guitar might have served as a model for at least five paintings. See Karmel, Picasso and the Invention of Cubism (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2003), pp. 174–75. 1 4. Apollinaire’s January 18, 1913, lecture, advertised as “Die neue Malerei,” at Galerie der Sturm, Berlin, is thought to have been the first public mention of Picasso’s new work. The fragmentary nature of the subsequently published text, “Die moderne Malerei,” which appeared in the February 1913 issue of Der Sturm, suggests that it corresponded to a slideshow. See Philipp Rehage, ed., Correspondance Apollinaire-Walden: Der Sturm, 1913–1914 (Caen, France: Lettres modernes minard, 2007). With special thanks to Peter Read for his many insights about Apollinaire’s lecture and article (e-mail correspondence with the author, June 17, 2010).



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1 5. The first photograph (fig. 7) is published here for the first time, with special thanks to Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, Cécile Godefroy, and the staff of the Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte, Madrid. The works pinned to the wall in this image are, clockwise from lower left: Violin (DR 524), Head of a Man (DR 532), Guitar (S 27A), and Musical Score and Guitar (DR 520). Other elements that appear on the wall include, from left to right, a printed image of the legendary African American boxer Jack Johnson and his opponent, James Jeffries, during the “Fight of the Giants” in 1910; a mask, cut off at the top of the image, possibly of African origin; and, tucked behind the cardboard Guitar, a copy of the magazine L’Illustration théâtrale. The large rolled canvas partially visible at far left might be Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (DR 47). Bar Table with Bottle and Wineglass (DR 547) and Bottle of Bass and Guitar (Z II [2] 376) are both visible in the piles of works on the floor. Five papiers collés incorporate the distinctive wallpaper visible in this photograph: DR 506, DR 513, DR 517, DR 519, and DR 523. The identity of the photographer remains to be determined, though Picasso seems to be the “author” of his studio photographs, even if someone else presses the shutter. It could have been a visitor to the studio, such as the artist’s close friends Georges Braque or Guillaume Apollinaire, or perhaps Picasso’s partner, Eva Gouel. With thanks to Anne Umland for identifying the “Fight of the Giants” print. 1 6. Apollinaire was living temporarily with Sonia and Robert Delaunay at 3, rue des Grands-Augustins, Paris, in November and December 1912. See Robert Delaunay, Du Cubisme à l’art abstrait (Paris: SEVPEN, 1957), p. 172. 1 7. With gratitude to Scott Gerson for his careful analysis of these photographs, which indicates that they were taken in a single session, and to Louise Brody and Charles Poisay for the opportunity to visit Picasso’s former atelier (July 18, 2011). See Epilogue for further discussion of Picasso’s temporary studio installations. For more on Picasso’s use of photography, see Anne Baldassari, Picasso photographe: 1901–1916 (Paris: Musée National Picasso, 1994). 1 8. On March 21, 1913, Picasso wrote to his dealer, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler: “Yesterday I received the photos, which are good and please me as usual, since they surprise me. I see my paintings differently from how they are.” Picasso, letter to Kahnweiler, March 21, 1913 (Archives Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris). Published in Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, ed., Donation Louise et Michel Leiris: Collection Kahnweiler-Leiris (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984), p. 170. As Man Ray would later explain, “Photography is not limited to the role of copyist. It is a marvelous explorer of the aspects that our retina never records.” See Man Ray, “Apparences trompeuses,” Paris-Soir (March 23, 1926). Eng. trans. in Christopher



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Phillips, ed., Photography in the Modern Era: European Documents and Critical Writings, 1913–1940 (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989), p. 12. 1 9. William Rubin described the placement of Guitar as “alluding to its role as generator” of the idea of papier collé. See Rubin, Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1989), p. 35. This chronology inverts the sequence, famously articulated by Clement Greenberg, that figured constructed sculpture as a thing “extruded from the picture plane” of collage (his essay was illustrated by a different Guitar [DR 555]). See Greenberg, “The Pasted Paper Revolution,” ARTnews 57, no. 5 (September 1958): 46–49, 60–61. 2 0. For a discussion of Picasso’s ways of writing depth, see Rosalind Krauss, “The Circulation of the Sign,” in The Picasso Papers (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1999), p. 33. Leo Steinberg suggested in conversation with Yve-Alain Bois that there is a good reason for this concentration on “the rendition of the qualities of the third dimension, for it is there that one cannot do without a violent codification of ‘reality’ (traditional perspective being only one possible code, which Picasso discards).” See Bois, “The Semiology of Cubism,” in Lynn Zelevansky, ed., Picasso and Braque: A Symposium (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992), p. 177. 2 1. This text has been dated to June 1914, though it was first published in 1917. See Ivan Aksenov, Picasso and Environs, in Ilia Dorontchenkov, ed., Russian and Soviet Views of Modern Western Art, 1890s to Mid1930s, trans. Charles Rougle (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), p. 126. 2 2. See Anne Umland’s detailed discussion of these components in Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2011), p. 18. 2 3. Christine Poggi suggested that this material might be corrugated cardboard. See Poggi, “Picasso’s First Constructed Sculpture: A Tale of Two Guitars,” The Art Bulletin 94, no. 2 (June 2012): 283. 2 4. Delétang also worked with editors, such as Guillaume Apollinaire, who frequently complained with his colleagues about the way the photographer pestered them for payment. Correspondence between Apollinaire and Serge Jastrebzoff on April 19, 20, and 25 and May 5, 1914, deals extensively with Delétang. At one point Jastrebzoff wrote a postcard from Capri “solely to say that Delétang is a coglione!” See Laurence Campa and Peter Read, eds., Guillaume Apollinaire: Correspondence avec les artistes, 1903–1918 (Paris: Gallimard, 2009), pp. 560–64.



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Apollinaire’s address book includes two entries: “Deletang [sic] photographe 157 rue de Grenelle, Paris,” and “Emile Délétang [sic], 157, rue de Grenelle” (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Papiers Apollinaire, NAF 16285–VI, folio 9). A transcription of Apollinaire’s address book was published in Que Vlo-Ve? 2, no. 3 (July–September 1982): 1–26. In her study of Ambroise Vollard’s archives, Isabelle Cahn has suggested this photographer was named Étienne Delétang. Vollard’s address book has two entries: “Delétang, 12, rue de l’Université,” and “Delétang, 157, rue de Grenelle” (Musée d’Orsay, Paris, Vollard Archives, Ms 421, 4.11, folios 40–41). See Cahn, “The Vollard Archives: Myth and Reality,” in Rebecca Rabinow, ed., Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2006), pp. 263–68. It is possible that two photographers, both with the surname Delétang, shared a business. Delétang’s name also comes up in correspondence from 1913–14 between Picasso and Kahnweiler. After receiving several photographs in the mail, Picasso observed that “lately Deletang [sic] has had a good hand.” Picasso, letter to Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, July 21, 1914 (Archives Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris). Published in Isabelle MonodFontaine, ed., Donation Louise et Michel Leiris: Collection Kahnweiler-Leiris (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984), p. 171. 2 5. An image of the still life with Guitar is catalogued as no. 299 in Kahnweiler’s photo files, per Alexandra Parigoris, “Les Constructions cubistes dans Les Soirées de Paris: Apollinaire, Picasso, et les clichés Kahnweiler,” Revue de l’art 82 (1988): 72n2. Individual prints could be purchased by interested parties, such as Italian Futurist Umberto Boccioni, who implored fellow artist Gino Severini, “Get all possible indications on Braque and Picasso. . . . Go to Kahnweiler’s and if he has photos of the recent works (done after my departure) buy one or two of them.” Boccioni, letter to Severini, [June– July] 1912. Quoted in Fanette Roche-Pézard, L’Aventure futuriste, 1909–1916 (Rome: École Française de Rome, 1983), pp. 173–74. 2 6. With thanks to Rebecca Rabinow, Leonard A. Lauder Curator of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, for bringing this unpublished photograph to my attention. The cropped version of this image, which appeared in Les Soirées de Paris in November 1913 (see notes 30 and 32, below), is noticeably smaller in size than the other reproductions that ran in that issue. 2 7. A canonical interpretation of Braque’s and Picasso’s collages, supported by figures such as Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and Alfred H. Barr, Jr., emphasized the introduction of the “real” into art. The well-known examples mentioned here are DR 661 and DR 753–58. On the invention of collage, see Christine Poggi, In Defiance of Painting (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992).



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2 8. For a related discussion of space, see Yve-Alain Bois, “Kahnweiler’s Lesson” (1987), in Painting as Model (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1993), p. 91. For further discussion of the confusion of boundaries in the still life with Guitar, as photographed, see Janine Mileaf, Please Touch: Dada and Surrealist Objects after the Readymade (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2010), pp. 32–33. 2 9. Guillaume Apollinaire and Jean Cérusse, eds., Les Soirées de Paris, no. 18 (November 15), p. 13. Thus, Apollinaire was not only the first to publicly discuss Picasso’s cardboard constructions, in his Der Sturm lecture and article (see note 14, above), but also the first to publish an image of the cardboard Guitar. On the history of the journal, see Dawn Ades, “Les Soirées de Paris,” in Dada and Surrealism Reviewed (London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1978), pp. 8–19. On the broader importance of Apollinaire’s activities in the early twentieth century, see Leah Dickerman, ed., Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925: How a Radical Idea Changed Modern Art (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2012). 3 0. The other works reproduced in this issue were DR 629a, DR 630, DR 631, and DR 457. According to Imprimerie Union, Paris, this new series of Les Soirées de Paris (nos. 18–26/27) had a print run of one thousand copies. See Malcolm Gee, Dealers, Critics and Collectors of Modern Painting: Aspects of the Parisian Art Market Between 1910 and 1930 (New York: Garland, 1981), pp. 111–12. For an in-depth study of the November 1913 issue, see Alexandra Parigoris, “Les Constructions cubistes dans Les Soirées de Paris: Apollinaire, Picasso, et les clichés Kahnweiler,” Revue de l’art 82 (1988): 61–74. 3 1. [Maurice Testard?], “Bibliographie: Les Soirées de Paris,” L’Art décoratif (November 1913 supplement): 2. With thanks to Jeffrey Weiss for bringing this and the L’Occident reference (note 32, below) to my attention. See Weiss, The Popular Culture of Modern Art: Picasso, Duchamp, and Avant-Gardism (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1994), pp. xviii and 255n4. 3 2. François Fosca, “Conversation sur la peinture au Salon d’automne,” L’Occident (December 1913): 482–83. The relaunch of Les Soirées de Paris coincided with the opening of the Salon d’Automne, at the Grand Palais, on November 14–15, 1913. Copies of the journal were distributed to those attending the November 14 vernissage, the night before the grand opening, and it was much discussed. See Les Soirées de Paris (Paris: Galerie Knoedler, 1958), n.p. The Les Soirées de Paris image of Guitar, in which the constructed instrument is situated within a composed still life, was the only photograph of the work reproduced until 1950. At that time two of the 1912–13 studio photographs (figs. 8 and 9) were reproduced in Cahiers d’art (Christian Zervos, “Oeuvres et images inédites de la jeunesse de Picasso,” Cahiers d’art 25, no. 2 [1950]: 281–82).



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The Les Soirées de Paris photograph appeared as the primary entry for Guitar in the catalogue raisonné volumes authored by Christian Zervos (1942), Werner Spies (1971), and Pierre Daix (1979). After Guitar was reassembled in 1980, it was photographed and (for the first time, as a “solo” object) included in the revised edition of Spies with Christine Piot, Picasso: Das plastische Werk (Stuttgart: Hatje, 1983), cat. no. 27A. See References. 3 3. The information that follows is based on consultation of the holdings of the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, Fonds Guillaume Apollinaire, Collection Pierre-Marcel Adéma. I thank Jean-Paul Avice, Bibliothécaire adjoint, for the opportunity to consult these uncatalogued papers. 3 4. That these cancellations were motivated by the appearance of Picasso’s still lifes was first noted in an anonymous text (based on information provided by André Billy, former editor of the journal) in Les Soirées de Paris (Paris: Galerie Knoedler, 1958), n.p. The information entered in the notebook “Abonnements des ‘Soirées de Paris’” was maintained in alphabetical and chronological order, with the date of subscription, name, address, and the type of edition (if luxe) included. Entries were stamped “Payé Comptant” in purple ink, as appropriate, and cancelled subscriptions were crossed out with a horizontal line, usually in red pencil (the date of each cancellation is not noted). Out of the approximately 169 entries for paying subscribers, 33 were crossed out. The names of those who dropped their subscriptions are largely unknown to an art historian. These cancelled subscriptions might have been the result of the overall change in editorial direction and the increased prices asked, beginning in November 1913 with issue eighteen. In fact, Jastrebzoff and Apollinaire had discussed in advance the uncertainty of retaining the few original subscribers, given that the journal was to radically change direction after seventeen issues. See Jastrebzoff, letter to Apollinaire, [September 1913], in Laurence Campa and Peter Read, eds., Guillaume Apollinaire: Correspondence avec les artistes, 1903–1918 (Paris: Gallimard, 2009), pp. 554–55. 3 5. Other new subscribers in the three months immediately following the November 1913 relaunch of the journal included: Constantin Brancusi, Paul Cassirer, André Derain, Jacques Doucet, Alfred Flechtheim, Marie Laurencin, Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse, C. R. W. Nevinson, G. F. Reber, Sergei Shchukin, and Maurice de Vlaminck. Free or exchange copies of the journal, noted in a second notebook, circulated to critics, publishers, and artists such as Roger Allard, Carlo Carrà, Blaise Cendrars, Henri Focillon, André Gide, Maurice Raynal, André Salmon, Alfred Stieglitz, Émile Verhaeren, André Warnod, and Herwarth Walden.



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3 6. Picasso found the apartment in August and moved in sometime that autumn. See Judith Cousins and Hélène Seckel, “Chronology,” in Les Desmoiselles d’Avignon, Studies in Modern Art 3 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994), pp. 162–63. 3 7. For further discussion of the sheet metal Guitar, see Chapter 15 in this publication. 3 8. It appears that this term was introduced mainly by William Rubin, perhaps based on wording Picasso used in their private conversations in 1971–72. Rubin first used the term in his Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, Including Remainder-Interest and Promised Gifts (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1972), pp. 207–8. 3 9. For further discussion of this photograph, see Anne Umland, Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2011), pp. 17–19; and Anne Baldassari, Picasso photographe: 1901–1916 (Paris: Musée National Picasso, 1994), p. 64. 4 0. Picasso moved c. October 14–21, 1916, per Judith Cousins and Hélène Seckel, “Chronology,” Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Studies in Modern Art 3 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994), p. 171. See also documents Picasso filed with the police about his move to Montrouge (documents seized by the Germans and subsequently by the Russians, and only returned to France in 2000), in Olivier Picasso, Pierre Daix, and Armand Israël, Dossier de la préfecture de police, 1901–1940 (Paris: Éditions des catalogues raisonnés, 2003). 4 1. Gertrude Stein, Picasso (London: B. T. Batsford, 1938), p. 28. 4 2. André Breton, “80 carats . . . mais une ombre,” Combat (November 2, 1961): 2. Breton reflected: “I rediscover my youthful vision when I call to mind my first encounter with Picasso’s work, at second hand, through an issue of Apollinaire’s Soirées de Paris which included rather hazy reproductions of five of his latest still lifes (the date was 1913).” 4 3. See William Rubin, Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, Including Remainder-Interest and Promised Gifts (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1972), p. 207n1. Presumably this information was based on his conversations with the artist in 1971–72. Perhaps this recollection does not entirely preclude the possibility that some or all of the paper pieces were inadvertently “saved” by Picasso, a well-known pack rat, though they have never been identified in the holdings of the Musée Picasso, its archives, or the heirs’ collections. 4 4. William Rubin, Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, Including Remainder-Interest and Promised Gifts (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1972), p. 207n1. 4 5. See Provenance for the details of this gift, along with correspondence and documents related to the shipment and cataloguing of Guitar.



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4 6. See Conservation Notes. We must thank Edward Fry for his keen early documentation (photographs, measurements) of Guitar. See MoMA, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Museum Collection Files, 640.1973; and University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Edward F. Fry Papers, Ms. Coll 651, folder 911. After careful study of the 1912–13 photographs, there is still no satisfying explanation for the change from eight horizontal “frets” to the seven now visible on the work. 4 7. See Conservation Notes. No tacks were recorded as arriving in the shipment from Paris, the contents of which were noted in the April 1978 object examination worksheet. The dimensions and condition of the six components received were carefully recorded in this document. See MoMA, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Museum Collection Files, 640.1973. The front plane of Guitar is made of a thin manila paper, less sturdy than the paperboard used for much of the construction, and it bears traces of chalk, suggesting that it might have been part of a paper pattern used to translate Guitar into sheet metal. However, it retains holes that match the positions of tacks seen in the photographs, so at some point it certainly was tacked into place by the artist, even if it also served as a pattern. See Chapter 15 in this publication for more information on possible template pieces. 4 8. After the component pieces of Guitar were reassembled, the remainder, the “loose” tabletop, was not catalogued as a component related to it. The item was saved, carefully wrapped in tissue paper, in the flat files of MoMA’s conservation lab. Various curators and conservators knew of its existence over the years, but it seems the different generations and disciplines did not connect to address—or choose to pursue—its display possibilities. 4 9. Other works of art visible in the previously unpublished photograph include, from left: Violin, Glass, and Bottle (DR 571); Construction with Guitar Player (DR 578); Violin (DR 629b); Violin (Z XXVIII 192); Newspaper and Violin (DR 526); Head of a Girl (DR 590); and Portrait of a Woman, c. 1895, by Henri Rousseau. 5 0. A version of the sculpture portion of this exhibition, which was installed at the Petit Palais, Paris, later travelled to the Tate Gallery, London, and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. See Exhibitions. 5 1. Roland Penrose, letter to Monroe Wheeler, September 28, 1966. MoMA Archives, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Papers, 12.II.L. See also Anne Umland, Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2011), p. 39n79. Comparison of the photographs published in the 1966 Paris exhibition catalogue (pre-treatment) and the 1967 London and New York catalogues (post-treatment) makes clear the kind of damage Penrose was referring to in his letter. See Jean Leymarie,



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Hommage à Pablo Picasso (Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1966); Penrose, Picasso: Sculpture, Ceramics, Graphic Work (London: Arts Council, 1967); and Penrose, The Sculpture of Picasso (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1967). 5 2. Poggi’s studies culminated in “Picasso’s First Constructed Sculpture: A Tale of Two Guitars,” The Art Bulletin 94, no. 2 (June 2012): 274–97. See also Anne Umland, Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2011). For additional information see www.moma.org / interactives/exhibitions/2011/picassoguitars/. 5 3. Picasso, letter to Georges Braque, October 9, 1912 (Archives Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, reproduced in Isabelle Monod-Fontaine with E. A. Carmean, Braque: The Papiers Collés [Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1982], figs. 39–40). See note 12, above, and Anne Umland, Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2011), pp. 17–39.



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Guitar Paris, October–December 1912. Paperboard, paper, thread, string, twine, and coated wire, 25 ¾ × 13 × 7 ½" (65.1 × 33 × 19 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist, 640.1973. S 27A



Conservation Notes Guitar is constructed of eighteen distinct components, not counting the thread and string used to secure the elements together. Seven of these components—the guitar’s body, back panel, neck, sound hole, headstock, and second fret, plus a hidden support brace—are shapes cut from common, thin paperboard of the type used for box making and advertising signs [ 34]. Picasso likely began work with a few sheets of this material, which is composed of a core of poor-quality pulpy matter sandwiched between two lighter-colored finishing layers of a slightly higher quality smooth-surfaced paper. There are no pencil marks or any evidence of tracing or measuring, which suggests that the artist cut the components directly with scissors in hand. A few of them were bent or manipulated further into their final forms. For example, the guitar’s sound hole is constructed of a long, rectangular section of paperboard coiled into a tube and secured in that configuration with brown-paper tape and string. The paperboard rectangle forming the



34



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35



36



37



38



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instrument’s hemitubular neck may have been rolled around something like a pipe to create its curved contour. The guitar’s face was cut from a piece of thin, beige paper—the only element of the work to be made of this material. Unlike the other components, it has traces of white chalk visible at its extreme edges, which is believed to be evidence that its shape was traced in chalk from something else. Measurements of Guitar and the very similar 1914 sheet metal construction (see Chapter 15) reveal that Picasso almost certainly fabricated the 1914 work using a template based on the earlier, paperboard version [35]. The paper face may have been part of such a template and integrated into the paperboard guitar to replace a lost or damaged original component either in 1914, when Picasso made the sheet metal version, or sometime during the many subsequent years in which the work was in the possession of the artist. An item recently identified as a paper template for the back of the sheet metal work [36], corresponding in its dimensions to both works, provides further support for the existence of this set of templates. The paper face bears no trace of the multiple areas of staining visible in early photographs, further suggesting that it is almost certainly not the original component, although holes in it indicate that it was secured to the work with tacks at some time [ 37]. The slanted tabletop, added to Guitar as an element of a still life in 1913 [38], was cut from a brown cardboard box, and it retains two of the metal staples used in the fabrication of the box. The cardboard, of poorer quality than the paperboard used elsewhere, is uniform throughout, with no finishing layers. The frets of the guitar are made from two different materials. The top two frets are each composed of a short length of coarse twine, knotted at either end to keep it in place; from the second



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39



40



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of these hangs a folded piece of paperboard. The next two frets are each made of a short piece of finer brown string, also knotted at either end. A longer length of this same string, knotted at both ends, snakes down and across the neck to form the bottom three frets. The guitar hangs on the wall from a small, knotted loop of the same string. Three coated wires running between the top fret and the sound hole complete the material components of the work. In the early photographs, eight frets cross the guitar’s neck. Currently there are seven, with no physical evidence that another ever existed. This discrepancy remains unresolved. Guitar was disassembled, boxed, and stored for many years in the possession of the artist, then delivered to the Museum after his death, in 1973. The earliest Museum collection worksheet for the object, completed in 1978, indicates that it arrived at MoMA in six pieces: the body, support brace, and the back panel of the guitar joined together; the tabletop; the sound hole tube; the neck, presumably with some or all of the present pieces of string and twine; the paper face; and the folded paperboard fret [39, 40]. Only one of the coated wires was present, and the triangular headstock was missing. It is not entirely clear how the various components were originally attached to one another. Historical photographs and physical evidence suggest that the headstock, the paperboard fret, and the wire guitar strings were held in place by gravity, as they are at present. Existing pinholes and tacks visible in the early photographs indicate that other components were slightly less provisionally secured, though attached by impermanent means. In the pictures, one tack is visible head on, puncturing the guitar’s face, at right, and penetrating the paperboard behind; a second, upright



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tack is visible securing the paper tab where the guitar’s face and body meet, at left [41]. The guitar’s body was adhered to the back panel with glue and one sewn loop of brown string, visible in the upper right corner. The sound hole was attached to the guitar’s body with the pieces of brown string that wrap around it, and the multiple flanges cut into the bottom edge were glued to the paperboard beneath. The support brace (obscured by the guitar’s face) was secured to the guitar’s body by lengths of heavyweight thread sewn through holes. The work was reassembled by MoMA conservators in advance of the 1980 exhibition Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective [42], but the components and the assembly process were not documented. The guitar’s body, back panel, and support brace were preserved in their original configuration. A large crack along the proper left side of the guitar’s body, believed to be damage incurred while the components were in storage with the artist, was rectified somewhat, although the associated distortion still causes the guitar to torque a little overall. The guitar’s neck, sound hole, and face were permanently and irreversibly glued into their current positions. The two coated wires that were missing when the work was delivered to the Museum were replaced with the present substitutes, and it is possible that the two pieces of twine that cross the guitar’s neck were replaced as well. The cardboard tabletop was not displayed with the object in 1980 nor included in subsequent installations, until 2011 [43]. A facsimile of the lost headstock was fabricated from dark-brown cardboard in 1980 and exhibited with the work until 2011. The current headstock was fabricated before the 2011 exhibition Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 using a lighter-colored paperboard [ 44]. It is closer in



41



42



43



44



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tonality to the original as it appears in early photographs, and was made using dimensions determined by proportional comparison of features pictured in the photographs and features on the object. The entire work was cleaned of a heavy overall layer of surface grime in 2011, something that does not appear to have been done in the 1980 procedure. There are dark, aged residues on the surface of the guitar’s back, adjacent to its neck; their origin is unclear. —SG



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3.27



Guitar Paris, October–December 1912. Paperboard, paper, thread, string, twine, and coated wire, 25 ¾ × 13 × 7 ½" (65.1 × 33 × 19 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist, 640.1973. S 27A



Provenance 45



1912–1973 The artist [45, 46] 1 1973 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist 2 —BH



46



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Notes 1. Guitar is documented in Picasso’s studio at 242, boulevard Raspail, Paris, in a photograph likely taken in mid-December 1912, or perhaps in February 1913 (reproduced here). Sometime later in 1913 he developed a still life assemblage that incorporated Guitar, which was documented in a portrait during its installation in his studio at 5 bis, rue Schoelcher (also reproduced here). As Guitar has, to date, never been reported or photographed on view in any of Picasso’s later homes or studios, it seems plausible that in October 1916, when poets Guillaume Apollinaire (French, born Italy; 1880–1918) and Jean Cocteau (French, 1889–1963) helped the artist move to Montrouge, on the outskirts of Paris, Guitar was partially disassembled and packed away with related still life components in an Old England department store box (see Anne Umland, Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 [New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2011], pp. 31, 99). In 1959, art historian John Golding wrote, based on information he had received from collector Douglas Cooper (English, 1911–1984), that “Picasso claims still to own some 1912 paper sculptures” (Golding, Cubism: A History and an Analysis, 1907–1914 [New York: George Wittenborn, 1959], p. 125). In preparation for the 1966 Paris retrospective devoted to the artist, Hommage à Pablo Picasso, which was the first substantive public exhibition of his sculpture, Picasso chose to include Cubist reliefs “which he had formerly discarded as hopelessly damaged and now is putting together again” (Roland Penrose, letter to Monroe Wheeler, September 28, 1966, MoMA Archives, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Papers, 12.II.L). The cardboard Guitar was not included in that exhibition. The sheet metal iteration (DR 471) was, however, along with the artist’s cardboard Violin (DR 629b). Picasso’s determination to keep—or his reluctance to sell—his personal collection of sculptures is confirmed in the correspondence of his dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (German, 1884–1979), who wrote to Alfred H. Barr, Jr., the founding director of The Museum of Modern Art, when Barr inquired about the availability of these works: “I have tried myself many times to buy quite a few of these sculptures and he has never consented to sell them” (Kahnweiler, letter to Alfred H. Barr, Jr., October 31, 1967, MoMA Archives, AHB, 12.II.L). In 1971, catalogue raisonné author Werner Spies wrote: “Until a few years ago, Picasso’s sculptural work was one of the best-guarded secrets in twentieth-century art. Picasso has retained almost all of his own sculptures” (Spies, Sculpture by Picasso, with a Catalogue of Works, trans. J. Maxwell Brownjohn [New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1971], p. 9).



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2. Picasso promised that the cardboard Guitar would join the sheet metal version (DR 471) at MoMA after his death. We know that around 1971– 72 Picasso brought out the box containing Guitar and the cardboard tabletop (from the still life first and most famously published in Les Soirées de Paris in 1913) and at least briefly discussed the contents with William Rubin, director of the Department of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA, who later recalled: “That additional bottom element still exists, along with the other (disassembled) parts of the original maquette, though the ancillary paper forms which were added to make up the Still Life of 1913 have been lost” (Rubin, Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, Including Remainder-Interest and Promised Gifts [New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1972], p. 207). “When he went to get the cardboard maquette for the metal Guitar, it was in a box in the top of some closet in one of the rear rooms, and the box looked as if it hadn’t been opened since before the First World War. And there it was. He knew precisely where it was” (Rubin, “Visits with Picasso at Mougins. Interview by Milton Esterow,” ARTnews 72, no. 6 [Summer 1973]: 43). “When he gave me the cardboard Guitar for the Museum’s collection, it was in an ‘Old England’ box with a 1913 label that I doubt had been opened since the First World War. Picasso knew exactly where in his large villa this box was” (Rubin, in Lynn Zelevansky, ed., Picasso and Braque: A Symposium [New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992], p. 241). In the months following Picasso’s death, on April 8, 1973, Rubin traveled to Mougins to retrieve the promised gift from the artist’s widow, Jacqueline Picasso. He prepared to return with it on September 9, 1973, writing in the customs affidavit: “I hereby declare that the (slightly disassembled) relief, Guitar, executed by Pablo Picasso in 1912 in cardboard, string, and wire, is an original work of art. This first version of a somewhat different sheet metal sculpture already in the Museum Collection (gift of the artist) was given to The Museum of Modern Art by Monsieur and Madame Picasso and confided to me in Mougins France for delivery to the Museum” (Rubin, Declaration to United States Customs Service, John F. Kennedy Airport, New York, September 9, 1973, MoMA, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Museum Collection Files, 640.1973). He wrote to MoMA director Richard Oldenburg that “Mme. Picasso told the state-appointed auditor precisely that Picasso had said the cardboard version was to go to us as a gift” (Rubin, letter to Richard [Oldenburg], n.d., MoMA, Department of Registrar, 640.1973). Pending



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release by French customs officials, the artwork was deposited with The Chase Manhattan Deposit Company, 41 rue Cambon, Paris, on September 10, 1973. The work ultimately was released and transferred to MoMA’s premises on or around October 21, 1975, arriving in six pieces (see Conservation Notes). It officially entered the Museum’s Study Collection on October 18, 1977 (TR4430). Guitar remained in pieces until February 1980, when it was assembled by MoMA conservators, and it was subsequently accepted into the permanent collection on December 9, 1980 (640.1973). For additional information, see Anne Umland, Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2011). In 2014, the cardboard tabletop (640.1973.MI) was catalogued as an optional component to be installed with Guitar. Documentation of the acquisition is on file with MoMA, Department of Registrar and Department of Painting and Sculpture, 640.1973.



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Guitar Paris, October–December 1912. Paperboard, paper, thread, string, twine, and coated wire, 25 ¾ × 13 × 7 ½" (65.1 × 33 × 19 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist, 640.1973. S 27A



Selected Exhibitions Note: Guitar was not publicly exhibited before 1980. Since that year it has been exhibited in two forms: as a solo object with no accompanying still life elements; and, in 2011, in the two-part still life with Guitar. 1980 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. The Painting and Sculpture Collection: A New Perspective. February 6–March 26 (No catalogue) 47



New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective. May 22–September 16. Cat. p. 156 [ 47] 1983 Berlin, Nationalgalerie Berlin. Picasso: Das plastische Werk. October 7– November 27. Cat. no. 27A. Tour venue: Kunsthalle Düsseldorf. December 11, 1983–January 29, 1984 1984 Basel, Galerie Beyeler. Skulptur im 20. Jahrhundert. June 2–September 30. Cat. no. 166 1988 New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Collage, Assemblage, and the Found Object in 20th-Century Art. March 29–May 22. Checklist no. 114



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48



49



50



51



1989 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. September 24, 1989–January 16, 1990. Cat. p. 251. Tour venue: Kunstmuseum Basel. February 22–June 4, 1990 [ 48] 1992 Basel, Kunstmuseum Basel. Transform: BildObjektSkulptur im 20. Jahrhundert. June 14–September 27. Cat. no. 29 1993 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Selections from the Permanent Collection: Painting and Sculpture. March 13–July 6, 1993. Checklist p. 10 [49] 1999 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. ModernStarts: Things. November 21, 1999–March 14, 2000. Checklist p. 16 [ 50] 2000 Paris, Centre Pompidou. Picasso sculpteur. June 8–September 25. Cat. no. 27A



52



53



2006 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Artist’s Choice: Herzog & de Meuron. Perception Restrained. June 21–September 25. Checklist p. 16 [ 51] 2008 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Pipe, Glass, Bottle of Rum: The Art of Appropriation. July 30–November 10. Checklist p. 18 [ 52] New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Artist’s Choice + Vik Muniz = Rebus. December 11, 2008–February 23, 2009. Exh. pamphlet no. 48 [ 53]



54



55



2010 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century. November 16, 2010–February 7, 2011. Cat. p. 222 [54] 2011 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. February 13–June 6. Cat. no. 80 [ 55, 56]



56



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3.33



Guitar Paris, October–December 1912. Paperboard, paper, thread, string, twine, and coated wire, 25 ¾ × 13 × 7 ½" (65.1 × 33 × 19 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist, 640.1973. S 27A



Selected References Note: This list is complicated by the evolving contexts in which Picasso installed Guitar and the frequency with which different moments in the object’s history are discussed simultaneously or even conflated in the literature. In addition, the work is occasionally confused with the very similar sheet metal construction of 1914 (DR 471). Here, the particular iteration of Guitar reproduced in each of the various publications is indicated by the system outlined below. Where the work is discussed without an accompanying reproduction, the reference is identified by the same system, wherever possible. In instances where it cannot be judged precisely which iteration is referred to, the emphasis of the reference may be noted. The image most often reproduced in the last hundred years is that of the still life with Guitar photographed for Galerie Kahnweiler (III, below) and first published in Les Soirées de Paris, no. 18 (November 15, 1913). It was the only image of the work in circulation from 1913 until 1950. I = Guitar II = Informal, temporary studio installations of Guitar surrounded by drawings and papiers collés photographed at 242, boulevard Raspail, Paris, winter 1912–13. Four such photographs are known. III = Guitar as installed in a still life and photographed by Delétang for Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris, autumn 1913 IV = Still life with Guitar, including MoMA 640.1973.MI, the cardboard tabletop



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1913 Apollinaire, Guillaume. “Die moderne Malerei.” Der Sturm, nos. 148/149 (February 20). Ref. p. 272 (probably I or II, general reference to “relief pictures made of cardboard”) 57



Apollinaire, Guillaume, and Jean Cérusse, eds. Les Soirées de Paris, no. 18 (November 15). Repr. p. 13 (III) [ 57] Fosca, François. “Conversation sur la peinture au Salon d’automne,” L’Occident (December). Ref. pp. 482–83 (III) [Testard?, Maurice.] “Bibliographie: Les Soirées de Paris,” L’Art décoratif (November supplement). Ref. p. 2 (III) 1914 Anon. “The Grafton Group at the Alpine Club Gallery.” The Athenaeum, no. 4498 (January 10). Ref. p. 70 (probably III) Lewis, Wyndham. “Relativism and Picasso’s Latest Work.” Blast 1 (June 20). Ref. p. 139 (probably III) Tugendkhol’d, Iakov. “Frantsuzskoe sobranie S. I. Shchukina.” Apollon, nos. 1–2 (January–February). Ref. p. 6 (probably III) 1917 Aksenov, Ivan. Pikasso i okrestnosti. Moscow: Tsentrifuga. Ref. p. 60 (general reference to works like III) 1923 Cocteau, Jean. Picasso. Paris: Librarie Stock. Repr. n.p. (III) 1930 Aragon, Louis. La Peinture au défi. Paris: José Corti. Ref. p. 22 (general reference to cardboard constructions) 1932 Hugnet, Georges. “L’Esprit Dada dans la peinture: III—Cologne et Hanovre.” Cahiers d’art 7, nos. 1–2. Ref. p. 358 (general reference to “sculptures of folded and unfolded paper”) ———. “Picasso ou la peinture au XXe siècle.” Cahiers d’art 7, nos. 3–5. Ref. p. 121 (general reference to paper sculptures) Picasso, Pablo, letter to Georges Braque, Paris, October 9, 1912. In Christian Zervos, “Georges Braque et le développement du cubisme,” Cahiers d’art 7, nos. 1–2. Ref. p. 23 (general reference to “papery procedures,” probably I) 1933 Breton, André. “Picasso dans son élément.” Minotaure 1 (June). Ref. p. 14 (probably III)



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Stein, Gertrude. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. New York: Harcourt, Brace. Ref. pp. 135, 174 (general reference to “constructions in paper, in tin”) 1936 Cahun, Claude. “Prenez-garde aux objets doméstiques.” Cahiers d’art 11, nos. 1–2. Repr. p. 46 (III) 1938 Stein, Gertrude. Picasso. London: B. T. Batsford. Ref. p. 28 (general reference to “objects made of paper and zinc and tin”) 1942 Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917. Vol. II (2). Paris: Cahiers d’art. Ref. p. LX. Cat. no. 577. Pl. 267 (III) 1944 Eluard, Paul. À Pablo Picasso. Paris: Trois Collines. Repr. p. 86 (III, caption: “tôle”) 1948 Kahnweiler, Daniel-Henry. “Negro Art and Cubism.” Horizon 18, no. 42 (October). Ref. p. 419. Repr. n.p. (III, caption: “sheet-iron, paper, and wire relief”) 1949 Kahnweiler, Daniel-Henry. The Sculptures of Picasso. London: Rodney Phillips. Ref. n.p. Pl. 10 (III) 1950 Zervos, Christian. “Oeuvres et images inédites de la jeunesse de Picasso.” Cahiers d’art 25, no. 2. Repr. pp. 281, 282 (II) 1954 Sabartès, Jaime. Picasso: Documents iconographiques. Trans. Félia Leal and Alfred Rosset. Geneva: Pierre Cailler. Pl. 191 (II) 1959 Golding, John. Cubism: A History and an Analysis, 1907–1914. New York: George Wittenborn. Ref. pp. 125–26. Pl. 19A (III) 1961 Breton, André. “80 carats . . . mais une ombre.” Combat, November 2. Ref. p. 2 (III) 1967 Penrose, Roland. Picasso: Sculpture, Ceramics, Graphic Work. London: Arts Council. Ref. pp. 10, 12, 31 (III) (Also published as The Sculpture of Picasso. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1967)



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1968 Wesher, Herta. Collage. Trans. Robert E. Wolf. New York: Harry N. Abrams. Ref. p. 25. Pl. 12 (III) 1970 Cooper, Douglas. The Cubist Epoch. London: Phaidon. Ref. pp. 234–36 (general reference to “guitars made of cardboard and string”) Tucker, William. “Four Sculptors, Part II: Picasso Cubist Constructions.” Studio International 179, no. 922 (May). Ref. pp. 201–5 (general discussion of Cubist constructions) 1971 Spies, Werner. “La Guitare anthropomorphe.” Revue de l’art 12 (1971). Ref. pp. 91–92 (general discussion of Cubist reliefs) ———. Sculpture by Picasso, with a Catalogue of Works. Trans. J. Maxwell Brownjohn. New York: Harry N. Abrams. Ref. pp. 45–47. Repr. cat. no. 48 (III) 1972 Rubin, William S. Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, Including Remainder-Interest and Promised Gifts. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 207–8. Figs. 51 (II), 52 (III) 1973 Bowness, Alan. “Picasso’s Sculpture.” In Roland Penrose and John Golding, eds. Picasso 1881–1973. London: Paul Elek. Ref. p. 131 (III) Daix, Pierre. “Des Bouleversements chronologiques dans la révolution des papiers collés (1912–1914).” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 82, no. 1257 (October). Ref. pp. 219–26. Fig. 4 (II, caption: “Photo de l’atelier du Bd Raspail où la Guitare en tôle est entourée de papiers collés . . .”) Rubin, William S. “Visits with Picasso at Mougins. Interview by Milton Esterow.” ARTnews 72, no. 6 (Summer). Ref. p. 43 (I) 1976 Johnson, Ronald. The Early Sculpture of Picasso, 1901–1914. PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley. New York: Garland. Ref. pp. 116–27. Figs. 90 (III), 96 (II) 1978 González, Julio. “Picasso sculpteur, Picasso et les cathédrales” (c. 1932). In Josephine Withers, Julio González: Sculpture in Iron. New York: New York University Press. Ref. pp. 133, 139 (general reference to little cardboard boxes combined with string)



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1979 Daix, Pierre, and Joan Rosselet. Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. Trans. Dorothy S. Blair. London: Thames & Hudson. Ref. pp. 279, 358. Repr. cat. no. 633 (III) and p. 358 (II) 1980 Fry, Edward F. Review of Picasso: The Cubist Years 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, by Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet. Art Journal 41, no. 1 (Spring). Ref. pp. 95, 99n23, 99n25 (I, III) Rubin, William S. Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 150–51. Repr. pp. 151 (II), 156 (I) 1983 Cooper, Douglas, and Gary Tinterow. The Essential Cubism, 1907–1920: Braque, Picasso & Their Friends. London: Tate Gallery. Ref. p. 362 (I) Spies, Werner, with Christine Piot. Picasso: Das plastische Werk. Stuttgart: Hatje. Ref. pp. 56–58. Repr. cat. nos. 27A (I), 48 (III) 1988 Fry, Edward. “Picasso, Cubism, and Reflexivity.” Art Journal 47, no. 4 (Winter). Ref. pp. 301, 305n24. Figs. 3 (III), 8 (II) Parigoris, Alexandra. “Les Constructions cubistes dans les ‘Soirées de Paris.’ Apollinaire, Picasso, et les clichés Kahnweiler.” Revue de l’art 82. Ref. pp. 61–74. Fig. 2 (III) 1989 Rubin, William S. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 30–36. Repr. pp. 32 (I), 34–36 (II), 251 (I), 279 (III) 1990 Bois, Yve-Alain. “Kahnweiler’s Lesson.” In Painting as Model. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Ref. pp. 69–97. Fig. 12 (I). (Note: The original publication of this text, in Representations, no. 18 [Spring 1987], was accompanied by a photograph of the sheet metal Guitar.) Dabrowski, Magdalena. “The Russian Contribution to Modernism: ‘Construction’ as Realization of Innovative Aesthetic Concepts of the Russian Avant-Garde.” PhD diss., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Ref. pp. 47–50. Figs. 22 (II), 25 (III) Palau i Fabre, Josep. Picasso: Cubism (1907–1917). Trans. Susan Branyas, Richard-Lewis Rees, and Patrick Zabalbeascoa. New York: Rizzoli. Ref. pp. 240–41. Figs. 668 (I), 969 (III)



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1992 Poggi, Christine. In Defiance of Painting: Cubism, Futurism, and the Invention of Collage. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. Ref. pp. 39–57, 70. Figs. 5 (I), 54 (III) Waldman, Diane. Collage, Assemblage, and the Found Object. New York: Harry N. Abrams. Ref. p. 25. Fig. 27 (I) Zelevansky, Lynn, ed. Picasso and Braque: A Symposium. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 101, 103, 125, 171–90, 241, 279. Repr. pp. 103 (III), 126 (II), 172 (I), 192 (II) 1993 Bell, Vanessa. Letter to Duncan Grant, Wednesday, [early 1914]. In Regina Marler, ed. Selected Letters of Vanessa Bell. New York: Pantheon Books. Ref. p. 160 (general reference to paper constructions) Karmel, Pepe. “Picasso’s Laboratory: The Role of His Drawings in the Development of Cubism, 1910–14.” PhD diss., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Ref. p. 257. Figs. 153 (I), 181 (III) 1994 Baldassari, Anne. Picasso photographe: 1901–1916. Paris: Musée National Picasso. Ref. pp. 213–15. Figs. 158, 159, 160 (II) Cowling, Elizabeth, and John Golding, eds. Picasso: Sculptor/Painter. London: Tate Gallery. Ref. pp. 21–22, 258 (I, III) Karmel, Pepe. “Beyond the ‘Guitar’: Painting, Drawing, and Construction, 1912–14.” In Elizabeth Cowling and John Golding, eds. Picasso: Sculptor/Painter. London: Tate Gallery. Ref. pp. 189–96. Fig. 24 (II) 1995 Cowling, Elizabeth. “The Fine Art of Cutting: Picasso’s Papiers Collés and Constructions in 1912–14.” Apollo 142, no. 405 (November). Ref. p. 10. Fig. 1 (I) Daix, Pierre. Dictionnaire Picasso. Paris: Robert Laffont. Ref. pp. 430–31 (I, II, III) 1996 Richardson, John, with Marilyn McCully. A Life of Picasso: The Cubist Rebel, 1907–1916. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Ref. pp. 252–56, 287. Repr. p. 253 (II) 1999 Gough, Maria. “Faktura: The Making of the Russian Avant-Garde.” RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, no. 36 (Autumn). Ref. pp. 43–45. Fig. 2 (III)



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2000 Spies, Werner, with Christine Piot. Picasso: The Sculptures. Ostfildern-Ruit, Germany: Hatje Cantz. Ref. pp. 67–69, 76–83. Repr. cat. nos. 27A (I) and 48 (III) and p. 77 (II) 2001 Baldassari, Anne. Picasso: Working on Paper. Trans. George Collins. London: Merrell. Ref. pp. 63–71. Figs. 57–59 (III) Staller, Natasha. A Sum of Destructions: Picasso’s Cultures & The Creation of Cubism. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. Ref. p. 73. Fig. 78 (I) 2002 Cowling, Elizabeth. Picasso: Style and Meaning. London: Phaidon. Ref. pp. 238–40, 256–58. Figs. 205 (I), 220 (III) 2003 Karmel, Pepe. Picasso and the Invention of Cubism. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. Ref. pp. 165–74. Figs. 228 (III), 229 (I), 242 (I) 2004 Taylor, Brandon. Collage: The Making of Modern Art. London: Thames & Hudson. Ref. pp. 25–29. Fig. 19 (II) 2005 Green, Christopher. Picasso: Architecture and Vertigo. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. Ref. p. 154. Fig. 3 (II) 2007 Rose, Bernice. Picasso, Braque, and Early Film in Cubism. New York: PaceWildenstein. Ref. pp. 110–12. Repr. p. 108 (II), 109 (I) 2009 Cowling, Elizabeth. Picasso’s Late Sculpture: Woman. The Collection in Context. Málaga: Museo Picasso. Ref. pp. 49–55. Fig. 21 (II) 2010 Butler, Cornelia, and Catherine de Zegher. On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 26–27. Pl. 15 and frontispiece (II) Mileaf, Janine. Please Touch: Dada and Surrealist Objects after the Readymade. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England. Ref. pp. 32–33. Fig. 1.4 (III) 2011 Umland, Anne. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 17–34. Repr. cat. nos. 4–6 (I), 11 (III), 79 (II), and 80 (IV) and fig. 1 (modified III)



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2012 Green, Christopher. “The Picassos of British Criticism c. 1910–1945.” In James Beechey and Chris Stephens, eds. Picasso & Modern British Art. London: Tate. Ref. p. 20. Fig. 7 (II) Poggi, Christine. “Picasso’s First Constructed Sculpture: A Tale of Two Guitars.” The Art Bulletin 96, no. 2 (June). Ref. pp. 274–98. Figs. 1 (I), 4 (II), 5 (II), 6 (III), 7 (II) Rubin, William S. A Curator’s Quest: Building the Collection of Painting and Sculpture of The Museum of Modern Art, 1967–1988. Ed. Phyllis Hattis. New York: Overlook Duckworth. Ref. p. 99. Pl. 41 (I)



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Guitar and Sheet Music Paris, autumn–winter 1912. Cut-and-pasted wallpaper, paper, sheet music, pastel, and charcoal on paper, 22 13⁄16 × 24 ½" (57.9 × 62.2 cm). Private collection, Germany. Z II (2) 372, DR 506



Recto



Raking Light



UV Light



Infrared Light



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Guitar and Sheet Music Paris, autumn–winter 1912. Cut-and-pasted wallpaper, paper, sheet music, pastel, and charcoal on paper, 22 13⁄16 × 24 ½" (57.9 × 62.2 cm). Private collection, Germany. Z II (2) 372, DR 506



Recognition that Guitar and Sheet Music was a pivotal work came quickly, but in Russia rather than in France. It was among the first of Picasso’s papiers collés to be published anywhere in the world when it was reproduced in 1917 in Ivan Aksenov’s pioneering monograph Pikasso i okrestnosti (Picasso and environs) [ 1].1 And in 1928, Kazimir Malevich, who had himself experimented with collage in 1914, claimed that it marked the beginning of the revolutionary constructive phase of Cubism. 2 What Malevich cannot have known is that Guitar and Sheet Music was literally transitional, in that it was created in two distinct phases. Using a combination of pastel and charcoal and a standard sheet of Ingres paper, Picasso began by drawing a guitar lying on a table.3 At that stage, Guitar and Sheet Music was very close in technique to Bottle of Bass and Guitar [2], with the same sunny palette and imitation wood grain and a stencilled word; in composition it was essentially the mirror image of Guitar on a Table [3], an oil painting incorporating grit and ash. Bottle of Bass and



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Guitar and Guitar on a Table were probably executed, and Guitar and Sheet Music begun, soon after Picasso’s return to Paris from Sorgues (where he had rented a home for the summer), in late September 1912. 4 The second phase of work on Guitar and Sheet Music was tantamount to a ruthless makeover. Having extended the composition at the top by attaching a broad strip of rose-sprig wallpaper, Picasso proceeded to paste here and there over the existing drawing eighteen paper cutouts, each a different size and shape.5 The catalysts for these drastic revisions were Georges Braque’s first papiers collés, created in Sorgues in early September 1912. 6 But although Guitar and Sheet Music was probably Picasso’s first experiment with the new technique, the evidence suggests that its transformation by collage occurred in mid-to-late November 1912 at the earliest. 7 Reacting in typically competitive spirit to Braque’s challenge, Picasso chose a design entirely different in style from the imitation oak panelling Braque had used in his first papiers collés [4]. And whereas Braque sought tonal and graphic harmony when relating the pieces of faux bois to his charcoal drawing, Picasso grandstanded the alien status of the drab, machineprinted wallpaper, which is startlingly out of tune with the richly colored, sketchily handled pastel used to depict the guitar. Although the source of this wallpaper remains unidentified, it is so similar to dozens of papers marketed every year from the mid-1850s to around 1890 by the firm of Isidore Leroy, pioneer and king of machineprinted wallpapers in France, that we can be sure it was French and also outdated when Picasso got his hands on some.8 In a photograph of the artist in his studio in Paris, probably taken in mid-December 1912 [ 5], a piece of this very wallpaper can be seen resting on top of a



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pile of drawings.9 With torn, curling edges, it appears to be glued on lining paper and was very likely stripped off a wall, whereas the cuttings Picasso incorporated into his collages are unlined and probably came from the remnants of a roll.10 Printed in a single color, white, on an ordinary light-brown paper, this wallpaper was, in any case, of the very cheapest type available. Harking back to the primitive domino papers from which wallpaper proper is descended, these diaper patterns with a single, simplified motif in the center of a diamond grid were perfectly adapted to mass production with the most basic machinery. And since sprigs of flowers were universally deemed feminine, Picasso’s wallpaper would have been designed primarily for the bedrooms of maids, laundresses, seamstresses, and the like—working-class women who couldn’t afford anything more colorful, elaborate, or fashionable. 11 In pasting this paper over his original drawing, Picasso instantly feminized the environment of his distinctly feminized guitar, the swelling curves of which call to mind plump breasts, hips, and shoulders. And the way he applied the wallpaper may have been intended to characterize that environment precisely. Thus the horizontal strip added to the top, with the pattern lying at a different angle from all the scraps abutting it, might be read as the low, sloping ceiling of the typical attic bedroom, the patchwork of white shapes denoting the tablecloth as tumbled bedsheets, and the guitar with its broken contours, three sound-hole fragments, and three sets of strings [6] as a girl lounging on a bed—the sort of girl who smooched with her lover to the strains of songs like “Trilles et baisers,” which is represented in the form of the small cutout of sheet music pasted below the word VALSE.12 An oblique, downmarket take on the



6



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intimiste interiors of Pierre Bonnard [7] is perhaps a fair description.13 By autumn 1912, Picasso’s days of poverty were past, but Guitar and Sheet Music looks fondly back to the vie bohème of the Bateau Lavoir, the ramshackle building in Montmartre where Picasso lived and worked from 1904 to 1909, and where, according to DanielHenry Kahnweiler, “The wallpaper hung in tatters from the unplastered walls.”14 Not that nostalgia ruled out irony, for the legible Ingres watermarks—in full at the lower left corner and as a provocative, pasted-on fragment, “Ing,” at the center of the bottom edge [8]—stand in for the artist’s signature, wryly comparing the girl/guitar to an odalisque by one of Picasso’s favorite painters, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.15 But Guitar and Sheet Music also encodes an offbeat homage to Cézanne, for the floral wallpaper is a poor relative of the paper printed with a bold lozenge design in the background of several still lifes Cézanne painted in Paris in 1880–82 [9]. Furthermore, the way Picasso has chopped and arranged his paper to create mayhem with the pattern parodies the convolutions of the draped and rumpled tapestries of the elder artist’s great still lifes of the 1890s, and the jigsaw of white geometric shapes dropping below the guitar is Picasso’s answer to Cézanne’s cascading linen tablecloths. 16 Echoes of Guitar and Sheet Music reverberate in subsequent paintings by Picasso—from the occasional imitation of the same floral wallpaper in the winter of 1912–13 [10] 17 to the explosion of decorative pattern in the tabletop still lifes of the 1920s [ 11]. But its pictorial qualities should not blind us to its kinship with his first Cubist constructions, for by renouncing skilled craftsmanship in the seemingly slipshod manner in which he cut, patched, and pasted the paper fragments,



7



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Picasso highlighted the work of scissors cutting and hands positioning them, and where he left the original drawing untouched, the charcoal lines seem to map out potential folds [12]. Individually, the cutouts parade their flatness, but, viewed as a whole, Guitar and Sheet Music seems to push outward, as if aspiring to be a wall relief. 18 The crackling tension between the opposed forces at its core is redolent of the watershed moment when construction was poised to dominate Picasso’s work. —Elizabeth Cowling



Notes 1. Ivan Aksenov, Pikasso i okrestnosti (Moscow: Tsentrifuga, 1917), p. 24. See References. The earliest known published reproduction of a papier collé by Picasso was MoMA’s Head of a Man with a Hat of December 1912 (DR 534) in Max Raphael, Von Monet zu Picasso: Grundzüge einer Ästhetik und Entwicklung der modernen Malerei (Munich: Dephin-Verlag, 1913), pl. 30. See Chapter 8, References, in this publication. 2. Kazimir Malevich, “New Art and Imitative Art (Picasso, Braque)” (1928), in Troels Andersen, ed., Essays on Art 1928–1933, vol. 2, trans. Xenia Flowacki-Prus and Arnold McMillin (Copenhagen: Borgen, 1968), pp. 45–47. 3. For more information about Picasso’s materials and methods, see Conservation Notes. 4. For a summary of the sequence of events, see William Rubin, Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1989), p. 40. For a discussion of Guitar on a Table, see Chapter 2 in this publication. 5. These are as follows: ten pieces of rose-sprig wallpaper, one piece of sheet music, five pieces of Ingres paper, one piece of brown kraft paper, and one piece of gray-brown industrial-grade paper.



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6. For Braque’s first papiers collés, see, among others, Isabelle MonodFontaine with E. A. Carmean, Braque: The Papiers Collés (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1982); and Christine Poggi, In Defiance of Painting: Cubism, Futurism, and the Invention of Collage (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992), pp. 94–105. 7. Three of the four other papiers collés in which Picasso used this same wallpaper also incorporate fragments from the November 18, 1912, edition of the newspaper Le Journal (DR 513, DR 517, and DR 523), and the artist’s intense, prolific way of working makes a short, concentrated burst of activity much the most likely scenario. With one exception (Guitar on a Table [DR 508]), Picasso did not use wallpaper again until he was staying in Céret the following spring. 8. See Virginie Lacour et al., La Manufacture de papiers peints Leroy (Paris: Somogy, 2009). The firm’s archive of samples is in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Designs similar to Picasso’s wallpaper include Leroy 650, 1856–57, and Leroy 2922, 1868–69. 9. The left side of Bottle of Bass and Guitar (see fig. 2) can be glimpsed near the top of this pile of drawings. 1 0. A letter from Duncan Grant to Clive Bell, written in Paris on February 26, 1914, confirms Picasso’s preference for outdated patterns and throws light on his measures for obtaining them. Grant describes being taken to Picasso’s studio by Gertrude Stein, and continues: “I promised to take him a roll of old wallpapers which I have found in a cupboard of my hotel & which excited him very much as he makes use of them frequently & finds [them] very difficult to get. He sometimes tears small pieces off the wall, he said.” Tate, London, Charleston Trust Papers, DGCB 1 8010.2.403. 1 1. See Béatrice Cornet and Martine Boussoussou, “1830–1870: De la Monarchie de Juillet au désastre de Sedan, essor et apogée,” in Le Bon Motif: Papiers peints et tissus; Les Trésors de la bibliothèque Forney (Paris: Paris bibliothèques, 2004), p. 61, where papers of this exact type are associated with the humblest homes. The ubiquity of flowery wallpaper in women’s bedrooms and boudoirs is deplored in Charles Blanc’s Grammaire des arts décoratifs: Décoration intérieure de la maison (Paris: Librairie Renouard, 1885), p. 86. 1 2. Two song sheets were cannibalized for six of Picasso’s earliest papiers collés depicting guitars or violins. Cuttings from “Trilles et baisers,” with words by Ludovic Fortolis and music by Désiré Dihau (published 1905), were used in DR 518, DR 519, and DR 521, as well as Guitar and Sheet Music; cuttings from “Sonnet,” a love poem by Pierre Ronsard of around 1555 set to music by Marcel Legay (published 1892), appear in DR 513, DR 519, and DR 520. See Lewis Kachur, “Themes in Picasso’s Cubism, 1907–1918” (PhD diss., Columbia University, 1988),



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pp. 260–63. Having completed this family of works, Picasso stopped using sheet music altogether. The presence of the rose-sprig wallpaper in three of them (Guitar and Sheet Music, DR 513, and DR 519) and a snippet from Le Journal for November 18, 1912, in one of them (DR 513) indicates that they too belong to mid-to-late November 1912 at the earliest (see note 7, above). 1 3. Gertrude and Leo Stein purchased Pierre Bonnard’s Siesta in autumn 1905. It hung in their rue de Fleurus atelier next to Picasso’s Girl with a Basket of Flowers (1905; Z I 256) until January 1907, when they sold it to the dealer Ambroise Vollard. See Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow, eds., The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde (San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2011), pp. 362, 395. 1 4. Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler with Francis Crémieux, My Galleries and Painters (London: Thames & Hudson, 1971), p. 38. “Picasso always lived in a state of nostalgia for rue Ravignan” (p. 90). 1 5. The Ingres watermark is used like a signature in several contempo­ raneous works on paper, including MoMA’s Guitar. For more on Guitar, see Chapter 6 in this publication. 1 6. In, for instance, Cézanne’s Apples and Oranges, c. 1899 (Musée d’Orsay, Paris, inv. RF 1972). 1 7. Picasso also imitated the wallpaper in the painting Violin, Bottle and Glass (DR 569). 1 8. For the classic account of these spatial effects, see Clement Greenberg, “Collage” (1959), in Art and Culture: Critical Essays (London: Thames & Hudson, 1973), pp. 75–83.



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Guitar and Sheet Music Paris, autumn–winter 1912. Cut-and-pasted wallpaper, paper, sheet music, pastel, and charcoal on paper, 22 13⁄16 × 24 ½" (57.9 × 62.2 cm). Private collection, Germany. Z II (2) 372, DR 506



Conservation Notes The primary support for this complex work is a standardsize sheet of laid paper measuring 18 ¼ by 24 ½ inches (46.4 by 62.2 cm). The sheet bears the watermark “Ingres” in the lower left corner. Ingres papers were made by numerous commercial papermakers, and the designation typically indicates a high-quality laid artist’s paper. The paper is additionally classified with the countermark “L’Ecolier C. F.,” partially visible in the lower right corner, which identifies it as a student-grade artist’s paper made for the French paper distributor Catel et Farcy. These marks are visible when the work is viewed under raking light [ 13]. Artists favored the textured laid surface for use with friable mediums, including the charcoal and pastel employed here. In this work, Picasso used pastel sticks to draw and apply color, leaving the individual strokes visible and not exploiting, for the most part, the potential for the colors to be blended and gradated much like paint. The text “VALSE” appears stenciled, with some additions by hand.



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Picasso extended the primary support by gluing a strip, 4 ½ inches (11.4 cm) high, of relief-printed lightbrown wallpaper along the verso of the top edge. Ten additional pieces were cut with scissors from this same wallpaper and glued onto the surface of the drawing, including one piece along the right edge that retains the blank selvage margin normally covered or trimmed when wallpaper is installed. Additional collage elements include a fragment cut from a piece of sheet music; five pieces clustered near the bottom of the work that appear to have been cut from a second piece of Ingres paper (based on the partial watermark “Ing” on one of the fragments); one brown kraft-paper semicircle; and one piece cut from another industrial-grade paper, this one gray-brown, at middle left. In some cases these collage elements clearly overlap and partially conceal patches of color pastel beneath. In other instances the collage elements have been cut to fit within or around schematized charcoal lines, which remain visible. The edges of several collaged pieces appear torn rather than cut. The collage has been mounted overall onto a piece of paperboard. A photograph published in 1930 [ 14] recorded gentle distortions within the wallpaper strip at top, suggesting that the work possessed a subtle dimensionality at some point prior to this treatment. The secondary support prevents direct access to the verso, but infrared imaging reveals Picasso’s signature in the top left quadrant [15]. —SG



14



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Guitar and Sheet Music Paris, autumn–winter 1912. Cut-and-pasted wallpaper, paper, sheet music, pastel, and charcoal on paper, 22 13⁄16 × 24 ½" (57.9 × 62.2 cm). Private collection, Germany. Z II (2) 372, DR 506



Provenance 16



BY c. MARCH 10, 1913 Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris. Purchased from the artist 1 BY 1929 Alfred Flechtheim, Berlin [16] 2 BY 1930–[AT LEAST 1955] Ida Bienert, Dresden and later Munich 3 BY 1962 Fritz and Peter Nathan, Zurich 4 [c. MID-1960s] E. V. Thaw & Co., New York 5 [BY 1968] Pedro Vallenilla Echeverría, Caracas 6 [ c . E A R LY 1 9 8 0 s ] E. V. Thaw & Co., New York 7 BY 1989 Private collection. Purchased from the above 8 AFTER 1996 Private collection, Germany. By descent from the above 9 —BH



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4.11



Notes 1. Galerie Kahnweiler was founded in 1907 by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (German, 1884–1979) at 28, rue Vignon, Paris. Picasso entered into an exclusive three-year contract, beginning December 2, 1912, to sell works at fixed prices to Kahnweiler. This arrangement is outlined in the artist’s letter, dated December 18, 1912, to his dealer (original letter on deposit with Galerie Louise Leiris Archives, Paris, and reproduced in Maurice Jardot, Picasso: Peintures 1900–1955 [Paris: Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 1955], pp. 50–52). We can conclude that this work went directly from the artist’s studio to Galerie Kahnweiler per the terms of their contract. The Kahnweiler papers are held by Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, and are not accessible at this time. According to Pepe Karmel’s unpublished 1991 transcriptions of Galerie Kahnweiler’s photo files and inventory book, this work can be identified as the one pictured in photo no. 267, “Guitare & valse, Paris, hiver 1912.” (This same photo file number is listed for Guitar and Sheet Music in Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair [London: Thames & Hudson, 1979], cat. no. 506, pl. XXXIII.) Photo no. 267 corresponds to stockbook entry inv. 1254, recorded therein as an untitled “Dessin (couleurs),” which was the generic entry Kahnweiler made for many Cubist papiers collés. Inv. 1254 was among a large cache of 1912–13 papiers collés and canvases delivered to Galerie Kahnweiler shortly before Picasso’s departure for Céret in early March 1913 (see Judith Cousins, “Documentary Chronology,” in William Rubin, Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism [New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1989], p. 414). Kahnweiler is listed in the provenance information for this work in the following: Will Grohmann, Die Sammlung Ida Bienert, Dresden (Potsdam: Müller & I. Kiepenheuer, 1933), p. 24, pl. 10 (“vorbesitzer: Flechtheim-berlin; Kahnweiler-paris”). For further reading on Kahnweiler, see Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler with Francis Crémieux, My Galleries and Painters, trans. Helen Weaver (New York: Viking Press, 1971); Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, Donation Louise et Michel Leiris: Collection Kahnweiler-Leiris (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984); and Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990). 2. Alfred Flechtheim (German, 1878–1937), a dealer and collector, first established Galerie Flechtheim in 1913 in Düsseldorf. In 1921 he moved his primary operations to Berlin, and he opened galleries in Frankfurt and Cologne the following year. Flechtheim was a close friend of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and they frequently did business together;



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4.12



Daniel-Henry’s little brother Gustav (German, 1895–1989), “le petit Kahnweiler,” became a partner of Flechtheim’s in 1922. Flechtheim was among those who formed a syndicate with Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler in 1921–23 to help buy back at auction Galerie Kahnweiler stock that had been sequestered by the French government due to Kahnweiler’s status as a German national and enemy alien during World War I. A target of Nazi anti-Semitism, Flechtheim left Germany in May 1933 and ultimately settled in London in 1934. His gallery in Düsseldorf was taken over by his former employee Alex Vömel, and the Berlin gallery was liquidated. Flechtheim died impoverished in London in March 1937, and his wife, Betti (German, 1881–1941), facing deportation, committed suicide in Berlin four years later. Flechtheim may have acquired the work from Galerie Kahnweiler prior to World War I; at the 1921–23 auctions, held at Hôtel Drouot, Paris; or at a later date. Thus far, it has not been identified among the lots sold at the auctions. A photograph, published in Die Dame in March 1929, of Guitar and Sheet Music hanging in Flechtheim’s Berlin home, at 15–16 Bleibtreustraße, indicates that the work was in his possession by that year. This photograph (reproduced here) has been published in Stephan von Wiese, “Der Kunsthändler als Überzeugungstäter: Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler und Alfred Flechtheim,” in Hans Albert Peters et al., Alfred Flechtheim: Sammler, Kunsthändler, Verleger (Düsseldorf: Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, 1987), p. 55; and Ottfried Dascher, “Es ist was Wahnsinniges mit der Kunst.” Alfred Flechtheim: Sammler, Kunsthändler und Verleger (Wädenswil, Switzerland: Nimbus, 2011), p. 244. An exhibition catalogue for the November–December 1929 show Seit Cézanne in Paris, at Galerie Flechtheim, Berlin, includes an entry (no. 276) that corresponds to some degree with Guitar and Sheet Music: “La Valse. Pastell.” The work was known primarily by the title La Valse in the 1920s and 1930s, and it continues to be a secondary title for the work in some literature. Only one other work in Picasso’s oeuvre—a painting on canvas—has been found to incorporate the word “Valse,” and none, apart from Guitar and Sheet Music, include both pastel and “Valse.” This suggests that the work in question was exhibited by Flechtheim in Berlin in late 1929. Flechtheim is listed in the provenance information for this work in several published sources, including: Will Grohmann, Die Sammlung Ida Bienert, Dresden (Potsdam: Müller & I. Kiepenheuer, 1933), p. 24, pl. 10 (“valse”); Miguel G. Arroyo C., Obras cubistas y “collages” II: Colección Pedro Vallenilla Echeverría (Caracas: Museo de Bellas Artes, 1970), repr. cat. no. 8 and back cover; and Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), cat. no. 506, pl. XXXIII. For further reading on Flechtheim, see



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4.13



Christian Zervos, “Entretien avec Alfred Flechtheim,” in “Feuilles volantes,” supplement to Cahiers d’art 2, no. 10 (1927): 1–2; Peters et al., 1987; and Dascher, 2011. 3. Ida Bienert (German, 1870–1965) was a prominent collector of modern art. She was a great supporter of the Bauhaus, where her daughter Ise studied. Villa Bienert, at 46 Würzburgerstraße, Dresden, was bombed during World War II, after her collection had been moved off-site for safekeeping. Through the considerable efforts of art historians Will Grohmann and Ludwig Grote, Bienert was reunited with her collection in her new home in Munich. In the final years of her life, Bienert slowly sold her artworks, piece by piece, to support herself and her family. Most likely, Bienert purchased Guitar and Sheet Music from Galerie Flechtheim at or around the time of the work’s probable exhibition in Berlin in late 1929. Bienert is listed as the owner of the work as early as 1930: see Christian Zervos, “De l’importance de l’objet dans la peinture d’aujourd’hui (II),” Cahiers d’art 5, no. 5 (1930), repr. p. 232 (“Picasso. La Valse. 1913. Coll. Bienert, Dresden”); Georges Hugnet, “Picasso ou la peinture au XXe siècle,” Cahiers d’art 7, no. 3–5 (1932), repr. pp. 122–23 (“1913. La Valse. Coll. Bienert, Dresden”); and Will Grohmann, Die Sammlung Ida Bienert, Dresden (Potsdam: Müller & I. Kiepenheuer, 1933), p. 24, pl. 10 (“valse”). Her name also appears with this work in Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917, vol. II (2) (Paris: Cahiers d’art, 1942), cat. no. 372, pl. 180 (“Guitare et feuille de musique. Paris. Hiver 1912–13. Papier collé avec pastel. Coll. Mme Ida Bienert. Dresde”). The private lender to a 1955 exhibition at Haus der Kunst, Munich, was likely Bienert: Maurice Jardot, Picasso: 1900–1955 (Munich: München E.V. Haus der Kunst, 1955), repr. cat. no. 34 (“Guitarre [sic] und Notenblatt [Valse]. Paris, Winter 1912/13. Privatsammlung, München”). Later sources that list Bienert in the provenance for this work include: Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907– 1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. no. 506, pl. XXXIII; Henrike Junge-Gent, “Vom Neuen Begeistert: Die Sammlerin Ida Bienert,” in Junge-Gent, ed., Avantgarde und Publikum: Zur Rezeption avantgardistischer Kunst in Deutschland 1905–1933 (Cologne: Böhlau, 1992), p. 31; and Heike Biedermann et al., Von Monet bis Mondrian: Meisterwerke der Moderne aus Dresdner Privatsammlungen (Munich and Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2006), repr. cat. no. 44. For further details on the history of Bienert’s collection, see Grohmann, 1933; and Heike Biedermann, “Ida Bienert: Avantgarde als Lebensgefühl,” in Biedermann et al., 2006, pp. 69–80, 268.



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4.14



4. Fritz Nathan (German, 1895–1972) and his son Peter Nathan (German, 1925–2001) were art dealers originally based in Munich who fled to Switzerland in the mid-1930s. They were active in St. Gallen beginning in 1936 and founded their Zurich gallery in 1951. The Nathans were first listed as owners of the work in the catalogue for a 1962 exhibition at the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne: Helmut R. Leppien, Europäische Kunst 1912: Zum 50. Jahrestag der Ausstellung des Sonderbundes Westdeutscher Kunstfreunde und Künstler (Cologne: Wallraf-Richartz Museum, 1962), p. 71, cat. no. G-154, pl. 53 (“Gitarre und Notenblatt (Valse). Unbezeichnet. Collage und Pastell. 58 x 63 cm. Entstanden 1912–13. Dr. Fritz Nathan und Dr. Peter Nathan, Zürich”). The Nathans are also listed in the provenance information published in the following secondary source: Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. no. 506, pl. XXXIII. For more on the Nathans’ business, see Peter Nathan, Dr. Fritz und Dr. Peter Nathan 1922–1972 (Zurich: Galerie Nathan, 1972); and Götz Adriani et al., Die Kunst des Handelns: Meisterwerke des 14. Bis 20. Jahrhunderts bei Fritz und Peter Nathan (Tübingen, Germany: Kunsthalle Tübingen, 2005). The listing of “Peter-Fritz Nathan” as owner before Ida Bienert, in the provenance published in the following sources, is thought to be an imprecision: Miguel G. Arroyo C., Obras cubistas y “collages” II: Colección Pedro Vallenilla Echeverría (Caracas: Museo de Bellas Artes, 1970), repr. cat. no. 8 and back cover; and Gilberte Martin-Méry, Les Cubistes (Bordeaux: Galerie des Beaux-Arts, 1973), cat. no. 28, pl. VII. 5. E. V. Thaw & Co. was founded in 1950 by Eugene V. Thaw (American, born 1927), a distinguished dealer, collector, and philanthropist. In a 2007 interview, Thaw recalled doing business with Peter Nathan, which establishes a connection between the American and European dealers and suggests that it is possible that Thaw acquired Guitar and Sheet Music directly from Nathan. See Eugene V. Thaw, Oral History Program interview by James McElhinney, October 1–2, 2007, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. The archives of E. V. Thaw & Co. are privately held but may at a future date be available for consultation, per the intention, expressed in the aforementioned 2007 interview, to donate them to an institution such as The Morgan Library & Museum, New York; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; or the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Thaw is listed in the provenance information published in the following sources: Miguel G. Arroyo C., Obras cubistas y “collages” II: Colección Pedro Vallenilla Echeverría (Caracas: Museo de Bellas Artes, 1970), repr. cat. no. 8 and back cover; Gilberte Martin-Méry, Les



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4.15



Cubistes (Bordeaux: Galerie des Beaux-Arts, 1973), cat. no. 28, pl. VII; and Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907– 1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. no. 506, pl. XXXIII. 6. Pedro Vallenilla Echeverría (Venezuelan, 1894–1988) was a prominent South American collector of Cubism who ultimately donated a significant portion of his collection to the Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas. It is likely, but cannot be confirmed, that he lent Guitar and Sheet Music to the August 1968 exhibition Pinturas cubistas y “collages”, held at the Fundación Eugenio Mendoza, Caracas. While the exhibition pamphlet for that show cannot be located at this time, the presence of the work in Caracas, if true, would most likely be due to its ownership by Vallenilla Echeverría. He is listed as the owner of the work in the following catalogues for exhibitions in the 1970s: Miguel G. Arroyo C., Obras cubistas y “collages” II: Colección Pedro Vallenilla Echeverría (Caracas: Museo de Bellas Artes, 1970), repr. cat. no. 8. and back cover (“Guitarra y Papel de Música [Vals]. 1912–13. Collage y pastel”); and Gilberte Martin-Mery, Les Cubistes (Bordeaux: Galerie des Beaux-Arts, 1973), cat. no. 28, pl. VII (“Guitare et papier de musique: ‘Valse.’ Papier collé. 1912–13. Caracas, M. Pedro Vallenilla Echeverría”). Echeverría is listed as the current/last known owner of the work in Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. no. 506, pl. XXXIII (“Guitar and Sheet Music. Paris, autumn 1912. Pasted papers, pastel, and charcoal. Coll. Pedro Vallenilla Echeverría, Caracas”). 7. See note 5, above, for information about E. V. Thaw & Co. Eugene V. Thaw’s sale of the work to the subsequent owner was indicated by the present owner in verbal communication with Blair Hartzell, July 7, 2010. It can be inferred that Pedro Vallenilla Echeverría had followed the standard protocol for courteous collectors: he sold Guitar and Sheet Music back to the same dealer from whom he had purchased it some years prior. This practice synched with Thaw’s general policy as a dealer: “Don’t sell anything or handle anything that you feel you wouldn’t want to have back in 10 years.” See Eugene V. Thaw, Oral History Program interview by James McElhinney, October 1–2, 2007, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-eugenev-thaw-13687.



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4.16



8. This private collection loaned Guitar and Sheet Music to MoMA’s 1989 exhibition Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism (MoMA Archives, Curatorial Exhibition Files, Exh. #1529, and Registrar Exhibition Files, Exh. #1529, Loan 89.597). Its purchase from Eugene V. Thaw was confirmed per verbal communication between the present owner and Blair Hartzell, July 7, 2010. There are no identifying marks or letterhead on an undated invoice in the Curatorial Exhibition Files, but the contents of the document suggest that it was prepared by Thaw at the time of the sale to this private collection. Correspondence between William Rubin, curator of Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism, and this collector, dated June 15, 1988, indicates that the New York art dealer Stephen Hahn (Hungarian, 1921–2011) also played a role in arranging the purchase. 9. Per verbal communication between present owner and Blair Hartzell, July 7, 2010.



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4.17



Guitar and Sheet Music Paris, autumn–winter 1912. Cut-and-pasted wallpaper, paper, sheet music, pastel, and charcoal on paper, 22 13⁄16 × 24 ½" (57.9 × 62.2 cm). Private collection, Germany. Z II (2) 372, DR 506



Selected Exhibitions [1929] [Berlin, Galerie Flechtheim. Seit Cézanne in Paris. November 23– December 24. Cat. no. 276 (“La Valse”)] 1955 Munich, Haus der Kunst. Picasso: 1900–1955. October 25–December 18. Cat. no. 34. Tour venues: Cologne, Rheinisches Museum. December 30, 1955–February 29, 1956; Hamburg, Kunsthalle. March 10–April 29, 1956. (Note: The work was not included in the initial installation of this exhibition, at Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, June–October 1955.) 1962 Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz Museum. Europäische Kunst 1912: Zum 50. Jahrestag der Ausstellung des Sonderbundes Westdeutscher Kunstfreunde und Künstler. September 12–December 9. Cat. no. G-154 1963 Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum. Schrift en beeld. May 3–June 10. Cat. no. 294. Tour venue: Baden-Baden, Staatliche Kunsthalle. June 14–August 4 1970 Caracas, Museo de Bellas Artes. Obras cubistas y “collages” II: Colección Pedro Vallenilla Echeverría. October. Cat. no. 8



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4.18



1973 Bordeaux, Galerie des Beaux-Arts. Les Cubistes. May 4–September 1. Cat. no. 28. Tour venue: Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. September 26–November 10 1989 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. September 24, 1989–January 16, 1990. Cat. p. 252. (Note: Exhibited only at the New York venue. The work did not travel with the exhibition to Kunstmuseum Basel.) [ 17]



17



1992 Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art. Picasso & Things. June 7– August 23. Cat. no. 3. (Note: Exhibited only at the Philadelphia venue. The work did not travel with the exhibition to Grand Palais, Paris, or Cleveland Museum of Art.) 2006 Dresden, Galerie Neue Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden. Von Monet bis Mondrian: Meisterwerke der Moderne aus Dresdner Privatsammlungen. September 16, 2006–January 14, 2007. Cat. no. 44



18



2011 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. February 13–June 6. Cat. no. 7 [18]



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4.19



Guitar and Sheet Music Paris, autumn–winter 1912. Cut-and-pasted wallpaper, paper, sheet music, pastel, and charcoal on paper, 22 13⁄16 × 24 ½" (57.9 × 62.2 cm). Private collection, Germany. Z II (2) 372, DR 506



Selected References 1917 Aksenov, Ivan. Pikasso i okrestnosti. Moscow: Tsentrifuga. Repr. p. 24 [ 19]



19



1928 Malevich, Kazimir. “Nove mistetstvo ta mistetstvo obrazotvorche.” Nova generatsiia: Zhurnal livoi formatsii mystetstv, no. 12. Ref. p. 412. Fig. 2 (“1919”) 1930 Zervos, Christian. “De l’importance de l’objet dans la peinture d’aujourd’hui (II).” Cahiers d’art 5, no. 5. Repr. p. 232 (“La Valse”) 1932 Hugnet, Georges. “Picasso ou la peinture au XXe siècle.” Cahiers d’art 7, no. 3–5. Repr. pp. 122–23 (“La Valse”) 1933 Grohmann, Will. Die Sammlung Ida Bienert, Dresden. Potsdam: Müller & I. Kiepenheuer. Ref. pp. 11, 24. Pl. 10 (“valse”) 1942 Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917. Vol II (2). Paris: Cahiers d’art. Cat. no. 372. Pl. 180 1955 Jardot, Maurice. Picasso: 1900–1955. Munich: München E.V. Haus der Kunst. Ref. n.p. Repr. cat. no. 34



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4.20



1968 Malevich, Kazimir. “New Art and Imitative Art (Picasso, Braque).” Nova generatsiia (1928). Reprinted in Troels Andersen, ed. Essays on Art 1928–1933. Trans. Xenia Flowacki-Prus and Arnold McMillin. Vol. II. Copenhagen: Borgen. Ref. pp. 45–47. Fig. 16 1979 Daix, Pierre, and Joan Rosselet. Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. Trans. Dorothy S. Blair. London: Thames & Hudson. Ref. pp. 114–16, 286. Cat. no. 506. Pl. XXXIII 1989 Rubin, William S. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 32. Repr. pp. 32, 252 1990 Palau i Fabre, Josep. Picasso: Cubism 1907–1917. Trans. Susan Branyas, Richard-Lewis Rees, and Patrick Zabalbeascoa. New York: Rizzoli. Ref. pp. 290–91. Repr. cat. no. 833 1992 Boggs, Jean Sutherland. Picasso & Things. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art. Ref. p. 110. Repr. cat. no. 33 Dabrowski, Magdalena. “Kazimir Malevich’s Collages and His Idea of Pictorial Space.” In Essays on Assemblage. Studies in Modern Art 2. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 22–23. Fig. 7 Fry, Edward F. “Convergence of Traditions: The Cubism of Picasso and Braque.” In Lynn Zelevansky, ed. Picasso and Braque: A Symposium. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 100. Fig. 11 2002 Cowling, Elizabeth. Picasso: Style and Meaning. London: Phaidon. Ref. pp. 248–50. Fig. 212 2004 Taylor, Brandon. Collage: The Making of Modern Art. London: Thames & Hudson. Ref. p. 19. Fig. 13 2011 Umland, Anne. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 23. Repr. cat. no. 7. (Erratum: Following examination at The Museum of Modern Art in early 2011, the paperboard support referred to on p. 23 was determined to be a later addition, not added by the artist.)



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4.21



Bottle and Wineglass Paris, December 1912. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated December 4, 1912), charcoal, and pencil on paper, 23 3⁄16 × 18 1⁄16" (58.9 × 45.8 cm). Private collection. Z XXVIII 209, DR 549



Recto



Verso



Raking Light



UV Light



Infrared Light



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5.1



Bottle and Wineglass Paris, December 1912. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated December 4, 1912), charcoal, and pencil on paper, 23 3⁄16 × 18 1⁄16" (58.9 × 45.8 cm). Private collection. Z XXVIII 209, DR 549



1



   Bottle and Wineglass  



As a representational system, Cubism presents itself to the viewer primarily as an activity of the eye and the mind. Yet even a sharply schematic work such as Bottle and Wineglass engages the body in ways other than visual.1 This work, and the others in the December 1912 papier collé series it is part of, implicitly figure the body through graphic techniques related to the hand of the artist and through the fundamental characteristics of his chosen materials. Bottle and Wineglass subtly elicits a sense of touch. The rough drag of charcoal over the laid paper support [1] highlights the texture of the paper and the working of Picasso’s hand over its surface. His spare drawing and its interaction with the ivory paper construct the still life: the table that throws up and out its combination of round and angular forms; the wineglass with its circular lip and/or garnish of lemon; and the sketchy hint of shadows added in pencil.2



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5.2



2



3



4



5



6



7



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Cuts, as much as lines or brushstrokes, conjure the action of the hand.3 In Bottle and Wineglass, Picasso’s cutout from the front page of the December 4, 1912, edition of the Parisian daily Le Journal [ 2] evokes both the well-known feel of newspaper and the operation that produced its near-columnar form. Picasso often selected and cut his collage pieces to broadly observe—but usually not to fit or follow precisely—the schematics he had already laid down in charcoal. Infrared illumination of Bottle and Wineglass [3] shows that he pasted down a cutout that is complementary and a bit bigger than his initial charcoal drawing, which it partially overlays. By contrast, the raggedly cut vertical rectangle of newspaper in a closely related work [4], fits within its pre-drawn boundaries. Bottle and Wineglass’s primary support is a machinemade Ingres artists’ paper, produced by either Montgolfier or Latune for the paper distributor Catel et Farcy [5]. The company’s trademark shield enclosing a caduceus and the letters C and F appears in many of Picasso’s watermarked papers.4 Notably, Picasso’s preferred fine art paper and his favorite daily newspaper share a fundamental quality: their dimensions. 5 This is highlighted in a pair of still lifes. One, executed on a Le Journal page from December 8, 1912 [6], measures 24 ⅝ by 17 5⁄16 inches (62.5 by 44 cm). The other, incorporating a clipping from the same issue of Le Journal [7], was, like nearly all the artist’s papiers collés and drawings of this moment, made on a full standard sheet of Ingres paper; it measures 24 7⁄16 by 18 11⁄16 inches (62 by 47.5 cm).6 Historically, the measurements of fine art papers were related to the process of papermaking with a mold the size a man could reasonably and effectively move



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5.3



8



9



10



11



12



13



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around a workshop [8].7 This aspect of production finds its complement in the consumption of broadsheet newspapers, for which the paper’s size is tied to its ultimate use in human hands and in relation to the human body [9].8 Of course, neither Picasso’s papers nor newspapers were, in 1912, made in the handheld molds of centuries past. But this underlying connection to the handmade format remains, such that Picasso’s papiers collés do more than simply elicit touch: they figure the body in a way that is deeply embedded in the materials. The human scale of Picasso’s works on paper is shared by his Guitar construction of October– December 1912, as photographs of his Paris studio demonstrate [10].9 Picasso’s choice for the size of the cardboard Guitar is rather unsurprising, as most stringed instruments retain an obvious and practical connection to the musician’s body (even to an abstracted planar body [11]).10 The artist’s canvases in this period share this approachable scale [12], quite unlike the size of the enormous rolled-up canvas—perhaps the 1907 Les Demoiselles d’Avignon?—present (at left) in his studio in 1912 [13].11 Though Picasso long used fine-art drawing papers of these standard dimensions, as many artists did and do, their employment here establishes a physical correlation between high and low. 12 In this way, the human trace in Picasso’s papiers collés resides in his system of combined materials, rather than in the news, gossip, and advertisements of his favorite daily rag. The novelty, content, and pictorial function of Picasso’s collaged newspaper have often overshadowed not only its own material qualities but also those of the other papers he used.13 The artist’s repurposing of newspapers like Le Journal was catalogued immediately by Guillaume Apollinaire, poet, critic, and evangelist



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5.4



for the modern. He wrote in early 1913: “You can paint with whatever you like, with pipes, postage stamps, postcards, playing-cards, candelabras, pieces of oilcloth, shirt-collars, wallpaper or newspapers.” 14 But as unconventional as the contents of Apollinaire’s now hundred-year-old list once were, it seems over-hasty to limit an interpretation of Picasso’s works solely to their cut-and-pasted elements. Inventories of cheap sundries are common to the primary and secondary literature of Cubism, and they often highlight individual things at the expense of associations and contrasts that might be observed within Picasso’s economy of parts. For example, newspaper is embedded, conceptually, with planned obsolescence. It traffics in the everyday, often the yesterday. However, once it is pasted securely on a fine laid paper, it ceases to be perishable and instead only evokes the ephemeral. While interpretive weight in art is not assigned to the subject or material allotted the most inches in a given work, Picasso’s ubiquitous Ingres papers should be accorded consideration at least as great as the attention bestowed upon the newspaper cutouts they support. They are part of the network of relationships and references that define Bottle and Wineglass and part of the intrinsic physicality of this constructive phase of Cubism. —Blair Hartzell



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5.5



Notes 1. This optic/haptic binary recalls the nineteenth-century foundations of the discipline of art history in the writing of Alois Riegl. See Riegl, “The Main Characteristics of the Late Roman Kunstwollen” (1901), in Christopher Wood, ed., The Vienna School Reader: Politics and Art Historical Method in the 1930s (New York: Zone Books, 2000), pp. 87–104. 2. For discussion of the opposition between table and tableau—and the combination of straight and round table edges—in Picasso’s works of this period, see Christine Poggi, “Frames of Reference: ‘Table’ and ‘Tableau’ in Picasso’s Collages and Constructions,” Art Journal 47, no. 4 (Winter 1988): 311–22. While the circular shape observed near the center of Bottle and Wineglass primarily forms the roundness of the glass, it may also evoke a bit of fruit, like the lemon slices in DR 655 and DR 675. 3. On the physicality of cutting, especially in Picasso’s collages, see Richard Shiff, “Picasso’s Touch: Collage, Papier collé, Ace of Clubs,” Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (1990): 38–47; and Shiff, “Constructing Physicality,” Art Journal 50, no. 1 (Spring 1991): 42–47. 4. See Conservation Notes and the “Artist’s paper” Glossary entry for additional information. Regarding Picasso’s watermarked papers, see the preliminary findings from a study undertaken at the Musée National Picasso, Paris: Annabelle Ténèze, Marie-Christine Enshaïan, and Emmanuel Hincelin, “First Steps toward a Study of Papers and Watermarks in the Drawings of Picasso,” Master Drawings 47, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 17–52. 5. Picasso mentioned that he read Le Journal and Excelsior nearly every day in a letter of June 7, 1912. See Pepe Karmel, “Notes on the Dating of Works,” in Lynn Zelevansky, ed., Picasso and Braque: A Symposium (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992), p. 335. 6. Picasso executed a few other extant works on newspaper supports in the Cubist period and used newspaper this way again later in his career, especially in the early 1940s. For an in-depth study of the artist’s use of newspaper as a support for his work, see Anne Baldassari, Picasso: Working on Paper, trans. George Collins (London: Merrell, 2000). Picasso also used newspaper as a paint palette throughout his career, as photographic and anecdotal evidence indicates.



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5.6



7. For a general history, see Dard Hunter, Papermaking: The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft (New York: Knopf, 1943). 8. This postcard is from a 1902 series of six photographic cards that depict prominent French newspapers accompanied by caricatures of their typical readers. 9. Bottle and Wineglass was among the works photographed in Picasso’s studio in late 1912 or early 1913, in an arrangement with five other works on paper (DR 553; cat. no. 22 in Anne Umland, Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 [New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2011]; DR 543; DR 545; and DR 508) and three cardboard Guitar constructions (S 27A; DR 555; and DR 556). This photograph was first published in Edward Fry, “Picasso, Cubism, and Reflexivity,” Art Journal 47, no. 4 (Winter 1988): 303. 1 0. Picasso’s cardboard Guitar (S 27A) measures 25 ¾  × 13 × 7 ½ " (65.1 × 33 × 19 cm), at the smaller end of the standard range for the musical instrument whose shape it borrows. 1 1. No accounts or photographic evidence have been found to indicate that the 8' × 7' 8" (243.9 × 233.7 cm) Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (DR 47) was stretched and visible in Picasso’s boulevard Raspail studio. It is documented at his next home, at 5 bis, rue Schoelcher, where he moved in the autumn of 1913. See the extraordinary chronology and anthology by Judith Cousins and Hélène Seckel, in Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Studies in Modern Art 3 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994), pp. 145–205, 213–56. 1 2. For further information on Picasso’s drawings, see Gary Tinterow, Master Drawings by Picasso (Cambridge, Mass.: Fogg Art Museum, 1981); and Susan Galassi and Marilyn McCully, Picasso’s Drawings: Reinventing Tradition, 1890–1921 (New York: The Frick Collection; and Washington, D.C.: The National Gallery of Art, 2011). 1 3. Much distinguished literature has placed a primary focus, to a wide variety of interpretive ends, on the Le Journal cutouts. See for example, Robert Rosenblum, “Picasso and the Typography of Cubism,” in Roland Penrose and John Golding, eds., Picasso 1881– 1973 (London: Paul Elek, 1973), pp. 49–77; David Cottington, “What the Papers Say: Politics and Ideology in Picasso’s Collages of 1912,” Art Journal 47, no. 4 (Winter 1988): 350–59; Patricia Leighten, “The Insurrectionary Painter: Anarchism and the Collages, 1912–14,” in Re-Ordering the Universe: Picasso and Anarchism, 1897–1914 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1989), pp. 121–42; and Rosalind Krauss, “The Circulation of the Sign,” in The Picasso Papers (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1998), pp. 25–85.



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5.7



For new research on Picasso’s wallpapers, see Elizabeth Cowling, “What the Wallpapers Say: Picasso’s Papiers Collés of 1912–14,” The Burlington Magazine 155 (September 2013): 594–601. 1 4. Guillaume Apollinaire, The Cubist Painters (1913), trans. Peter Read (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), p. 39. See Read’s thorough commentary in the same volume for the chronology of Apollinaire’s corrections to the proofs for The Cubist Painters. His mention of wallpaper and newspaper must have been added in the final set of (now lost) proofs prior to the March 17, 1913, publication of the book. With thanks to Peter Read for his time and insights (e-mail communication with the author, June 17, 2010).



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5.8



Bottle and Wineglass Paris, December 1912. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated December 4, 1912), charcoal, and pencil on paper, 23 3⁄16 × 18 1⁄16" (58.9 × 45.8 cm). Private collection. Z XXVIII 209, DR 549



Conservation Notes 14



15



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This papier collé is one of a group dating to December 1912, and like closely related works it features a full sheet of laid paper as primary support. Produced by either Montgolfier or Latune paper mills for the distributor Catel et Farcy, this paper bears the watermark “Ingres 1862” at lower left [14]. The countermark in its upper left corner consists of the initials “C F” and a caduceus, all surrounded by a shield, above the location of the paper’s manufacture, France [15]. For these late1912 drawings and papiers collés, Picasso regularly worked on the more textured, wire side of the sheet, the side that had been in direct contact with the wires of the papermaking mold and from which watermarks appear reversed. In the first steps, the artist delineated the graphic composition in charcoal. The very regular pattern of parallel lines within the paper (more prominent on the wire side) is made more apparent by the charcoal, which was deposited differently in the depressed and raised



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5.9



16



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areas of the sheet. Picasso used a graphite pencil to loosely scribble and crosshatch localized passages. The collage element was cut with scissors from the front page of the Parisian daily newspaper Le Journal, using the typographical column rule as a readymade guideline for the left edge. Infrared imagery of the newspaper fragment [16] reveals that its rectangular shape is just slightly larger than the corresponding shape drawn beneath. Picasso most likely cut the newspaper progressively to fit before pasting it down overall. Acidic components migrating from the newspaper caused the brown stain that halos the cutout. The presence of this staining suggests that the newspaper has darkened significantly with age. Holes in the upper corners of the support sheet were made by the tacks used to hang the papier collé on the wall of the artist’s boulevard Raspail studio. —SG



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5.10



Bottle and Wineglass Paris, December 1912. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated December 4, 1912), charcoal, and pencil on paper, 23 3⁄16 × 18 1⁄16" (58.9 × 45.8 cm). Private collection. Z XXVIII 209, DR 549



Provenance B Y c .  M A R C H 1 0 , 1 9 1 3 Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris. Purchased from the artist 1 17



1914–1923 Galerie Kahnweiler stock sequestered by the French government as property of an enemy alien 2 18



MAY 7, 1923 Hôtel Drouot, Paris. Vente de biens allemands: Collection Henri Kahnweiller [sic]. Tableaux modernes. Quatrième et dernière vente. Lot 95 (thirty-four works on paper) [17] 3 MAY 1923 Galerie Simon, Paris. Purchased from the above sale via Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler’s Grassat syndicate [17] 4



19



BY c. 1925–1927 Pierre and Dollie Chareau, Paris (and later New York)  or Jean and Annie Dalsace, Paris (c/o Pierre and Dollie Chareau, Paris) [18] 5 AFTER 1950 Rose Fried Gallery, New York 6 [BY 1956] OR BY 1968–c. 1999 Morton G. and Rose Neumann, Chicago. Purchased from the above, and thence by descent [19] 7 c. 1999 Private collection. Purchased from the above 8



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—BH



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5.11



Notes 1. Galerie Kahnweiler was founded in 1907 by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (German, 1884–1979) at 28, rue Vignon, Paris. Picasso entered into an exclusive three-year contract, beginning December 2, 1912, to sell works at fixed prices to Kahnweiler. This arrangement is outlined in the artist’s letter, dated December 18, 1912, to his dealer (original letter on deposit with Galerie Louise Leiris Archives, Paris, and reproduced in Maurice Jardot, Picasso: Peintures 1900–1955 [Paris: Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 1955], pp. 50–52). We can conclude that Bottle and Wineglass went directly from the artist’s studio to Galerie Kahnweiler per the terms of their contract. The work is signed “Picasso” on the upper-left verso in a manner consistent with other works on paper that left the artist’s studio in the same period for sale at Galerie Kahnweiler. The Kahnweiler papers are held by Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, and are not accessible at this time. According to Pepe Karmel’s unpublished 1991 transcription of Kahnweiler’s inventory book, a large cache of 1912–13 drawings and papiers collés was delivered to the gallery before Picasso’s departure for Céret in early March 1913 (see Judith Cousins, “Documentary Chronology,” in William S. Rubin, Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism [New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1989], p. 414). These Cubist works on paper were each entered into the inventory as an untitled “Dessin” or “Dessin (couleurs),” and Bottle and Wineglass likely numbered among them. A number of the “Dessins” inventoried were priced at five hundred francs, and Bottle and Wineglass is inscribed “500” in pencil on its upper-right verso in very small handwriting. For further reading on Kahnweiler, see Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler with Francis Crémieux, My Galleries and Painters, trans. Helen Weaver (New York: Viking Press, 1971); Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, ed., Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler: Marchand, éditeur, écrivain (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984); Monod-Fontaine, ed., Donation Louise et Michel Leiris: Collection Kahnweiler-Leiris (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984); and Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990). 2. As a German national living in France, Kahnweiler was designated an enemy alien during World War I. He was abroad at the outbreak of the war, and his gallery stock was sequestered by the French government. He lived in exile in Switzerland until his return to Paris in 1920, at which time he reopened his business under the name Galerie Simon. The French government ultimately sold Kahnweiler’s original prewar stock in a series of public auctions in 1921–23 at Hôtel Drouot, Paris.



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5.12



On this period in Kahnweiler’s life and business, see Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990), pp. 114–89. 3. The number “95” is handwritten in pencil on the verso of Bottle and Wineglass along the upper center edge (reproduced here), indicating that it was among the thirty-four works on paper included in lot 95 of the fourth and final auction of sequestered Galerie Kahnweiler stock, held May 7–8, 1923. Lot 95 is listed in the auction catalogue as “Trente-quatre dessins: plume, crayon, fusain, papier collé. Sujets variés, époques diverses—(La plupart signés).” See Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Vente de biens allemands: Collection Henri Kahnweiller [sic]. Tableaux modernes. Quatrième et dernière vente (May 7–8, 1923), p. 6. It is not known to what extent unframed drawings and papiers collés were available for consultation or display during the public exhibition day (May 6, 2:00–6:00 p.m.) or during the sale (odd-numbered lots such as lot 95 were sold on May 7, and even-numbered lots on May 8). It is presumed that they were not highly visible. This lot of thirty-four works, including Bottle and Wineglass, sold for 950 francs, according to the hammer prices published in Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot 32, no. 58 (May 15, 1923): 1. The auction generated a total of 227,662 francs in sales. In the course of preparing for the 2011 MoMA exhibition Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914, various lot numbers in the same handwriting and medium were observed on the versos of nearly twenty other Cubist works on paper. Previously, it was not thought possible to identify which unframed works on paper were sold at the Kahnweiler sales. See Epilogue for further discussion. For additional information, see Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990), pp. 155–89. 4. Kahnweiler returned to Paris in February 1920. He reopened his business under the name Galerie Simon, with business partner André Simon. While prohibited by the French government from repurchasing his own pre–World War I stock from the auctions at Hôtel Druout, Kahnweiler was able to buy many lots through a syndicate of friends and family operating under the pseudonym “Grassat.” Kahnweiler’s Grassat syndicate included Swiss collector Hermann Rupf, German dealer Alfred Flechtheim, his brother Gustav Kahnweiler, and his stepdaughter Louise Leiris (and possibly his brother-in-law Hans Forchheimer). Pierre Assouline mentions only Rupf, Flechtheim, Leiris, and “le petit Kahnweiler” (Gustav) as members of the syndicate; to these names Douglas Cooper adds Forchheimer. See Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990), p. 171; and Cooper, “Early Purchasers of True Cubist Art,” in Cooper and Gary Tinterow, The Essential Cubism: Braque, Picasso & Their Friends (London: Tate Gallery,



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5.13



1983), p. 28. Cooper further explained: “At the end of each sale, any shareholder [in the Grassat syndicate] could either buy out the other partners at a profit and keep a specific work for himself, or else it was added to the growing stock of Galerie Simon, which later distributed the money available to the shareholders when the work had been sold” (Cooper, 1983, p. 28). The Grassat name appears in both published sale results (Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot 30, no. 70 [June 14, 1921]: 1; and Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot 31, no. 80 [July 8, 1922]: 1) and in annotated copies of the first and second sale catalogues (sometimes written “Grassa,” as in copies held by the Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Twelve works on paper with “95” inscribed on their versos, in the same handwriting, have been located to date: DR 508, DR 524, DR 538, DR 542, DR 543, DR 544, DR 549, DR 552, DR 553, Z VI 1105, Z II 388, and cat. no. 22 in Anne Umland, Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2011). These works also have a four-digit number beginning with “76” written on their versos at upper right, except for Bottle on a Table (DR 552), which instead bears a Galerie Simon paper label stamped with the number “7614.” Together, this information indicates that the Grassat syndicate acquired some or all of the contents of lot 95, after which the works were sequentially numbered as they entered the inventory of Kahnweiler’s Galerie Simon. Bottle and Wineglass is inscribed “760[8]” in pencil on its verso (see detail of verso reproduced here). 5. Pierre Chareau (French, 1883–1950) was an architect and designer, best known for his work on the Maison de Verre, a glass-and-steel modernist masterpiece at 31, rue St-Guillaume, Paris. His wife Dollie, née Louise Dyte (English, 1880–1967), was a tutor and translator. The Maison de Verre was commissioned by Pierre Chareau’s primary patrons and dear friends, Jean and Annie Dalsace. Dr. Jean Dalsace (French, 1893–1970) was a well-respected gynecologist in Paris and a prominent advocate for family planning in France; his medical practice was located on the ground floor of the Maison de Verre. His wife Anna (Annie), née Bernheim (French, 1896–1968), had become friends with her tutor, Dollie Chareau, before World War I. Annie’s many Bernheim relatives, including her father Edmond (French, 1864–1957) and her uncle Émile (French, 1851–1930), commissioned special building and interior decoration projects from Pierre Chareau. Bottle and Wineglass is documented in a c. 1925–27 photograph of the Chareaus’ 54, rue Nollet, apartment (reproduced here). It has been published widely in the Chareau literature, including in Olivier Cinquable, ed., Pierre Chareau: Architecte, un art intérieur (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1993), p. 19. Chareau’s career first prospered around 1919, with the inclusion of his design work at that year’s Salon d’Automne. In 1924 he opened a shop called La Boutique in rue du



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5.14



Cherche-Midi, next door to Galerie Jeanne Bucher. As Chareau was fairly well established by the early 1920s, he might have purchased this work from a source such as Galerie Simon or perhaps from his friend and neighbor Jeanne Bucher’s gallery. Malcolm Gee, in his study of the art market in France during this period, observed that Chareau bought work by Jacques Lipchitz, Georges Braque, and Amedeo Modigliani (see Gee, Dealers, Critics, and Collectors of Modern Painting: Aspects of the Parisian Art Market Between 1910 and 1930 [New York: Garland Publishing, 1981], p. 197). According to one source, Chareau received fewer commissions in the 1930s as the economic depression worsened, and “to survive, he and his wife began to sell their painting collection of modern masters, including Georges Braque, Giorgio de Chirico, Paul Klee, Piet Mondrian, and Pablo Picasso” (Peter Wiederspahn, “Pierre Chareau,” in R. Stephen Sennott, ed., Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Architecture, vol. 1 [New York: Taylor & Francis, 2004], p. 240). Fearing Nazi persecution after the invasion of France, Chareau left the country in July 1940. He traveled via Spain to Portugal, then to Casablanca, where he obtained an exit visa. Chareau arrived in New York in late October 1940, and Dollie joined him the following year. In New York, he undertook the design of the Free French canteen at the French consulate, and created a modified Quonset hut in East Hampton for artist and editor Robert Motherwell (American, 1915–1991). Dollie took up tutoring and translation jobs and gave cooking lessons. She described their new situation in America in a letter to her cousin in 1943: “Curious destiny. My year in America has been most ‘rich’ in experiences and contacts. I am deeply grateful to think that at my age, rather brutally uprooted, I can find a congenial ground and still hope to prosper spiritually and even to be beholden to no man for my daily needs . . . . The problem of Pierre is more difficult. He works hard for the French in all their artistic + useful manifestations, exhibitions, canteens, etc. but his health worries me a little and his profession is not one for wartime” (Dollie Chareau, letter to Harold Rubenstein, July 4, 1943, Princeton University Library, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Pierre and Dollie Chareau Collection, Box 1, Folder 2). Pierre Chareau died in New York in 1950. Dollie returned to France regularly after the war. She stayed in Paris and Beauvallon with her friends, the Dalsace and Bernheim families, as indicated throughout her letters from the 1950s–60s (see Jean-Paul Felley and Olivier Kaeser, Pierre Chareau: Archives Louis Moret [Martigny: Fondation Louis Moret, 1994], letters 110–14, 117, pp. 111–13). Dollie died in New York in 1967.



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5.15



Alternatively, this work might have been purchased by the BernheimDalsace family and loaned to Pierre and Dollie Chareau to install in their home-turned-showplace. Marc Vellay, grandson to the Dalsace family, wrote: “The Chareaus lived in a house in rue Nollet belonging to Annie Dalsace’s father [Edmond Bernheim], and a large number of the paintings hanging in their home . . . in fact belonged to the Dalsaces” (Marc Vellay, letter to Michael Rubenstein, n.d. [c. 1986–1999], Princeton University Library, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Pierre and Dollie Chareau Collection, Box 1, Folder 8). Bottle and Wineglass—if acquired by the Dalsaces and merely loaned to the Chareaus—would be very much in line with the collection of modern art and design developed by Jean and Annie Dalsace. Their granddaughter Dominique Vellay recalled that her grandmother’s “interest in painting was lifelong, and at the Henry Kahnweiler sale she bought paintings by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque” (Dominique Vellay, “My Family and Their House,” in La Maison de Verre: Pierre Chareau’s Modernist Masterwork [New York: Thames & Hudson, 2007], p. 148). According to Dominique Vellay, the contents of the Maison de Verre were removed for safekeeping during World War II. The collection was stored in a barn in the Allier department, in central France, owned by Léon Vellay (whose son had married Aline, née Dalsace). The German army attempted to requisition the Maison de Verre but, given its unusual design, struggled under wartime conditions to effectively heat the building. The Dalsace family returned to the Maison de Verre after the war and proceeded to restore the house. Dr. and Mrs. Dalsace were politically active in the second half of the twentieth century, and their art-filled home was an important meeting place. See Dominique Vellay, 2007, pp. 146–48. For further reading on the Chareau and Dalsace families, see René Herbst, Pierre Chareau (Paris: Éditions du Salon des Arts Ménagers, 1954); Marc Vellay and Kenneth Frampton, Pierre Chareau: Architect and Craftsman, 1883–1950, trans. Bridget Strevens Romer (London: Thames & Hudson, 1985); Cinquable, 1993; and Vellay, 2007. See also Princeton University Library, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Pierre and Dollie Chareau Collection. With thanks to Kenneth Frampton, Robert Rubin, Jessica Womack, and the staff of Princeton University Library, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, for their kind assistance. 6. The Rose Fried Gallery was owned by Rose Fried (American, active until 1970s). Fried took over the Pinacotheca, founded by Dan Harris in the 1940s, and ultimately rechristened the Upper East Side gallery with her name around 1950. The gallery’s inventory and exhibition schedule focused on modern European masters.



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5.16



A reproduction of Bottle and Wineglass is included in the gallery’s records (Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art, Rose Fried Gallery Records, Reel 2206). The papier collé was included in Rose Fried’s 1956 International Collage Exhibition (cat. no. 19) and is documented in an installation view of the show (Rose Fried Gallery Records, Reel N69-37) . See Exhibitions. It may have been included in the show as a loan from Morton and Rose Neumann (see note 7, below). Fried’s name also appears in the published provenance in Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. no. 549 (“Bottle and Wineglass. Paris, autumn–winter 1912. Pasted paper, charcoal, and pencil on paper. Purchased from the Rose Fried Gallery, New York, by Morton G. Neumann, Chicago”). The Rose Fried Gallery Records are on deposit with the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., though Fried mentioned that she threw out gallery paperwork every three years in a regular housecleaning effort, necessitated by lack of space (see Fried, letter to Sam Zacks, n.d. [1960s], Rose Fried Gallery Records, Reel 2209). 7. Morton G. Neumann (American, 1898–1985) and his wife Rose (American, died 1998) were Chicago-based collectors of modern art. With the success of their cosmetics company, Valmor, the Neumanns built a significant collection of twentieth-century art with purchases from Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, Pierre Loeb, Pierre Matisse, and Sidney Janis, among other prominent dealers, beginning in the 1940s. The couple regularly visited Europe, spending time with Picasso and collector Douglas Cooper in the South of France. In 1980, 138 works from the Neumann collection were exhibited at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (and an expanded show of almost two hundred works followed at The Art Institute of Chicago). The next year, in honor of Picasso’s one hundredth birthday, one hundred Neumann-owned works on paper by the artist were exhibited at the National Gallery. The back of a reproduction of Bottle and Wineglass filed in the Rose Fried Gallery Records is inscribed: “Owned by Morton G. Neumann” (Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Rose Fried Gallery Records, Reel 2206). The Neumanns are also thanked in the exhibition pamphlet as lenders to the 1956 International Collage Exhibition at Rose Fried Gallery, suggesting that they might have purchased the work from Fried earlier and loaned it for the show. They are listed as the owners of Bottle and Wineglass in A. James Speyer, Picasso in Chicago: Paintings, Drawings, and Prints from Chicago Collections (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1968), repr. cat. no. 74 (“Still Life with Bottle, 1912–1913. Lent by Mr. and Mrs. Morton G. Neumann, Chicago”). A torn label from this 1968 exhibition is adhered to



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5.17



the backing board of the work (reproduced here); it lists the owner as “Mr. and Mrs. Morton G . . . ” A second paper label records the owner as the “Morton G. Neumann Family Collection.” Rose and Morton Neumann were survived by their sons Arthur and Hubert, who inherited the family art collection. See Alan Artner, “Morton Neumann: City’s Patron of Art,” Chicago Tribune, April 10, 1985; Deborah Solomon, “The Collector Who Is Breaking a Thousand Curators’ Hearts,” The New York Times, December 9, 1997; and Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America, The Frick Collection (Morton G. Neumann), http://research.frick.org /directoryweb. The family sold selected works at auction. See Sotheby’s New York, Twenty-Seven Works from the Morton G. Neumann Family Collection, November 17, 1998. The Neumanns’ name also appears in the published provenance in Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. no. 549 (“Bottle and Wineglass. Paris, autumn–winter 1912. Pasted paper, charcoal, and pencil on paper. Purchased from the Rose Fried Gallery, New York, by Morton G. Neumann, Chicago. Coll. Mr. and Mrs. Morton G. Neumann, Chicago”). For additional reading on the Neumanns, see Richard Feigen, “Rose and Morton Neumann,” Tales from the Art Crypt: The Painters, the Museums, the Curators, the Collectors, the Auctions, the Art (New York: Knopf, 2000), pp. 92–106; and John Richardson, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: Picasso, Provence, and Douglas Cooper (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), pp. 227–29. 8. Details of the acquisition were confirmed when Bottle and Wineglass was loaned to the 2011 MoMA exhibition Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914.



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5.18



Bottle and Wineglass Paris, December 1912. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated December 4, 1912), charcoal, and pencil on paper, 23 3⁄16 × 18 1⁄16" (58.9 × 45.8 cm). Private collection. Z XXVIII 209, DR 549



Selected Exhibitions 1923 Paris, Hôtel Drouot. Vente de biens allemands: Collection Henri Kahnweiller [sic]. Quatrième et dernière vente. Lot 95. Public exhibition: May 6. Odd-numbered lots sold May 7 20



1956 New York, Rose Fried Gallery. International Collage Exhibition. February 13–March 17. Cat. no. 19 [20] 1968 Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago. Picasso in Chicago: Paintings, Drawings, and Prints from Chicago Collections. February 3–March 31. Cat. no. 74 1980 Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art. The Morton G. Neumann Family Collection. August 31–December 31. Cat. no. 4 1981 Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art. The Morton G. Neumann Family Collection: Picasso Prints and Drawings. October 25, 1981–January 24, 1982. Cat. no. 6 2007 New York, Gagosian Gallery. Fit to Print: Printed Media in Recent Collage. November 12–December 22 (No catalogue)



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5.19



21



2011 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. February 13–June 6. Cat. no. 27 [21] 2012 Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art. Picasso’s Drawings, 1890–1921: Reinventing Tradition. January 29–May 6. Cat. no. 52. (Note: Exhibited only at the Washington, D.C., venue. The work was not included in an earlier New York presentation of the show.)



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5.20



Bottle and Wineglass Paris, December 1912. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated December 4, 1912), charcoal, and pencil on paper, 23 3⁄16 × 18 1⁄16" (58.9 × 45.8 cm). Private collection. Z XXVIII 209, DR 549



Selected References 1968 Speyer, A. James. Picasso in Chicago: Paintings, Drawings, and Prints from Chicago Collections. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago. Ref. 56. Repr. cat. no. 74 [22]



22



1 9 74 Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso: Supplément aux années 1910–1913. Vol. XXVIII. Paris: Éditions Cahiers d’art. Cat. no. 209. Pl. 93 1979 Daix, Pierre, and Joan Rosselet. Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. Trans. Dorothy S. Blair. London: Thames & Hudson. Ref. p. 294. Repr. cat. no. 549 1980 Carmean, E. A., Jr. The Morton G. Neumann Family Collection. Vol. 2. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art. Ref. pp. 12–13. Repr. cat. no. 4 1981 Carmean, E. A., Jr. The Morton G. Neumann Family Collection: Picasso Prints and Drawings. Vol. 3. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art. Ref. p. 12. Repr. cat. no. 6 1988 Fry, Edward F. “Picasso, Cubism, and Reflexivity.” Art Journal 47, no. 4 (Winter). Fig. 4 (installation view)



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5.21



1989 Leighten, Patricia. Re-Ordering the Universe: Picasso and Anarchism, 1897–1914. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Ref. pp. 127–28, 140. Fig. 87 2011 Galassi, Susan Grace, and Marilyn McCully. Picasso’s Drawings, 1890–1921: Reinventing Tradition. New York: The Frick Collection; New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. Ref. pp. 205, 207. Repr. cat. no. 52



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5.22



Guitar Paris, December 1912. Charcoal on paper, 18 ½ × 24 ⅜" (47 × 61.9 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Donald B. Marron, 48.1985. Z XXVIII 304



Recto



Verso



Raking Light



UV Light



Infrared Light



Essay  Conservation  Provenance  Exhibitions  References



6.1



Guitar Paris, December 1912. Charcoal on paper, 18 ½ × 24 ⅜" (47 × 61.9 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Donald B. Marron, 48.1985. Z XXVIII 304



1



2



3



The scandal of Cubism continues to turn on questions of visual likeness—on what we are looking at when we look at Cubist pictures, and on what, exactly, they offer up to view. Here, any evidence of Picasso’s own viewing habits, however mediated or fragmentary, proves precious. In a photograph taken, most likely, in December 1912, redolent of the messy, experimental air of his studio on boulevard Raspail, Picasso recorded an installation of recent collages and drawings [ 1]. In it, the drawing Guitar assumes a prominent place, pinned to the wall directly to the right of Picasso’s constructed relief [ 2], which presides over the scene. Amid the drawings and papiers collés depicting bottles, violins, and a single, barely readable head [3], Guitar stands out. And the longer one looks, the more its differences emerge. The thick charcoal lines force themselves upon the eye, reaching out emphatically to all sides of the sheet, undisturbed by any interrupting elements of collage. In addition, the drawing sustains a peculiarly intimate connection



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6.2



with the construction directly to its left, seeming to depict the cardboard instrument’s face turned ninety degrees and its neck rotated just a bit farther. In these operations, the drawing almost offers itself up as some flattened, dispersed alternative configuration. Read one way, the comparison seems to secure the cardboard relief’s material presence, giving its radically simplified three-dimensional geometry a uniquely spatial force. Read another way, moving from relief to drawing, we see that tense structuration begin to come undone, as the forms of the constructed guitar unfold into less secure configurations. In comparison to its sculptural partner, the drawing delimits a two-dimensional field of fantasy and displacement, one that loosens the work of figuration and opens it to more promiscuous modes of suggesting likeness. The hallmark of this fantastic dimension is the form’s vividly rendered shaded rectangles, which seem almost to stare at the viewer like eyes. Picasso shamelessly exploited the human penchant for finding faces in the world around us. Devoid of psychology, the large, hypnotic “eyes” in this work address us directly, bringing the whole figure uncannily forward. They provide a compositional anchor within the drawing but also a conceptual one, securing its investigation of Cubist likeness. Yve-Alain Bois has written of Picasso’s concern with the “elasticity of iconicity”—a “flexibility” within the work of establishing likeness that the artist ceaselessly set to probing. Over the course of the Cubist years, this destabilizing exploration of fugitive effects of resemblance came to seem more and more central to the very work of representation: by the time we reach the papiers collés, Bois writes, “part of the [very] meaning of the works . . . will



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6.3



4



be that a bottle is like a guitar is like a face.” 1 If, for all its drive to abstraction, Picasso’s project remained unthinkable without reference to the world, it was also bound to worry over imitation’s limiting conditions, testing, in a spirit by turns playful and anxious, exactly how far they could be stretched. In Guitar this is experienced less as the straining of signification or of the viewer’s perceptual abilities than as the condensation of various iconic possibilities—a claustrophobic superimposition of competing visual aspects. Paradoxically, however, the “eyes” are also the feature that most secures the picture’s virtual flatness— its seeming presentation of a series of planes as opposed to a scaffolding of lines (though the intimation of an infinite empty space between those lines never wholly goes away). The form hovers between face and an abstract quality of facingness—a sense that the entirety of the depicted figure, however unclear, “looks back,” acknowledging and orienting itself towards the viewer. 2 If the former effects always risk falling out of focus, the latter seem inseparable from Guitar’s pictorial work. But face is not the only aspect that competes here with guitar: for the “eyes” might also read as the twin sound holes of a violin.3 Picasso activates this third possibility in related compositions of the period [4]. The description of the instrument’s neck in Guitar, which leaves out the curlicue that usually stands for the violin’s scroll in depictions of this period, works against this possibility. But it never fully dissipates. Indeed, it is as if the drawing condenses various possibilities (violin, face, guitar, possibly even table) into a single form, securing the integrity of the network as a whole.4 Guitar seems retrospective, a meditation on what Picasso had been up to over the preceding few months.



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6.4



5



6



This quality comes to the fore in comparison with a closely related collage, Musical Score and Guitar, from autumn–winter 1912 [5]. Though it might be tempting to see the drawing as a kind of over-large study for the collage, it reads instead as an elaboration of this smaller work’s main forms. The drawing is an exploration of what such forms might be made to do when divorced from the jarring, additive, emphatically material modality of collage and given over to the pure play of line. Indeed, the homogeneity of the surface of Guitar, as well as the thoroughness of Picasso’s graphic command, suggests that the drawing was accomplished in a single, impossibly fluid line—even though minute breaks, hesitations, and dead ends signal this as impossible [6]. The sweep of Picasso’s line even suggests a kind of narrative: he began at the left side of the sheet and proceeded rightward, until things grew fussy and he doubled back. This sense is heightened by the way what one takes to be the tuning pin at the end of the guitar’s neck seems to curve back toward the left, rising up and outward almost like a scorpion’s tail: iconic elasticity, indeed. The comparison between drawing and collage also brings into focus the drawing’s extraordinary play with positive and negative space. No other drawing of this period attends to its edges in quite the same way, reaching out to every limit of the sheet. This makes vivid the drawing’s equivocation between presence and absence. If in collage, as Clement Greenberg put it, “the fictive depths of the picture were drained, and its action . . . brought forward and identified with the immediate, physical surface,” then here those depths come flooding back in.5 Or, rather, the drawing’s ambiguity seems so thoroughgoing that surface and



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6.5



7



depth cease to be discernable. The collage is all fullness—all tactile, surficial presence. The drawing is all ambivalence—all presence or absence, offering, finally, no certain determinants of the viewer’s relation to its fictive world. (To resolve the image too matterof-factly—into a picture of a guitar lying on a table, for instance—would be to miss the force of the drawing’s ambiguities.) Orthogonals do not function. The drawing grasps the edges of the sheet as if for dear life, lest form itself float off the page. Most importantly, this condensation of contradictory spatial possibilities corresponds with—gives force to— the unstable relation between the drawing’s multiple aspects. In a sketchbook of spring–summer 1913, Picasso further explored the anthropomorphic potential of the guitar. On its twenty-fourth page, it is as if the instrument has come to life [7]. With its face oriented upright, the pieces of this guitar-head fan out, pictured as three-dimensional forms in space. 6 The profile view on the right of the sheet even features shading, marking its salience from the ground. All this makes peculiarly vivid, by contrast, the fierce, inextricable coincidence of “face,” “guitar,” and whatever else in Guitar—a set of conditions that seems to belong to the drawing’s collapsed and contradictory spatiality most of all. For all its relation to the constructed Guitar, and its own complex circuitry of flatness and depth, the particular register of fantastic depiction achieved in this drawing could never be sculptural. It could only cohere on the off-white no-space of the isolated page. —Jeremy Melius



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6.6



Notes 1. Yve-Alain Bois, “The Semiology of Cubism,” in Picasso and Braque: A Symposium, ed. Lynn Zelevansky (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992), pp. 177, 174. See also Bois, “Kahnweiler’s Lesson” (1987), in Painting as Model (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1990), pp. 65–97. 2. For the emergence of “facingness” in the development of modernist painting, see Michael Fried, Manet’s Modernism: Or, The Face of Painting in the 1860s (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996). 3. For more information about the titles given to works of this period— titles distinguishing a “guitar” from a “violin” from a “head”—see the discussion, in Chapter 13 of this publication, of Head of a Man of spring 1913. 4. “Bottle,” the fourth form on display in Picasso’s photograph, is suggested only here and there in Guitar’s forms. 5. Clement Greenberg, “Review of the Exhibition Collage” (1948), in The Collected Essays and Criticism, ed. John O’Brian, vol. 2, Arrogant Purpose, 1945–1949 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986), p. 260. 6. Bois connects the sketchbook drawing to Head of a Man of spring 1913. Bois, “Semiology,” pp. 206–7n75. See the discussion of Head of a Man in Chapter 13 of this publication.



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6.7



Guitar Paris, December 1912. Charcoal on paper, 18 ½ × 24 ⅜" (47 × 61.9 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Donald B. Marron, 48.1985. Z XXVIII 304



Conservation Notes 8



9



The primary support for this charcoal drawing is a full, standard-size sheet of laid paper. The sheet bears the watermark “Ingres” in the lower left corner [ 8] and the countermark “L’Ecolier C. F.” in the lower right corner [ 9]. The latter identifies it as a student-grade artist’s paper made for the French paper distributor Catel et Farcy. Here Picasso drew on the smoother, felt side of the sheet—the side that had not been in direct contact with the wires of the papermaking mold and from which the watermarks can be read as intended. There is no underdrawing present, and despite the orderly appearance of the work overall, there is no evidence that the composition was executed with the assistance of drafting tools. Two very faint erasures provide evidence of compositional changes: one in the triangular shape at left center, and the other in the small semicircle below right center. There are three pinholes along the top edge of the sheet, two of which correspond to the positions of the tacks used to hang the work on



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6.8



10



11



the wall of Picasso’s boulevard Raspail studio [ 10]. Discrete areas of discoloration are visible on the verso [11], including the area surrounding the artist’s signature (at upper left), which suggest that the drawing was once mounted to a secondary support, removed before the Museum acquired the work. The remnants of a liquid stain seen under ultraviolet illumination in the top right quadrant [12] and restorations along the edges of the sheet are evidence of an undocumented conservation treatment also made before MoMA acquired the work. —SG



12



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6.9



Guitar Paris, December 1912. Charcoal on paper, 18 ½ × 24 ⅜" (47 × 61.9 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Donald B. Marron, 48.1985. Z XXVIII 304



Provenance BY c. MARCH 10, 1913 Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris. Purchased from the artist 1 1914–1923 Galerie Kahnweiler stock sequestered by the French government as property of an enemy alien 2 13



14



MAY 7, 1923 Hôtel Drouot, Paris. Vente de biens allemands: Collection Henri Kahnweiller [ sic ]. Tableaux modernes. Quatrième et dernière vente. Lot 89 (lot of fourteen works on paper) [ 13] 3 BY c. 1927–AT LEAST 1965 Pierre and Dollie Chareau, Paris, to Jean and Annie Dalsace, Paris  or Jean and Annie Dalsace, Paris (c/o Pierre and Dollie Chareau, Paris, c. 1920s–30s) [14] 4 JUNE 2, 1971 Palais Galliera, Paris. Tableaux modernes. Lot 19 5 [1980] [Sotheby’s, London or New York] 6 BY 1980–FEBRUARY 1984 Rolf and Margit Weinberg, Zurich. [Purchased from the above] 7



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6.10



FEBRUARY 1984 Fischer Fine Art Limited, London. Purchased from the above 8 JUNE 1984 Janie C. Lee Master Drawings/Hermine Chivian-Cobb, New York. Purchased from the above 9 MARCH 8, 1985 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Fractional gift of Donald B. Marron (completed December 9, 2002). Purchased from the above 10 —BH



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6.11



Notes 1. Galerie Kahnweiler was founded in 1907 by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (German, 1884–1979) at 28, rue Vignon, Paris. Picasso entered into an exclusive three-year contract, beginning December 2, 1912, to sell works at fixed prices to Kahnweiler. This arrangement is outlined in the artist’s letter, dated December 18, 1912, to his dealer (original letter on deposit with Galerie Louise Leiris Archives, Paris, and reproduced in Maurice Jardot, Picasso: Peintures 1900–1955 [Paris: Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 1955], pp. 50–52). We can conclude that this work went directly from the artist’s studio to Galerie Kahnweiler per the terms of their contract. The Kahnweiler papers are held by Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, and are not accessible at this time. According to Pepe Karmel’s unpublished 1991 transcription of Kahnweiler’s inventory book, a large cache of 1912–13 drawings and papiers collés was delivered to the gallery before Picasso’s departure for Céret in early March 1913 (see Judith Cousins, “Documentary Chronology,” in William S. Rubin, Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism [New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1989], p. 414). These Cubist works on paper were each entered into the inventory as an untitled “Dessin” or “Dessin (couleurs),” and Guitar likely numbered among them. For further reading on Kahnweiler, see Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler with Francis Crémieux, My Galleries and Painters, trans. Helen Weaver (New York: Viking Press, 1971); Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, ed., Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler: Marchand, éditeur, écrivain (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984); Monod-Fontaine, ed., Donation Louise et Michel Leiris: Collection Kahnweiler-Leiris (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984); and Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990). 2. As a German national living in France, Kahnweiler was designated an enemy alien during World War I. He was abroad at the outbreak of the war, and his gallery stock was sequestered by the French government. He lived in exile in Switzerland until his return to Paris in 1920, at which time he reopened his business under the name Galerie Simon. The French government ultimately sold Kahnweiler’s original prewar stock in a series of public auctions in 1921–23 at Hôtel Drouot, Paris, from which he was able to buy back some of his inventory through a syndicate of friends and family operating under the name “Grassat.” On this period in Kahnweiler’s life and business, see Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990), pp. 114–89.



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6.12



3. The number “89” is handwritten in pencil on the verso of Guitar along the left center edge, indicating that it was among the fourteen works on paper included in lot 89 of the fourth and final auction of sequestered Galerie Kahnweiler stock, held May 7–8, 1923. Lot 89 is listed in the auction catalogue as “Quatorze dessins: plume, crayon, fusain et papier collé. Sujets divers—(Signés au dos).” See Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Vente de biens allemands: Collection Henri Kahnweiller [sic]. Tableaux modernes. Quatrième et dernière vente (May 7–8, 1923), p. 5. It is not known to what extent unframed drawings and papiers collés were available for consultation or display during the public exhibition day (May 6, 2:00–6:00 p.m.), or during the sale (odd-numbered lots such as lot 89 were sold on May 7, and even-numbered lots on May 8). It is presumed that they were not highly visible. The lot of fourteen works, including Guitar, sold for 400 francs, according to the hammer prices published in Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot 32, no. 58 (May 15, 1923): 1. The auction generated a total of 227,662 francs in sales. In the course of preparing for the 2011 MoMA exhibition Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914, lot numbers in the same handwriting and medium were observed on the versos of nearly twenty other Cubist works on paper. Previously, it was not thought possible to identify which unframed works on paper were sold at the Kahnweiler sales. See Epilogue for further discussion. For additional information, see Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990), pp. 155–89. 4. Pierre Chareau (French, 1883–1950) was an architect and designer, best known for his work on the Maison de Verre, a glass-and-steel modernist masterpiece at 31, rue St-Guillaume, Paris. His wife Dollie, née Louise Dyte (English, 1880–1967), was a tutor and translator. The Maison de Verre was commissioned by Pierre Chareau’s primary patrons and dear friends, Jean and Annie Dalsace. Dr. Jean Dalsace (French, 1893–1970) was a well-respected gynecologist in Paris and a prominent advocate for family planning in France; his medical practice was located on the ground floor of the Maison de Verre. His wife Anna (Annie), née Bernheim (French, 1896–1968), had become friends with her tutor, Dollie Chareau, before World War I. Annie’s many Bernheim relatives, including her father Edmond (French, 1864–1957) and her uncle Émile (French, 1851–1930), commissioned special building and interior decoration projects from Pierre Chareau. Guitar is documented in a c. 1927 photograph of the Chareaus’ 54, rue Nollet, apartment, taken by André Kertész (Hungarian, 1894– 1985). The image (reproduced here) is widely published in the Chareau literature, including the thorough volume prepared by Olivier Cinquable, ed., Pierre Chareau: Architecte, un art intérieur (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1993), p. 21. Pierre Chareau’s career first prospered around 1919,



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6.13



with the inclusion of his design work at that year’s Salon d’Automne. In 1924 he opened a shop called La Boutique in rue du Cherche-Midi, next door to Galerie Jeanne Bucher. As Chareau was fairly well established by the early 1920s, he might have purchased this work from the 1923 auction of sequestered Galerie Kahnweiler stock or, subsequently, from a dealer in Paris, such as his friend and neighbor Jeanne Bucher. Malcolm Gee, in his study of the art market of France during this period, observed that Chareau bought work by Jacques Lipchitz, Georges Braque, and Amedeo Modigliani (see Gee, Dealers, Critics, and Collectors of Modern Painting: Aspects of the Parisian Art Market Between 1910 and 1930 [New York: Garland Publishing, 1981], p. 197). Alternatively, this work might have been purchased by the BernheimDalsace family and loaned to Pierre and Dollie Chareau, to install in their home-turned-showplace. Marc Vellay, grandson to the Dalsace family, wrote: “The Chareaus lived in a house in rue Nollet belonging to Annie Dalsace’s father [Edmond Bernheim], and a large number of the paintings hanging in their home .  .  .  i n fact belonged to the Dalsaces” (Marc Vellay, letter to Michael Rubenstein, n.d. [c. 1986–99], Princeton University Library, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Pierre and Dollie Chareau Collection, Box 1, Folder 8). If Guitar was owned by the Chareau family, it likely was transferred to their friends the Dalsaces before World War II. According to one source, Pierre Chareau received fewer commissions in the 1930s as the economic depression worsened, and “to survive, he and his wife began to sell their painting collection of modern masters, including Georges Braque, Giorgio de Chirico, Paul Klee, Piet Mondrian, and Pablo Picasso” (Peter Wiederspahn, “Pierre Chareau,” in R. Stephen Sennott, ed., Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Architecture, vol. 1 [New York: Taylor & Francis, 2004], p. 240). Fearing Nazi persecution after the invasion of France, Pierre Chareau left the country in July 1940. He traveled via Spain to Portugal, then to Casablanca, where he obtained an exit visa. He arrived in New York in late October 1940, and Dollie joined him the following year. In New York, he undertook the design of the Free French canteen at the French consulate, and created a modified Quonset hut in East Hampton for artist and editor Robert Motherwell (American, 1915–1991). Dollie took up tutoring and translation jobs and gave cooking lessons. She described their new situation in America in a letter to her cousin in 1943: “Curious destiny. My year in America has been most ‘rich’ in experiences and contacts. I am deeply grateful to think that at my age, rather brutally uprooted, I can find a congenial ground and still hope to prosper spiritually and even to be beholden to no man for my daily needs . . . . The problem of Pierre is more difficult. He works



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6.14



hard for the French in all their artistic + useful manifestations, exhibitions, canteens, etc. but his health worries me a little and his profession is not one for wartime” (Dollie Chareau, letter to Harold Rubenstein, July 4, 1943, Princeton University Library, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Pierre and Dollie Chareau Collection, Box 1, Folder 2). Pierre Chareau died in New York in 1950. Dollie returned to France regularly after the war. She stayed in Paris and Beauvallon with her friends, the Dalsace and Bernheim families, as indicated throughout her letters from the 1950s–60s (see Jean-Paul Felley and Olivier Kaeser, Pierre Chareau: Archives Louis Moret [Martigny: Fondation Louis Moret, 1994], letters 110–14, 117, pp. 111–13). Dollie died in New York in 1967. Guitar—whether acquired by the Dalsaces and loaned to the Chareaus, or acquired by the Dalsaces from the Chareaus—would be in line with the collection of modern art and design developed by Jean and Annie Dalsace. Their granddaughter Dominique Vellay recalled that her grandmother’s “interest in painting was lifelong, and at the Henry Kahnweiler sale she bought paintings by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque” (Dominique Vellay, “My Family and Their House,” in La Maison de Verre: Pierre Chareau’s Modernist Masterwork [New York: Thames & Hudson, 2007], p. 148). When queried, Aline Vellay, daughter of the Dalsaces, could not provide any specific information about the work, other than to suggest that it was probably acquired before the wartime period of 1939–45 (letter from Aline Vellay to Mary Chan, December 8, 1998, MoMA, Department of Drawings and Prints, Museum Collection File, 48.1985). According to Dominique Vellay, the contents of the Maison de Verre were removed for safekeeping during World War II. The collection was stored in a barn in the Allier department, in central France, owned by Léon Vellay (whose son had married Aline, née Dalsace). The German army attempted to requisition the Maison de Verre but, given its unusual design, struggled under wartime conditions to effectively heat the building. The Dalsace family returned to the Maison de Verre after the war and proceeded to restore the house. Dr. and Mrs. Dalsace were politically active in the second half of the twentieth century, and their art-filled home was an important meeting place. See Vellay, 2007, pp. 146–48. Jean Dalsace is listed as the owner of Guitar in Ewald Ranke and Sylvia Rathke-Köhl, Picasso: 150 Handzeichnungen aus sieben Jahrzehnten (Frankfurt: Kunstverein, 1965), pl. 53 (“Der Gitarrist. Um 1914. Kohle. 47 × 62 cm. Sign. rückseitig o.l.: Picasso. Dr. Jean Dalsace Paris”); Dr. Jean Dalsace of Paris appears in the list of lenders to the exhibition. A copy of the Galerie Knoedler exhibition catalogue Picasso: Dessins & Acquarelles 1899–1965 (Paris, October–December



  Guitar   |  Conservation  Provenance  Exhibitions  References



6.15



1966) in the MoMA Library is annotated in red pen under the entry for Guitar, cat. no. 41: “where / ex Dr. d’Alsace ou / avec sa fille ou / une vente publique / Ask the fille.” (The author of these inscriptions is not identified, and their date is unknown, but they appear to have been made in consultation with Lionel Prejger of Galerie Knoedler. Several pages read “Prejger coll. personelle,” or “Prejger thinks was [loaned by] Berggruen.”) In addition, Dalsace is identified as the owner of Guitar in the caption for a 1912 studio installation photograph in Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. p. 358 (“the charcoal drawing Violin Z.XXVIII.304 [47 × 62, Dalsace Collection, Paris”]). It is understood that this caption, published in 1979, did not include the most up-to-date information on the work, which had left the Dalsace collection by or before 1971. Finally, Dalsace is listed in the provenance for the work in the following catalogue: Hermine ChivianCobb, Master Drawings 1879–1984 (New York: Janie C. Lee Master Drawings/Hermine Chivian-Cobb, 1984), repr. no. 8 (“Guitare. Autumn, 1912. Collections: Dr. Jean Dalsace, Paris”). For further reading on the Chareau and Dalsace families, see René Herbst, Pierre Chareau (Paris: Éditions du Salon des Arts Ménagers, 1954); Marc Vellay and Kenneth Frampton, Pierre Chareau: Architect and Craftsman, 1883–1950, trans. Bridget Strevens Romer (London: Thames & Hudson, 1985); Olivier Cinquable, ed., Pierre Chareau: Architecte, un art intérieur (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1993); and Vellay, 2007. See also Princeton University Library, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Pierre and Dollie Chareau Collection. With thanks to Kenneth Frampton, Robert Rubin, Jessica Womack, and the staff of Princeton University Library, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, for their kind assistance. 5. Palais Galliera, Paris, Tableaux modernes, June 2, 1971, repr. lot 19 (image inverted) (“Composition. Dessin au fusain, signés au dos”). It appears the work did not sell, as lot 19 was not published among the sold lots in the June 2 auction results, as announced in Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot 80, no. 24 (June 4, 1971): 4. See also documentation on file in the Frick Photoarchive, Frick Art Reference Library, New York. Perhaps the appearance of Guitar at this 1971 Paris auction followed the settling of the estate of Jean Dalsace, who died in 1970. 6. Per Margit Weinberg, letter to Mary Chan, October 14, 1998, she and her husband Rolf purchased this work from Sotheby’s in 1980. Sotheby’s could find no record of selling the work in that year, and no online database searches brought up a record of this work passing through



  Guitar  



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6.16



Sotheby’s or any other major auction house. For correspondence with Margit Weinberg and with Sotheby’s London and New York, see MoMA, Department of Drawings and Prints, Museum Collection File, 48.1985. 7. Rolf and Margit Weinberg are Swiss collectors who began developing their collection in the 1960s and 1970s. (Founded in the 1930s, the Weinberg retail shops on the Banhofstrasse in Zurich remain family owned.) Rolf, an accomplished singer, served on the board of the Kunsthaus Zürich; Margit, an art critic and curator, has worked at the Kunstgewerbemuseum and the Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich. The Weinbergs have gifted work to the Kunsthaus Zürich and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. They sold a significant group of paintings from their collection, including two Picassos, at Sotheby’s New York in 1998. The catalogue for that sale notes that the Weinbergs “have always maintained an active collection” (see “A Passion for Art,” Paintings from the Rolf and Margit Weinberg Collection, Sotheby’s New York, May 13 and 27, 1998, n.p.). Guitar is documented in a photograph, c. early 1980, of the Weinbergs’ dining room. See Margit Weinberg-Staber, Meisterwerke des XX. Jahrhunderts: De Chirico, Magritte, Mondrian u.a. Eine Schweizer Sammlung moderner Kunst (Hannover: Kestner-Gesellschaft, 1980), p. 22, repr. pp. 6, 22 (installation views), and p. 23. For more information on their collection, see Beat Wismer, ed., El Greco bis Mondrian: Bilder aus einer Schweizer Privatsammlung (Cologne: Weinand, 1996). 8. Fischer Fine Art Limited was founded by dealer Harry Fischer (Austrian, 1903–1977). He emigrated in 1939 from Vienna to London, where he co-founded Marlborough Fine Art and, later, founded Fischer Fine Art. The business was later run by Harry’s son Wolfgang Fischer (Austrian, born 1933), a dealer and art historian working in London and Vienna. Guitar appeared in an advertisement for Fischer Fine Art Limited, announcing the exhibition Important 20th Century Paintings, Drawings, and Sculptures (May 2–25, 1984), with the caption “Pablo Picasso. Guitare, 1912. Charcoal on paper.” See Apollo 119, no. 267 (May 1984): 65. Per Margit Weinberg, letter to Mary Chan, October 14, 1998, she and her husband Rolf sold Guitar to Wolfgang Fischer, London, in February 1984 (MoMA, Department of Drawings and Prints, Museum Collection File, 48.1985). Fischer’s ownership was confirmed via verbal communication, Hermine Chivian-Cobb with Bernice Rose, December 5, 1989 (as recorded in a memo by Rose, December 5, 1989). See MoMA, Department of Drawings and Prints, Museum Collection File, 48.1985.



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6.17



9. Per provenance record completed and signed by Hermine Chivian-Cobb, September 3, 1985 (MoMA, Department of Drawings and Prints, Museum Collection File, 48.1985). See also Hermine Chivian-Cobb, Master Drawings 1879–1984 (New York: Janie C. Lee Master Drawings/ Hermine Chivian-Cobb, 1984), repr. no. 8 (“Guitare. Autumn, 1912”). 1 0. This fractional gift of Donald B. Marron (American, born 1934), financier, collector, and MoMA trustee, was approved at the March 8, 1985, meeting of the Committee on Drawings. The deed of gift was completed on December 9, 2002. See documentation on deposit with MoMA, Department of Drawings and Prints, Museum Collection File, 48.1985.



  Guitar   |  Conservation  Provenance  Exhibitions  References



6.18



Guitar Paris, December 1912. Charcoal on paper, 18 ½ × 24 ⅜" (47 × 61.9 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Donald B. Marron, 48.1985. Z XXVIII 304



Selected Exhibitions 1923 Paris, Hôtel Drouot. Vente de biens allemands: Collection Henri Kahnweiller [sic]. Tableaux modernes. Quatrième et dernière vente. Lot 89. Public exhibition: May 6. Odd-numbered lots sold May 7 1965 Frankfurt, Kunstverein. Picasso: 150 Handzeichnungen aus sieben Jahrzehnten. May 29–July 4. Pl. 53 (image inverted) (“Der Gitarrist. Um 1914”) 1966 Paris, Galerie Knoedler. Picasso: Dessins & Acquarelles 1899–1965. October–December. Cat. no. 41 (“Le Guitariste. 1914”) 1971 Paris, Palais Galliera. Tableaux modernes. Public exhibition days: May 24–28 and June 1–2. Auction: June 2. Lot 19 (“Composition”) 1980 Winterthur, Kunstmuseum. Meisterwerke des XX. Jahrhundert: De Chirico, Magritte, Mondrian u.a. Eine Schweizer Sammlung moderner Kunst. March 2–April 13. Cat. p. 22. Tour venues: Hannover, Kestner-Gesellschaft. April 25–June 15; Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum. June 29–August 17



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6.19



15



1984 London, Fischer Fine Art Limited. Important 20th Century Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture. May 2–25 (No catalogue) New York, Janie C. Lee Master Drawings/Hermine Chivian-Cobb. Master Drawings 1879–1984. November. Cat. no. 8



16



17



1987 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Drawings Acquisitions. January 24–May 26. Checklist p. 9 [ 15] 1989 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism, September 24, 1989–January 16, 1990. Cat. p. 257. (Note: Exhibited only at the New York venue. The work did not travel with the exhibition to Kunstmuseum Basel.) [ 16] 1999 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. ModernStarts: Things. November 19, 1999–March 14, 2000. Cat. p. 308 [ 17]



18



2004 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Drawing from the Modern, 1880– 1945. November 20, 2004–March 7, 2005. Cat. pl. 34 [ 18] 2005 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Painting and Sculpture: Inaugural Installation. March 16–August 15. Checklist p. 88



19



2010 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century. November 16, 2010–February 7, 2011. Cat. pl. 14 [19] 2011 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. February 13–June 6. Cat. no. 19 [ 20]



20



  Guitar   |  Conservation  Provenance  Exhibitions  References



6.20



Guitar Paris, December 1912. Charcoal on paper, 18 ½ × 24 ⅜" (47 × 61.9 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Donald B. Marron, 48.1985. Z XXVIII 304



Selected References 21



1950 Zervos, Christian. “Oeuvres et images inédites de la jeunesse de Picasso.” Cahiers d’art 25, no. 2. Repr. p. 281 (installation view) [ 21] 1 9 74 Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso: Supplément aux années 1910–1913. Vol. XXVIII. Paris: Cahiers d’art. Cat. no. 304. Pl. 125 1979 Daix, Pierre, and Joan Rosselet. Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. Trans. Dorothy S. Blair. London: Thames & Hudson. Repr. p. 358 (installation view including “the charcoal drawing Violin Z.XXVIII.304”) 1990 Palau i Fabre, Josep. Picasso: Cubism (1907–1917). Trans. Susan Branyas, Richard-Lewis Rees, and Patrick Zabalbeascoa. New York: Rizzoli, 1990. Ref. p. 825. Fig. 825 (“Violin on a Table”) 2010 Butler, Cornelia, and Catherine de Zegher. On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 26. Repr. pl. 14, 15 (installation view)



  Guitar   |  Conservation  Provenance  Exhibitions  References



6.21



Composition with a Violin Paris, December 1912. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated December 8, 1912), pencil, charcoal, and ink on paper, 24 × 18 ⅜ " (61 × 46.7 cm). Private collection



Recto 



 



Raking Light 



 



UV Light 



 



Infrared Light



Essay  Conservation  Provenance  Exhibitions  References



7.1



Composition with a Violin Paris, December 1912. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated December 8, 1912), pencil, charcoal, and ink on paper, 24 × 18 ⅜ " (61 × 46.7 cm). Private collection



In the first monograph on Picasso, written in 1914 and published in 1917, Russian critic Ivan Aksenov pronounced the Spanish artist to be a “portraitist of innumerable violins” who pasted down “newspaper clippings—absolute planes” embellished with nothing more than a few lines of charcoal. 1 Composition with a Violin is one such work, generated within the strict material parameters Picasso had set for himself in the winter of 1912. His spare selection included a stack of ivory fine art paper; a week’s bundle of Le Journal newspapers, dating from December 2 through December 9, 1912; and charcoal, pencil, and ink. 2 While the guitar is often cited as Picasso’s preferred subject, Composition with a Violin and its closely related works serve as a reminder that it was a network of practices— in this case, papier collé, constructed sculpture, and photography—and not a particular musical instrument, that defined his 1912–14 project. 3



   Composition with a Violin  



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7.2



1



2



3



4



   Composition with a Violin  



Picasso began Composition with a Violin by drawing in charcoal on the wire side of a sheet of laid paper in a halting manner, the structure of the paper catching granules of medium. His insistently belabored style of line seems to signify an embrace of awkwardness. The jagged contours of the selected piece of newspaper, cut with scissors from page 4 of the December 8, 1912, edition of Le Journal [1] and pasted onto the paper support, echo his uneven charcoal line [2].4 Picasso’s shading in sketchy pencil lines added minimal depth and dimensionality, deployed most keenly along the far right silhouette of the instrument. In his final steps, the artist added a few charcoal lines on top of the pasted newspaper and carefully filled in a small, irregular shape with glossy black ink. Aksenov’s “absolute planes” of newspaper perform multiple functions in Composition with a Violin. Examination under ultraviolet light [3] emphasizes what very close observation of the work with the naked eye also reveals: that Picasso built a system in which the found printed lines of the newspaper, the found laid lines of the fine art paper, and his hand-drawn charcoal lines interact and often extend or amplify each other. As in many other papiers collés of 1912–13, he oriented the printed text of his newspaper cutout in a direction that thwarts legibility, working against (in the same moment that it activates) any literate viewer’s impulse to read. Thus the fine print is broadly symbolic of text rather than operational as such, foregrounding what newspaper is both materially and compositionally, and what it signifies in the broadest cultural sense.5 Picasso’s Le Journal clippings possess the emphatic flatness that only the printed page can, but when the work is judged photographically [4], as the artist



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7.3



5



6



7



8



   Composition with a Violin  



did, the columns of text in Composition with a Violin have a significant affinity with his back-and-forth pencil shading.6 In figurative terms, the vertical lines of print evoke the real wood grain of a violin and the mechanically printed wood grain of the wallpaper Georges Braque used in his papiers collés in the months before Picasso undertook this campaign of works with newspaper [5].7 Sparked by Braque’s materials and methods, Picasso incorporated sheet music and wallpaper into a few works in 1912, ultimately hitting upon newspaper as the substance with the greatest potential for transformation. 8 In their art, were these two friends like the boxers in the illustration pinned to Picasso’s studio wall in late 1912 or early 1913 [6] ? 9 Paper works are often associated with preparation, with the provisional, but Composition with a Violin is a work after not a study for. Picasso probably cobbled together his hyper-fragile cardboard Violin [7] in the late autumn or winter of 1912. He proceeded, after what was likely a very short interval, to pick up his charcoal and his scissors to make Composition, which sets on paper the idiosyncrasies of the delicately constructed sculpture. To suggest that the papier collé followed Violin is not to argue that the sculpture was made for this purpose, but rather to observe that this was one of the ways Picasso deployed his constructions in the studio. While sources from antiquity, such as Pliny the Elder, link the invention of sculpture to the capturing of a cast shadow (from which the first relief was made), Picasso’s constructions invert this paradigm and function as the shadow-makers of Cubism.10 He fixed the cast shadows of Violin with his pencil in this papier collé, and with a camera in an early 1913 portrait that includes the construction [8].11 He subsequently inserted Violin into a still life relief



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7.4



9



composition [9] that was published in November 1913 in the avant-garde journal Les Soirées de Paris.12 This was the life of a Cubist motif, interrogated across and through different mediums. Composition with a Violin and its nexus of works demonstrate that Picasso’s Cubism was not a style so much as a set of procedures for scrutinizing how shadows operate. As for the role of papier collé in this investigation, Jean Paulhan, one of the few among Picasso’s contemporaries to focus in his writing on the new medium, likened it to the devices of Brunelleschi and Durer: all were “machines for seeing.” 13 —Blair Hartzell



   Composition with a Violin  



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7.5



Notes 1. Ivan Aksenov, Picasso i okrestnosti (Moscow: Tsentrifuga, 1917). Repr. and trans. in Picasso and Environs, in Ilia Dorontchenkov, ed., Russian and Soviet Views of Modern Western Art, 1890s to mid1930s, trans. Charles Rougle (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), pp. 121, 126. 2. For a detailed record of the dated newspapers incorporated into Picasso’s papiers collés, see Edward Fry, “Picasso, Cubism, and Reflexivity,” Art Journal 47, no. 4 (1988): Appendix II, p. 310. The majority of works created in the same campaign as Composition with a Violin incorporate clippings from December 2–9, 1912; one includes a clipping from December 14. Other series incorporate clippings from November 18, 1912; January 21, 1913; and January 25–26, 1913. For more information about Picasso’s materials and techniques, see Conservation Notes. 3. Regarding Picasso’s guitars, see Werner Spies, “La Guitare anthropomorphe,” Revue de l’art, no. 12 (1971): 81–92; and Anne Umland, Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2011). 4. Other papiers collés that incorporate pages from the December 8, 1912, edition of Le Journal are Bottle on a Table (DR 551), page 7; Bottle on a Table (DR 552), page 5; and Guitar (DR 566), page 3. 5. Leo Steinberg put it best when he observed at the symposium Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism at The Museum of Modern Art in 1989: “My suspicion is that the blocks of type are not to be read; they provide a kind of texture, a kind of precise energy within the field.” Steinberg, “Discussion,” in Lynn Zelevansky, ed., Picasso and Braque: A Symposium (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992), p. 77. For an alternative approach, one that evaluates the content of the newspaper cutouts, see Patricia Leighten, Re-Ordering the Universe: Picasso and Anarchism, 1897–1914 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1989). 6. This photograph was first published in Christian Zervos, “Oeuvres et images inédites de la jeunesse de Picasso,” Cahiers d’art 25, no. 2 (1950): 281. For further discussion of this photograph and the newspaper cutouts in the papiers collés it documents, see Anne Baldassari, Picasso: Working on Paper, trans. George Collins (London: Merrell, 2000), pp. 65–71. See also Anne Umland, Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2011), pp. 23–24.



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7.6



For a discussion of a moment (in 1909) in which Picasso explored a related set of relationships in his work, see Jeffrey Weiss, ed., Picasso: The Cubist Portraits of Fernande Olivier (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2003). 7. For the classic account of Braque’s invention of papier collé, see Douglas Cooper, “Braque as Innovator: The First Papier Collé,” in Isabelle Monod-Fontaine with E. A. Carmean, Braque: The Papiers Collés (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1982), pp. 23–43. 8. The appearance in studio photographs from mid-December 1912 or February 1913 (see figs. 4 and 6) of part of the front page of the November 18, 1912, Le Journal and printed wallpaper and sheet music (two materials whose use is commonly dated to autumn 1912 in Picasso’s work) prompts a number of questions: Might there have been a much shorter interval between the wallpaper/ sheet music works and the newspaper papiers collés than previously thought? Is there a chance that it was not until Braque’s definitive return to Paris for the winter season, on November 29, 1912, that Picasso had the opportunity to view his friend’s recent innovations? Was such an encounter the spark for Picasso’s December campaign? For key information on September–December 1912, see Judith Cousins, “Chronology,” in William S. Rubin, Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1989), pp. 403–12. For further discussion of Braque’s papiers collés, see Isabelle Monod-Fontaine with E. A. Carmean, Braque: The Papiers Collés (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1982); and Anne Umland, “Braque’s faux bois,” in Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow, eds., Cubism: The Leonard Lauder Collection (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, forthcoming 2014). 9. Essential sources on this topic include the two publications prepared in conjunction with the 1989 exhibition Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. See William S. Rubin, Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1989); and Lynn Zelevansky, ed., Picasso and Braque: A Symposium (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992). Braque was quite the boxer, as documented in a number of photographs from before World War I. Unlike the more well-known photographs of Picasso’s boulevard Raspail studio, in which the wall and the photographic frame are filled with artwork, this recently rediscovered image captures a few scattered works, perhaps snapped before the session was really underway: Guitar (S 27A); Musical Score and Guitar (DR 520); Violin (DR 524); and Head of a Man (DR 532). On the floor, Bottle



   Composition with a Violin  



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7.7



and Glass (DR 547) and Bottle of Bass and Guitar (Z II [2] 376) are visible. For more concerning this previously unpublished photograph, see p. 3.15n15. 1 0. Pliny the Elder, Natural History (c. AD 77), trans. H. Rackman (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1962), vol. 9, book XXXV, p. 43. 1 1. The six known photographs of this assemblage (this one previously unpublished) provide information to date the installation to after January 25, 1913 (the latest newspaper clippings used). The photographs must have been taken before approximately March 10, 1913, at which time a number of the paintings visible in the images were delivered to Galerie Kahnweiler for sale. See “Chronology,” in Anne Umland, Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2011), p. 98. 1 2. See Les Soirées de Paris (November 15, 1913): 45. Pepe Karmel presented this still life as made and photographed in Céret in spring 1913, perhaps due to the wallpaper background, which also appears in several papiers collés dated to spring 1913. In relation to this, he described the papier collé Composition with a Violin as a “model” which preceded the Violin construction. See Karmel, Picasso and the Invention of Cubism (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2003), p. 175. Photographic evidence (such as fig. 8, taken in Paris) supports the likely supposition that Violin, like Guitar, was made in Paris and, conceivably, remained there. It is not improbable, however, that Picasso moved large scraps of wallpaper along with his usual stash of artist’s materials when he changed locations for the season. For more on Picasso’s use of wallpaper, see Elizabeth Cowling, “What the Wallpapers Say: Picasso’s Papiers Collés of 1912–14,” The Burlington Magazine 155 (September 2013): 594–601. 1 3. Jean Paulhan, “Une Nouvelle Machine à voir: Le Papier collé” (1971), in La Peinture cubiste (Paris: Denoël, 1990), p. 130. Pierre Daix once asked Picasso if he agreed with Paulhan’s theory, and Daix said that in response Picasso “became excited, and immediately made me a drawing; then he took two pieces of torn paper, compared them with the drawing, repeatedly rearranging the papers in order to test the compositional possibilities.” See Daix, “Discussion,” in Lynn Zelevansky, ed., Picasso and Braque: A Symposium (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992), p. 76.



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7.8



Composition with a Violin Paris, December 1912. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated December 8, 1912), pencil, charcoal, and ink on paper, 24 × 18 ⅜ " (61 × 46.7 cm). Private collection



Conservation Notes 10



11



12



   Composition with a Violin  



The primary support for this work is a full sheet of artist’s paper manufactured for the French paper distributor Catel et Farcy. It bears the watermark “Ingres 1862” in the upper right corner [10] and a countermark in the lower right corner consisting of the initials “C F” and a caduceus, all surrounded by a shield, above the location of the paper’s manufacture, France [11]. The artist executed the work on the more textured, wire side of the sheet, the side that had been in direct contact with the wires of the papermaking mold and from which watermarks appear reversed. Picasso used a stick of black charcoal to sketch the composition and a graphite pencil to fill in extensively shaded passages. The collage element was cut from a newspaper page using scissors, which produced distinctive jagged edges as the paper was rotated in the artist’s hands [12]. In the final steps, Picasso drew in charcoal over the newspaper, and with dense black India ink he painted the black shape that stands for



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7.9



the violin’s tailpiece and straddles the collage and the primary support. Holes in the upper corners of the support sheet were made by the tacks used to hang the papier collé on the wall of the artist’s boulevard Raspail studio. In the intervening years the work was mounted overall onto a piece of cardboard, which has diminished its subtle three-dimensionality. There are powdery residues (possibly gouache) on the newspaper in the area around the violin’s f-holes, possibly the result of a past restoration. Acidic components migrating from the newspaper caused the brown stain that halos the cutout. The presence of this staining suggests that the newspaper has darkened significantly with age. —SG



   Composition with a Violin  



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7.10



Composition with a Violin Paris, December 1912. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated December 8, 1912), pencil, charcoal, and ink on paper, 24 × 18 ⅜ " (61 × 46.7 cm). Private collection



Provenance 13



BY c. MARCH 10, 1913 Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris. Purchased from the artist 1 [BETWEEN 1913 AND 1918–?] [Agnes Ernst Meyer and Eugene Meyer, Mount Kisco, N.Y.; New York City; and Washington, D.C.] [13] 2 c. APRIL 1957 Stendahl Art Galleries, Los Angeles 3 c. 1957 G. David and Helene Thompson, Pittsburgh [ 13] 4 [c. 1957] [Berggruen et Cie, Paris. Purchased from the above] 5 c. 1957–1984 Douglas Cooper, Argilliers, France (previously London). [Acquired from the above via exchange] 6



14



1984–1986 William McCarty-Cooper, Los Angeles (The Douglas Cooper Collection/ Churchglade Ltd.). By descent from the above [14] 7 NOVEMBER 24, 1986 Private collection. Purchased from the above 8 —BH



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7.11



Notes 1. Galerie Kahnweiler was founded in 1907 by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (German, 1884–1979) at 28, rue Vignon, Paris. Picasso entered into an exclusive three-year contract, beginning December 2, 1912, to sell works at fixed prices to Kahnweiler. This arrangement is outlined in the artist’s letter, dated December 18, 1912, to his dealer (original letter on deposit with Galerie Louise Leiris Archives, Paris, and reproduced in Maurice Jardot, Picasso: Peintures 1900–1955 [Paris: Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 1955], pp. 50–52). We can conclude that Composition with a Violin went directly from the artist’s studio to Galerie Kahnweiler per the terms of their contract. The Kahnweiler papers are held by Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, and are not accessible at this time. The verso of the work is inaccessible, as it is adhered to a secondary support, but a window cut into this board provides access to the artist’s signature, “Picasso,” at upper left. Thus the work is signed in a manner consistent with other works on paper that left the artist’s studio in the same period for sale. A Galerie Kahnweiler label stamped with the inventory number “1278” is adhered to the secondary support. In Pepe Karmel’s unpublished 1991 transcription of the Galerie Kahnweiler inventory book, no. 1278 is identified as a “Dessin” priced at five hundred francs. This is the generic entry Kahnweiler used for many of the papiers collés and drawings that were delivered to the gallery before Picasso’s departure for Céret in early March 1913 (see Judith Cousins, “Documentary Chronology,” in William S. Rubin, Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism [New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1989], p. 414). For further reading on Kahnweiler, see Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler with Francis Crémieux, My Galleries and Painters, trans. Helen Weaver (New York: Viking Press, 1971); Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, ed., Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler: Marchand, éditeur, écrivain (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984); Monod-Fontaine, ed., Donation Louise et Michel Leiris: Collection Kahnweiler-Leiris (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984); and Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990). 2. Agnes Ernst Meyer (American, 1887–1970) was a journalist, editor, and prominent advocate for education reform. The daughter of German immigrants, Agnes Ernst graduated from Barnard College in 1907 and was among the first women to work at the New York Sun. While at the Sun, she met American artists Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen and began her association with the modern art movement in New York. She continued her studies at the Sorbonne, and visited Leo and Gertrude Stein’s Saturday-evening salons while in Paris in 1908–09 (she preferred Leo’s company). In 1910 she married Eugene Meyer



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7.12



(American, 1875–1959), an investment banker who later held a number of important government appointments, culminating in his position as the first president of the World Bank. The Meyers were early and important American collectors of modern art, and Agnes was an editor and writer for the avant-garde journal 291. In 1915 she co-founded the Modern Gallery with Marius de Zayas (Mexican, 1880– 1961), in New York. The Meyers moved to Washington, D.C., in 1917, and Eugene purchased the Washington Post in 1933. The paper would remain in the Meyer family until August 2013. In the 1910s, the Meyers’ collection included important work by Brancusi, Cézanne, Despiau, Manet, Marin, Picabia, Picasso, Renoir, Rivera, and Rodin. Agnes Meyer wrote to Stieglitz from Paris in June 1914, describing what was perhaps her first Picasso acquisition: “De Zayas took me to Kahnweiler’s to see Picasso’s latest things and I not only admired but purchased. A sweet little still-life with saw-dust grapes and wallpaper background [DR 729] but a thing that belongs to one, that ‘wanted to come to me’ as old Kümmel puts it” (Meyer, letter to Alfred Stieglitz, June 25, 1914, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale Collection of American Literature MSS 85, Stieglitz/O’Keeffe Archive, Box 35, folder 815). Dealer Earl Stendahl (see note 3, below) believed that Composition with a Violin had previously been owned by Meyer, and he indicated as much in a conversation with Museum of Modern Art curator Dorothy C. Miller. Miller passed along this information to Alfred H. Barr, Jr., founding director of the Museum (Miller, memo to Barr, April 30, 1957, MoMA Archives, Collectors Records, 92). In addition, a black-and-white photograph of Composition with a Violin (reproduced here) filed with other loose photographs in the Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Papers at MoMA bears a stamp with the note “Former Collection Mrs. Eugene Meyer,” further suggesting that this papier collé was owned by the Meyers (MoMA Archives, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Papers, 12.V.B.2). No additional archival evidence has confirmed the connection, but given Agnes Meyer’s work, associates, and travels from 1913 to 1918, we may speculate that she acquired the work from Galerie Kahnweiler in Paris shortly before the outbreak of World War I or, rather more likely, in New York from the gallery 291 or the Modern Gallery. No mention of Composition with a Violin has been found in the Agnes Elizabeth Ernst Meyer or Eugene Meyer Papers at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., though many available documents relate to purchases of modern art in this period. Agnes Meyer ultimately shifted her collecting habits to Chinese antiquities and redirected her primary focus onto politics after the family’s move to Washington, D.C. As she put it in a 1953 letter to collector and art historian Bernard Berenson: “For years I have given up collecting objects of art, because my energy goes into making an orderly, creative society in which some day art may possibly flourish



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7.13



again” (Meyer, letter to Bernard Berenson, September 21, 1953, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Agnes Elizabeth Ernst Meyer Papers, container 8, folder Be). Georgia O’Keeffe characterized the same shift in slightly different terms: “While Mrs. Meyer all but ended her connection with the avant-garde in 1918, Stieglitz continued to wage the battle on behalf of modern art” (see Douglas K. S. Hyland, “Agnes Ernst Meyer, Patron of American Modernism,” American Art Journal 12, no. 1 [Winter 1980]: 66). If the Meyers did indeed own Composition with a Violin, which seems probable, then the circumstances under which it left their collection are difficult to imagine. Of another work in her collection, Agnes Meyer wrote to dealer George Staempfli: “I would never sell art objects. Least of all would I sell such a personal tribute as Brancusi’s abstract portrait of me in black marble” (Meyer, letter to George Staempfli, December 27, 1962, Agnes Elizabeth Ernst Meyer Papers, container 34, folder Misc.). The Meyers stored rather than sold four c. 1912–14 Picabia paintings, putting them in the basement of the family home in Mount Kisco, N.Y., sometime during World War I. The four works, of which all trace had been lost, were later discovered there under bird feeders and an old croquet set. The Meyer family gifted these canvases to MoMA in 1974, after their rediscovery (MoMA 1409.1974–1412.1974; see “Four Recently Discovered Picabias and Other Modern Master Acquisitions,” MoMA Press Release no. 2, January 1980). For further reading, see Agnes Meyer, Out of These Roots: An Autobiography of an American Woman (Boston: Little, Brown, 1953); Barbara Sicherman and Carol Hurd Green, eds., Notable American Women: The Modern Period (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1980), pp. 471–73; and Hyland, 1980, pp. 64–81. For additional information on Meyer’s friends and associates in New York in the 1910s, see Marius de Zayas, How, When, and Why Modern Art Came to New York, ed. Francis M. Naumann (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1996); Sara Greenough et al., Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2001); and Michael Fitzgerald, Picasso and American Art (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2007). Many thanks to the staff of the Library of Congress for their assistance with consulting the Agnes Elizabeth Ernst Meyer Papers and the Eugene Meyer Papers. Additional thanks to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.; the Whitney Museum of American Art Archives, New York; and the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University, New York. 3. The Stendahl Art Galleries were founded in 1911 by Earl L. Stendahl (American, 1887–1966) in Los Angeles. Operated under various names, including Stendahl Ambassador Galleries and Stendahl-Hatfield Galleries, they specialized in the work of California-based artists as well



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as Pre-Columbian art. Stendahl later expanded his business to include European modernism and famously arranged for his gallery to host a stop on the United States tour of Picasso’s Guernica (1937). American collectors Walter and Louise Arensberg and Nelson A. Rockefeller were great friends and clients. Stendahl’s success in procuring European masterworks for them was largely due to his friendship with the Parisbased artist/dealer Theodore Schempp (see Chapter 13, Provenance, in this publication for more information about Schempp). In the spring of 1957, MoMA curator Dorothy C. Miller wrote to the Museum’s founding director: “Earl Stendhal [sic] has just called that he has a drawing with collage (coolage to him!) from Eugene Meyer Collection, Kahnweiler #1278­—Is now at Lowy being framed. D. Thompson has heard of it but Stendahl has said he w/could bring it here first of all” (Miller, memo to Alfred H. Barr, Jr., April 30, 1957, MoMA Archives, Collectors Records 92). Composition with a Violin (which bears a Galerie Kahnweiler label numbered 1278) presumably was offered for sale to MoMA after it was framed and/or conserved at Julius Lowy Frame and Restoring Co., New York. No documentation linking this work to Stendahl has been found in the Stendahl Art Galleries Records, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. The work ultimately sold to collector G. David Thompson, whom Miller refers to in her memo. The Stendahl Galleries continue to operate as a family-run business out of an architecturally significant compound in the Hollywood Hills, formerly the Arensberg Estate. For further reading on Stendahl, see April Dammann, Exhibitionist: Earl Stendahl, Art Dealer as Impresario (Santa Monica: Angel City Press, 2011). 4. G. David Thompson (American, 1899–1965) was an industrialist and art collector who built an enormous collection of modern masters. He explained: “By choice I confined my activities to a small group. Within this group my collection often contained 40 to 50 works by a single artist. In several instances this figure exceeded 100” (Thompson, One Hundred Paintings from the G. David Thompson Collection [New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1961], n.p.). He began collecting in 1928, when he purchased a Paul Klee. Thompson had a close working relationship with Galerie Beyeler, Basel, in later years, selling Ernst Beyeler vast numbers of works by Klee and Alberto Giacometti. He lived with his wife Helene (American, died 1982) in their home, Stone’s Throw, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and they exhibited their collection in Düsseldorf, The Hague, New York, and Turin from 1960 to 1961 (it was during the summer of 1961 that several works were stolen from Stone’s Throw, but later recovered by the FBI). The black-and-white photograph of Composition with a Violin reproduced here, filed with loose photographs in the Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Papers at The Museum of Modern Art Archives, bears a stamp on its reverse that reads “COLLECTION G. DAVID THOMPSON.” This indicates



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that the papier collé, then known as Musical Instrument, was owned by Thompson (MoMA Archives, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Papers, 12.V.B.2). The photograph could have been sent to Barr, MoMA’s founding director, by Thompson (a MoMA trustee, 1960–65) or another dealer or collector; it has not been associated with any particular piece of correspondence. After Thompson’s death, his widow transferred thirty-two black-andwhite photographs, among other photographic materials, to the MoMA Library (as confirmed by Willard Tangen, letter to Helene Thompson, January 3, 1966), and the glossy print in the MoMA Archives could date from that period. Thompson collected works by Picasso, though Composition with a Violin does not appear in any published materials related to his collection. In the preface to the catalogue of a sale of 113 works from the G. David Thompson Collection at Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York (March 22–23, 1966), Barr wrote: “The Picassos were extraordinary, not only for their quality but often for their uncompromising character” (Barr, The Collection of Twentieth-Century Painting and Sculpture Formed by the Late G. David Thompson of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania [New York: Parke-Bernet Galleries, 1966], p. 1). For further reading on Thompson, see Sammlung G. David Thompson, Pittsburgh/USA (Düsseldorf: Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, 1960); Thompson, 1961; and John Richardson, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: Picasso, Provence, and Douglas Cooper (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2001), pp. 223–27. 5. Berggruen et Cie was founded by Heinz Berggruen (German, 1914– 2007) in Paris in 1948. Berggruen began his career as an art dealer in Paris in 1947. He had been a journalist in Berlin before fleeing to the United States in 1936, where he worked for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He returned to Europe as a member of the U.S. Army in 1942. Berggruen became his own best client (as dealers often do), and he amassed an exceptional personal collection including works by Picasso, Giacometti, Klee, and Matisse. He developed friendships with several artists, including Picasso. His personal collection was acquired by the Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin and is now on view at the Museum Berggruen. Douglas Cooper’s collection records indicate that he regularly exchanged and sold works to Berggruen in the 1950s and 1960s (see note 6, below, and Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, The Douglas Cooper Papers, 1900–1985). Dorothy Kosinski, curator of the Cooper Collection, suggested that Cooper might have traded a work to Berggruen in 1957 in order to obtain Composition with a Violin. The evidence for this transaction was probably anecdotal, perhaps something Cooper’s former partner John Richardson had indicated in conversation (see Kosinski, Douglas Cooper und die Meister des Kubismus [Basel: Kunstmuseum Basel, 1987], pp. 45, 178n147).



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For further reading, see Heinz Berggruen, Highway and Byways, trans. Robin Benson (Yelvertoft Manor, Northamptonshire: Pilkington Press, 1998); Anne Baldassari, Picasso/Berggruen: Une Collection particulière (Paris: Musée National Picasso, 2006); Berggruen, Mon premier Picasso et autres détails longtemps cachés (Paris: L’Arche, 2006); and Vivien Stein, Heinz Berggruen: Leben und Legende (Zurich: Alpenblick, 2011). 6. Douglas Cooper (English, 1911–1984) was a collector and art historian prominently linked with Cubism and particularly with Picasso, his neighbor in the South of France. Starting in the 1930s, he spent a third of his inheritance on developing an art collection and worked for a period at the Mayor Gallery, London. Cooper’s art historical knowledge and language skills (he earned degrees in French and German from Trinity College, Cambridge) proved extremely useful in the investigation of World War II–era looted cultural property while he served in the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archive Section under the Civil Affairs and Military Government Sections of the Allied Armies. Around 1950, Cooper moved with his then-partner John Richardson to Château de Castille, in Argilliers, where they regularly visited or entertained Picasso. He served as Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford (1957–58), and he published a catalogue raisonné on Juan Gris (with Margaret Potter, 1977) and several important texts on Cubism, including The Cubist Epoch (1970) and The Essential Cubism, 1907–1920: Braque, Picasso & Their Friends (with Gary Tinterow, 1983). Words like “cantankerous,” “obstreperous,” and “volatile” are often invoked to describe Cooper’s personality. His enemies ranged from Tate Gallery director John Rothenstein, who punched Cooper in the face at a public reception, to an alleged thief who stabbed Cooper outside Nîmes in 1961. This papier collé has not been identified in the papers concerning Cooper’s art collection, which primarily document acquisitions made from 1933 to 1950 (see Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, The Douglas Cooper Papers, 1900–1985, especially VI.52.1–2). Dorothy Kosinski, curator of the Cooper Collection, suggested that Cooper had purchased two works from Earl Horter, Philadelphia, and might have traded one of these to Berggruen in 1957 in order to obtain Composition with a Violin. The evidence for this transaction was probably anecdotal, perhaps something Cooper’s former partner John Richardson had indicated in conversation (see Kosinski, Douglas Cooper und die Meister des Kubismus [Basel: Kunstmuseum Basel, 1987], pp. 45, 178n147). If true, the work passed quickly from Stendahl to Berggruen to Cooper. The hardcover book “Catalogue of Works of Art Belonging to Douglas Cooper,” in which Cooper maintained a “numerical listing of my pictures etc./1946– ” with the artist, title, and insurance values indicated, occasionally notes the method of disposal for a crossed-out work. Annotations including “Berggruen 1956” or



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“Exch. With Berggruen Dec. ’64” indicate that such exchanges were, at least, regular practice (Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, The Douglas Cooper Papers, VI.52.1). Perhaps most importantly, Richardson remembered “the purchase of this papier collé in the 1950s as a great celebratory event, forming, as it were, a pair with the Braque papier-collé Fruit Dish and Glass purchased already in 1946” (Kosinski, 1987, p. 148). Whenever the work was acquired, the backing board on Composition with a Violin now bears a label from the Douglas Cooper Collection (see fig. 14), and the work was included in the touring exhibition Douglas Cooper und die Meister des Kubismus, organized after Cooper’s death. For further reading, see Kosinski, 1987; Kosinski, Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger: Douglas Cooper Collecting Cubism (Houston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1990); and John Richardson, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: Picasso, Provence, and Douglas Cooper (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2001). 7. William (Billy) McCarty-Cooper (American, 1938–1991) was an interior designer and the partner and adopted son of collector Douglas Cooper. Cooper adopted McCarty in 1972, ensuring that he would inherit his collection and fortune. McCarty-Cooper appointed a curator, Dorothy Kosinski, to care for the collection, and formed a holding company, Churchglade Ltd. The “DC” label on the backing board of Composition with a Violin (reproduced here) carries information for “The Douglas Cooper Collection.” The handwritten number “63–64” corresponds to a numbered French customs photograph in the documentation files of the Musée National Picasso, Paris, confirming that the work was exported from France after Cooper’s death. The Cooper collection was exhibited in Basel, London, and Philadelphia, and later in Houston and Los Angeles. See Exhibitions. A number of works were sold at Christie’s London, Drawings, Sculpture, Prints and Posters from the Douglas Cooper Collection, November 30, 1988. McCarty-Cooper died in Los Angeles in 1991 of AIDS-related complications. He left his estate to family. See also Christie’s New York, Important Furniture, Silver, Books and Decorative Arts from the Collection of William A. McCarty-Cooper, January 25, 1992; and John Richardson, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: Picasso, Provence, and Douglas Cooper (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2001). 8. Details of the acquisition were confirmed by the lender at the time of the 2011 exhibition Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914, at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.



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Composition with a Violin Paris, December 1912. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated December 8, 1912), pencil, charcoal, and ink on paper, 24 × 18 ⅜ " (61 × 46.7 cm). Private collection



Selected Exhibitions 1987 Basel, Kunstmuseum Basel. Douglas Cooper und die Meister des Kubismus. November 22, 1987–January 17, 1988. Cat. no. 59. Tour venues: London, Tate Gallery. February 3–April 4, 1988; Philadelphia Museum of Art. June 16–July 31, 1988 1989 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. September 24, 1989–January 16, 1990. Cat. p. 266. (Note: Exhibited only at the New York venue. The work did not travel with the exhibition to Kunstmuseum Basel.) 1990 Houston, Museum of Fine Arts. Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger: Douglas Cooper Collecting Cubism. October 14–December 30. Cat. no. 61. Tour venue: Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. January 31– April 21, 1991 2005 Barcelona, Fundació Joan Miró. Mestres del collage: De Picasso a Rauschenberg. November 25, 2005–February 26, 2006. Cat. p. 55



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15



2011 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. February 13–June 6. Cat. no. 37 [15, 16] New York, The Frick Collection. Picasso’s Drawings, 1890–1921: Reinventing Tradition. October 4, 2011–January 8, 2012. Cat. no. 51. Tour venue: Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art. January 29– May 6, 2012



16



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Composition with a Violin Paris, December 1912. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated December 8, 1912), pencil, charcoal, and ink on paper, 24 × 18 ⅜ " (61 × 46.7 cm). Private collection



Selected References 1950 Zervos, Christian. “Oeuvres et images inédites de la jeunesse de Picasso.” Cahiers d’art 25, no. 2. Repr. p. 281 (installation view) [17]



17



1987 Kosinski, Dorothy. Douglas Cooper und die Meister des Kubismus. Basel: Kunstmuseum Basel; London: Tate Gallery. Ref. pp. 45, 148, 178, 212. Repr. cat. no. 59 2003 Karmel, Pepe. Picasso and the Invention of Cubism. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. Ref. p. 174. Fig. 243 2007 Rose, Bernice. Picasso, Braque, and Early Film in Cubism. New York: PaceWildenstein. Ref. p. 113. Repr. p. 109 2011 Galassi, Susan Grace, and Marilyn McCully. Picasso’s Drawings, 1890–1921: Reinventing Tradition. New York: The Frick Collection; New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. Ref. pp. 202, 204. Repr. cat. no. 51



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Head of a Man with a Hat Paris, December 1912. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated December 3, 1912) and colored paper, ink, and charcoal on paper, 24 ¼ × 18 ⅝" (62.2 × 47.3 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase, 274.1937. Z II (2) 398, DR 534



Recto 



 



Verso 



 



Raking Light 



 



UV Light 



 



Infrared Light



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8.1



Head of a Man with a Hat Paris, December 1912. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated December 3, 1912) and colored paper, ink, and charcoal on paper, 24 ¼ × 18 ⅝" (62.2 × 47.3 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase, 274.1937. Z II (2) 398, DR 534



All objects change over time. Yet, in the interpretation of pictures, material change is often unaccounted for. Instead, we largely look past—literally speaking, we look through—time’s effects. Does a work of art possess a single authentic material identity, and is there a point in time when that identity is irrevocably lost? We might want to acknowledge some degree of transience as being simply intrinsic (and secondary) to the terms of any work. But it is worth considering whether or not change, with respect to a work’s significance, is constitutive, rather than just given. Anthropologist Alfred Gell observes that it is a “category-mistake” to attribute dates to objects: only events have dates; objects have histories, including many dated events (such as the moment they come into being).1 In other words, since an object exists in passing time, its identity—historicity notwithstanding—is unfixed. How does this apply to Picasso’s Head of a Man with



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1



2



3



4



5



6



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a Hat? Conventionally speaking, this papier collé dates to late 1912; the two newspaper cuttings it features were extracted from the December 3, 1912, issue of the Parisian daily Le Journal [1, 2].2 As a work it represents an extreme point in the historical development of modernist form; as an object it demonstrates a significant encroachment of material change. Whether or not these two things can be said to possess a meaningful relation to one another may depend on our assessment of a salient event in the biography of the work: Head of a Man with a Hat was dismantled and reassembled in 1973. The occasion for this was a conservation treatment undertaken at The Museum of Modern Art. According to a published account of this procedure, the treatment was necessitated by the already-deleterious condition of the work [3], which showed problems that, while common to the materials and means of papier collé as a medium, were exacerbated by the long-term effects of previous treatments.3 Natural cockling of the support sheet—something that happened almost immediately following the creation of Picasso’s papiers collés, owing to the moisture of the adhesive, which makes the different papers expand and, through drying, contract unevenly—had contributed to the overall buckling of the work (an inventory photograph from 1913 [4] documents the effects of this process). Perhaps most significantly, foxing and other discolorations had been treated repeatedly [5, 6], ultimately resulting in a weakened Ingres paper support sheet.4 MoMA conservator Antoinette King characterized her intervention as a “radical treatment,” an expression that is undeniably apt: the work was taken apart, allowing the individual paper components—including the support—to be treated



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7



8



9



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12



13



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and lined; it was then reassembled, its cut papers hinged to the support rather than re-pasted [7–10]. The primary result of the treatment has been the improved stability of the work. The varieties of irreversible change the treatment introduced have, however, made it a degraded object. Moreover, the nature of the treatment has also meant that, ontologically speaking, Head of a Man with a Hat is now, in certain respects, a simulation of its original self. Picasso’s practice of papier collé in late 1912 was extremely spare and exposed: the cutting and pasting of several papers, with schematic drawing. In the case of Head of a Man with a Hat, intervention has occurred at a basic level of the work’s material constitution. That is, the process of removing and reassembling its parts represents a reversal—and then a reiteration—of the collage operations integral to the making of the work.5 That the papers were lined before being reattached means they no longer directly adhere to the support. More than most works of its kind, then, Head of a Man with a Hat is a disoriented record of an accumulation of events over time. Head of a Man with a Hat is one of four very closely related compositions from the same moment—with Man with a Hat and a Violin [11], Head of a Man with a Bowler Hat [12], and Head of a Man with a Hat [DR 536; 13]— that represent this subject using roughly the same configuration of lines, arcs, and planes. The single ear, traced with two concentric contour lines, suggests a three-quarters view, with a double arc describing the side of the face that is turned away. Unlike the other works of this moment, in which the facial features are supported by an isolated cutting of pasted newspaper, MoMA’s papier collé instead incorporates two cuttings—one of



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newsprint and one of blue drawing paper. The two papers are pasted side by side, and they are inscribed with nearly identical graphic figures. This simple repetition (which creates a more complex impression of the position of the head) demonstrates the purely relational logic of pictorial signs. Similarly, the opposition of value (and color) between the two papers can be said to signify the modeling function of chiaroscuro. In Man with a Hat and a Violin and Head of a Man with a Hat (DR 536), the double arc is composed of lines alone; in MoMA’s papier collé, the shape bounded by the inner line is filled in with black ink—a kind of shadow. The contour it forms is guitarlike. Analogizing guitar and head would soon become a recurring trope in papier collé; possibly derived from French slang, it is a simple formal analogy that, under most circumstances of pictorial representation, would make no sense.6 Formal observations of this kind are typical of writing on Picasso’s Cubism. Making them implies selectively overlooking salient facts of material condition, for the validity of such observations is surely compromised by the extent to which the work, as object, has changed over time. “Art is always changing,” said Robert Morris, speaking on behalf of certain strains of Post-Minimalism in 1970. “Those Rembrandts don’t look the same as the day he painted them,” he continued, “but the changes that have occurred were not an intended part of the work.”7 Any distinctions we might posit regarding the relevance of ephemerality to Picasso would depend on its intrinsic function in the work. We have no record of the artist’s early acknowledgment of the capacity for change in the papiers collés, 8 but the work’s conditions were established by the choices that he made, whether



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or not he fully imagined the consequences. In other words, ineluctable change belongs, at the very least, to the material logic of papier collé, and this is borne out by medium and means of fabrication. One kind of approach to interpreting the art object (any art object) calls for us to incorporate into our definition of a work the things that happen to it over time, especially when such events, having been instigated by the object’s material nature, are specific to it. With this in mind, it is instructive to read later critics, for whom the ephemerality of papier collé was, literally, essential: in 1931 Tristan Tzara (who owned Head of a Man with a Hat at the time) wrote of the “provisionality” of perishable materials.9 Two years later, André Breton observed that, with respect to the deterioration of works consisting of pasted and constructed paper from 1912–13, Picasso “counted on this impoverishment, this dismemberment even.”10 Tzara and Breton are asking us to accept that the inevitability of change is authentic to the terms of the work. We should add that conservation treatments are interpretive acts, grounded in their unique historical circumstances: in the case of Head of a Man with a Hat, actions taken—including “dismemberment”— correspond acutely to the material identity of the work; they also intensify our awareness of it. Put differently, the unstable nature of the work’s material constitution is a precise substrate for its innovations of form. “Radical treatment” follows suit, confirming—even in the act of consolidation—the contingency of the object. —Jeffrey Weiss



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Notes 1. Alfred Gell, The Anthropology of Time (Oxford, UK: Berg, 2011), p. 28. 2. This has allowed us to date the execution of Head of a Man with a Hat to the very end of the year. In other words, the moment of the origin of the work has been established with rare precision thanks to the function of its medium, the newspaper, which is, so to speak, time stamped. 3. The decision to treat Head of a Man with a Hat in 1973 was made jointly by curatorial and conservation staff; after examination and scientific analysis, conservators proceeded with treatment. For a detailed account, see Antoinette King, “The Conservation Treatment of a Collage: Man with a Hat, by Pablo Picasso,” in Guy Petherbridge, ed., Conservation of Library and Archive Materials and the Graphic Arts (London: Butterworths, 1987), pp. 85–96. 4. For more information, including discussion of the multiple treatments of this work, see Conservation Notes. 5. This emphasis on the mechanics of pasting purposefully brackets out other important procedures in the creation of Head of a Man with a Hat, among them the selection, cutting, and positioning of the collage elements and the use of charcoal and ink. 6. See Albert Barrère, Argot and Slang: A New French and English Dictionary of the Cant Words, Quaint Expressions, Slang Terms, and Flash Phrases Used in the High and Low Life of Old and New Paris (London: Whittaker & Co., 1889), pp. xvii, 201, 328, 461. Head and guitar are compared to the detriment of head, which is portrayed, in this simple analogy, as a hollow object punctured by a large hole. 7. Robert Morris in “The Artist Speaks: Robert Morris,” interview by E. C. Goossen, Art in America 58, no. 3 (May–June 1970): 106. 8. Acknowledgments by the artist were, however, published beginning in the 1930s by Gertrude Stein and echoed later by Brassaï. See Stein, Picasso (London: B. T. Batsford, 1938), p. 27; and Brassaï, Conversations with Picasso (1966), trans. Jane Marie Todd (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002), p. 49. 9. Tristan Tzara, “Le Papier collé, ou le proverbe en peinture,” Cahiers d’art 6, no. 2 (1931): 66. Tzara’s possession of the work is, in the present context, an important event in the biography of the object



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in that it demonstrates the conditions according to which an object’s circulation through a variety of historical and ideological circumstances can influence its accrual of significance over time. 1 0. André Breton, “Picasso in His Element” (1933), in Surrealism and Painting, trans. Simon Watson Taylor (Boston: MFA Publications, 2002), p. 109.



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8.8



Head of a Man with a Hat Paris, December 1912. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated December 3, 1912) and colored paper, ink, and charcoal on paper, 24 ¼ × 18 ⅝" (62.2 × 47.3 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase, 274.1937. Z II (2) 398, DR 534



Conservation Notes 14



15



16



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The primary support of Head of a Man with a Hat is a sheet of artist’s-grade laid paper with the watermark “Ingres 1860” visible in reverse in the lower left corner [14]. The countermark visible in its lower right corner (a shield bearing the initials “C F” and a caduceus and, below, the location of its manufacture, France) identifies it as made for the French distributor Catel et Farcy [15]. A photograph of the object with the collage elements removed [16] taken during a 1973 restoration procedure at The Museum of Modern Art suggests that Picasso began this work by pasting down the blue laid paper element at the center of the composition: the surrounding charcoal composition begins and terminates at the outer edges of this rectangle, and the black India ink used to fill the adjacent backward B-shaped form bled under its left edge upon application. The two newspaper fragments, both cut from the same December 3, 1912, issue



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8.9



17



18



19



20



21



22



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of the Parisian daily Le Journal [ 17, 18] were added in subsequent steps; the upper newspaper element was pasted over a significant portion of the drawn composition. Two distinct types of charcoal were used to draw and reinforce the composition, the first light brown and the second more black. Charcoal shading is visible in one small area in the finished work, to the left of the figure’s neck, but the 1973 photograph reveals that the lower newspaper collage element covers a shaded area of the same shape. The documented conservation history of this papier collé is extensive. The various treatments were prompted by two condition issues: the mottled areas of discoloration, or foxing, spread across the surface of the primary support, and the localized tight cockling produced by the differing expansion of the collage elements. A print made from a 1913 Galerie Kahnweiler negative [19] reveals that the cockling was present at that time and that few if any of the discolored spots were visible. (The photograph, probably taken shortly after the work left the artist’s studio, also provides a sense of the extent to which the newspaper has discolored in comparison to the tonality of the primary support.) Both condition issues were present when the work was treated at the Fogg Museum in 1941–42 [20, 21]. The areas of discoloration were bleached as part of this treatment, but by 1944 they had reappeared. Subsequent treatments include a possible procedure at the Morgan Library in the mid-1940s; another at M. Knoedler & Co. gallery to “remove foxing” in 1948; and yet another bleaching campaign in the late 1960s at MoMA, all of which left the primary support severely weakened and physically compromised [22].



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8.10



23



24



25



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Among other steps, during the very carefully documented and published 1973 treatment at MoMA the three collage elements were removed; the primary support was washed, bleached, and flattened; and the collage elements were lined and reattached with hinges rather than by overall adhesion [23–25]. Presently, the paper’s overall pinkish tonality; the distinct visibility of the mottled areas of discoloration, which have reverted and persist; and the elevation of the collage elements, which hover just above the surface of the primary support, can all be attributed to the cumulative effect of the numerous conservation interventions. —SG



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8.11



Head of a Man with a Hat Paris, December 1912. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated December 3, 1912) and colored paper, ink, and charcoal on paper, 24 ¼ × 18 ⅝" (62.2 × 47.3 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase, 274.1937. Z II (2) 398, DR 534



Provenance



26



BY c. MARCH 10, 1913 Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris. Purchased from the artist [26–28] 1



27



1914–1923 Galerie Kahnweiler stock sequestered by the French government as property of an enemy alien 2



28



MAY 8, 1923 Hôtel Drouot, Paris. Vente de biens allemands: Collection Henri Kahnweiller [sic]. Tableaux modernes. Quatrième et dernière vente. Lot 94 (lot of thirty-two works on paper) [29]3 [MAY 1923]–DECEMBER 1937 Tristan Tzara, Paris 4 DECEMBER 3, 1937 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchased from the above 5 —BH



29



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8.12



Notes 1. Galerie Kahnweiler was founded in 1907 by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (German, 1884–1979) at 28, rue Vignon, Paris. Picasso entered into an exclusive three-year contract, beginning December 2, 1912, to sell works at fixed prices to Kahnweiler. This arrangement is outlined in the artist’s letter, dated December 18, 1912, to his dealer (original letter on deposit with Galerie Louise Leiris Archives, Paris, and reproduced in Maurice Jardot, Picasso: Peintures 1900–1955 [Paris: Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 1955], pp. 50–52). We can conclude that this work went directly from the artist’s studio to Galerie Kahnweiler per the terms of their contract. The Kahnweiler papers are held by Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, and are not accessible at this time. A Galerie Kahnweiler label formerly adhered to the work or its backing board (reproduced here; now on file in MoMA, Department of Drawings and Prints, Museum Collection File, 273.1937) is stamped with the inventory number 1241. Per Pepe Karmel’s unpublished 1991 transcription of Kahnweiler’s inventory book, inv. 1241 is recorded as a “Dessin (couleurs)”—a generic entry Kahnweiler used to inventory Picasso’s papiers collés—priced at 800 francs. A large cache of 1912– 13 drawings and papiers collés, including inv. 1241, was most likely delivered to the gallery before Picasso’s departure for Céret in early March 1913 (see Judith Cousins, “Documentary Chronology,” in William S. Rubin, Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism [New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1989], p. 414). The verso of the work (reproduced here) is stamped in the upper left quadrant “GALERIE KAHNWEILER / PHOTO No 264.” The Kahnweiler photo files, also transcribed by Karmel, record no. 264 as “Tête d’homme. Paris, hiver 1912.” A print of photo no. 264 (reproduced here) was later provided to MoMA by Galerie Simon, Paris (see MoMA, Department of Conservation, 274.1937). Head of a Man with a Hat appeared in reproduction in 1913, probably the first of Picasso’s papiers collés to be published, in Max Raphael, Von Monet zu Picasso: Grundzüge einer Ästhetik und Entwicklung der modernen Malerei (Munich: Delphin-Verlag, 1913), pl. 30 (“Pablo Picasso. Männlicher Kopf [Zeichnung]. 1913. Phot. Kahnweiler, Paris. Coll. Kahnweiler”). See References. For further reading on Kahnweiler, see Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler with Francis Crémieux, My Galleries and Painters, trans. Helen Weaver (New York: Viking Press, 1971); Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, ed., Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler: Marchand, éditeur, écrivain (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984); Monod-Fontaine, ed., Donation Louise et Michel Leiris: Collection



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8.13



Kahnweiler-Leiris (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984); and Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990). 2. As a German national living in France, Kahnweiler was designated an enemy alien during World War I. He was abroad at the outbreak of the war, and his gallery stock was sequestered by the French government. He lived in exile in Switzerland until his return to Paris in 1920, at which time he reopened his business under the name Galerie Simon. The French government ultimately sold Kahnweiler’s original prewar stock in a series of public auctions in 1921–23 at Hôtel Drouot, Paris. On this period in Kahnweiler’s life and business, see Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990), pp. 114–89. 3. The number “94” is handwritten in pencil on the verso of Head of a Man with a Hat along the upper center edge, indicating that it was among the thirty-two works on paper included in lot 94 of the fourth auction of sequestered Galerie Kahnweiler stock, held May 7–8, 1923. Lot 94 is listed in the auction catalogue as “Trente-deux dessins, plume, crayon, fusain, quelques-uns papier collé. Sujet variés, époques diverses— (La plupart signés).” See Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Vente de biens allemands: Collection Henri Kahnweiller [ sic ]. Tableaux modernes. Quatrième et dernière vente (May 7–8, 1923), p. 5. It is not known to what extent unframed drawings and papiers collés were available for consultation or display during the public exhibition day (May 6, 2:00–6:00 p.m.), or during the sale (even-numbered lots such as lot 94 were sold on May 8, and odd-numbered lots on May 7). It is presumed that they were not highly visible. This lot of thirty-two works, including Head of a Man with a Hat, sold for 1,400 francs, according to the hammer prices published in Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot 32, no. 58 (May 15, 1923): 1. The auction generated a total of 227,662 francs in sales. In the course of preparing for the 2011 MoMA exhibition Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914, lot numbers in the same handwriting and medium were observed on the versos of nearly twenty other Cubist works on paper. Previously, it was not thought possible to identify which unframed works on paper were sold at the Kahnweiler sales. See Epilogue for further discussion. For additional information, see Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990), pp. 155–89. 4. Tristan Tzara (born Samuel Rosenstock; Romanian, 1896–1963) founded Dada in 1916 at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich. A Dada leader, poet, and editor, he moved to Paris in 1920. He was active in Resistance efforts and within the French Communist Party. He developed a fine collection of modern European, African, and



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8.14



Oceanic art, from which he regularly sold works. His heirs sold artwork and the contents of Tzara’s library at Guy Loudmer, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 1988–89. Douglas Cooper catalogued Tzara among the bidders at the Kahnweiler sales (see notes 2 and 3, above), noting that “a group of far-seeing contemporary French artists, writers, and Dadaist poets—for example, Ozenfant, Le Corbusier, Lipchitz, André Breton, Paul Eluard, Tristan Tzara, and Maurice Raynal—appeared unexpectedly and bought in quantity” (Cooper, “Early Purchasers of True Cubist Art,” in Cooper and Gary Tinterow, eds., The Essential Cubism: Braque, Picasso & Their Friends [London: Tate Gallery, 1983], p. 27). Other works marked with the lot number 94 from the 1923 Kahnweiler auction include DR 528, DR 533, and DR 592. Like Head of a Man with a Hat, DR 528 was owned by Tzara, which suggests that he acquired some (or possibly all) of the papiers collés in the lot. In addition, DR 533 is inscribed with an all-caps title on the verso in a style that is similar to the inscription found on Head of a Man with a Hat. In 1929, Tzara loaned Head of a Man with a Hat and Siphon, Glass, Newspaper and Violin (DR 528) to a gallery show in Munich. Both works were labeled at the time and listed in the Wege abstrakter Malerei exhibition catalogue as loans from a “Pariser Privatbesitz” (“52. Kopf. 1913 . . . 53. Stilleben. 1913”). In 1931, Tzara used a reproduction of Head of a Man with a Hat to accompany his essay “Le Papier collé, ou le proverbe en peinture,” Cahiers d’art 6, no. 2 (1931), repr. p. 66 (“Tête d’homme, 1913”). Five years later, he loaned the work to MoMA’s exhibition Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism, organized by Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Tzara’s name appears in the exhibition catalogue as the lender of cat. no. 251 (“Head, 1913. Papier collé and charcoal. Lent by Tristan Tzara, Paris”) (Barr, Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism [New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1936], p. 217). For more information on Tzara’s many loans to the 1936 exhibition, and his many subsequent sales to the Museum, see Anne Umland and Adrian Sudhalter, eds., Dada in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2008). For further reading on Tzara, see François Buot, L’Homme qui inventa la révolution Dada (Paris: Grasset, 2002). 5. MoMA director Alfred H. Barr, Jr. (American, 1902–1981) sent Tristan Tzara a Western Union telegram on October 21, 1937, with a brief offer to purchase the work. Barr wrote again on October 26, explaining in detail: “I have had the greatest difficulty in raising money for the purchase of avant-garde works because all the resources of the Museum are at present concentrated upon putting up our new building. This fact, and the recent decline in the Stock Market, have proven very serious handicaps. Only last week was I able to finally secure a small amount. I realize that you would prefer perhaps not to sell the papier



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8.15



collé Head, but I have grown to admire it so much that I ventured to make you an offer for it on behalf of the Museum’s permanent collection” (Barr, letter to Tristan Tzara, October 26, 1937, MoMA, Department of Drawings and Prints, Museum Collection File, 274.1937). Tzara replied by letter over a week later, on November 7, 1937, announcing that he was hesitant to sell the work because it was “one of the most beautiful collages . . . and I know well all the collages of this period” (Tzara, letter to Alfred H. Barr, Jr., November 7, 1937, Museum Collection File, 274.1937). But Tzara’s hesitance did not stop him from making a counter-offer, which was accepted by the Museum. Head of a Man with a Hat, which had just finished touring the United States through the Museum’s Department of Circulating Exhibitions, entered into the collection on December 3, 1937 (per Museum Collection File, Drawing Collection Worksheet, 274.1937).



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8.16



Head of a Man with a Hat Paris, December 1912. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated December 3, 1912) and colored paper, ink, and charcoal on paper, 24 ¼ × 18 ⅝" (62.2 × 47.3 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase, 274.1937. Z II (2) 398, DR 534



Selected Exhibitions 1923 Paris, Hôtel Drouot. Vente de biens allemands: Collection Henri Kahnweiller [ sic ]. Tableaux modernes. Quatrième et dernière vente. Lot 94. Public exhibition: May 6. Even-numbered lots sold May 8 1929 Munich, Graphisches Kabinett I.B. Neumann, Leitung Günther Franke. Wege Abstrakter Malerei. December 17, 1929–January 15, 1930. Cat. no. 52 1936 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism. December 8, 1936–January 17, 1937. Cat. no. 251. (A version of this exhibition toured through the Department of Circulating Exhibitions to the following venues: Philadelphia Museum of Art. January 30–March 1, 1937; Boston Institute of Modern Art. March 6–April 3, 1937; Springfield, Mass., Springfield Museum of Fine Arts. April 12–May 10, 1937; Milwaukee Art Institute. May 19–June 16, 1937; Minneapolis, University Art Gallery, University of Minnesota. June 26–July 24, 1937; San Francisco Museum of Art. August 6– September 3, 1937.) 1938 Boston, The Boston Museum of Modern Art. Picasso/Henri Matisse. October 19–November 11. Cat. no. 12



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8.17



1940 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. We Like Modern Art. December 27, 1940–January 12, 1941 (No catalogue)



30



1948 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Collage. September 21– December 5. Checklist no. 68 [30] 31



1949 Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Art Museum. Picasso Drawings. January 5–31. Cat. no. 17 1957 Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago. Picasso: 75th Anniversary Exhibition. October 29–December 8. Cat. p. 44. (Note: Work was not exhibited at the New York venue.)



32



1962 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. 80th Birthday Exhibition—Picasso— The Museum Collection—Present and Future. May 14–September 18. Checklist p. 4 33



1972 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art. February 3–April 2. Cat. p. 79 [31] 1976 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Cubism and Its Affinities. February 9–May 9. Checklist p. 18 [32]



34



1980 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective. May 22–September 16. Cat. p. 166 [33] 1989 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. September 24, 1989–January 16, 1990. Cat. p. 263. Tour venue: Kunstmuseum Basel. February 22, 1989–June 4, 1990



35



2004 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Drawing from the Modern, 1880–1945. November 24, 2004–March 7, 2005. Cat. no. 35 [34]



36



2008 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Pipe, Glass, Bottle of Rum: The Art of Appropriation. July 30–November 10. Checklist p. 18 [35] 2011 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. February 13–June 6. Cat. no. 41 [36]



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8.18



Head of a Man with a Hat Paris, December 1912. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated December 3, 1912) and colored paper, ink, and charcoal on paper, 24 ¼ × 18 ⅝" (62.2 × 47.3 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase, 274.1937. Z II (2) 398, DR 534



Selected References 1913 Raphael, Max. Von Monet zu Picasso: Grundzüge einer Ästhetik und Entwicklung der modernen Malerei. Munich: Delphin-Verlag. Pl. 30 [37]



37



1919 Deri, Max. Die Malerei im XIX Jahrhundert: Entwicklungsgeschichtliche Darstellung auf psychologischer Grundlage. 2 vols. Berlin: Paul Cassirer. Ref. p. 315. Repr. p. 98 1921 Deri, Max. Die neue Malerei: Sechs Vorträge. Leipzig: E. A. Seemann. Ref. p. 51. Fig. 33 1931 Tzara, Tristan. “Le Papier collé, ou le proverbe en peinture.” Cahiers d’Art 6, no. 2. Repr. p. 66 1932 Apollinaire, Guillaume. “Picasso et les papiers collés” (first published in Montjoie! [March 14, 1913]), Cahiers d’art 7, nos. 3–5. Repr. p. 117 1936 Barr, Alfred H., Jr. Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Cat. no. 251 1938 Stein, Gertrude. Picasso. London: B. T. Batsford. Fig. 40. (French ed., Paris: Floury, repr. n.p.)



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1939 Barr, Alfred H., Jr. Picasso: Forty Years of His Art. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 78. Cat. no. 105 1942 Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917. Vol. II (2). Paris: Cahiers d’art. Cat. no. 398. Pl. 190 1944 Eluard, Paul. À Pablo Picasso. Geneva: Trois collines. Repr. p. 122 1946 Barr, Alfred H., Jr. Picasso: Fifty Years of His Art. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 80. Repr. p. 80 1947 ARTnews 46, no. 7 (September). Ref. p. 5. Repr. cover 1962 Janis, Harriet, and Rudi Blesh. Collage: Personalities, Concepts, Techniques. Philadelphia: Chilton. Ref. p. 23. Repr. cat. no. 17 1972 Rubin, William S. Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, Including Remainder-Interest and Promised Gifts. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 79, 209. Repr. p. 78 1973 Golding, John. “Picasso and Surrealism.” In Roland Penrose and John Golding, eds. Picasso 1881/1973. London: Paul Elek. Ref. pp. 85–86. Fig. 38 1979 Daix, Pierre, and Joan Rosselet. Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. Trans. Dorothy S. Blair. London: Thames & Hudson. Ref. p. 291. Repr. cat. no. 534 and p. 117 1987 King, Antoinette. “The Conservation Treatment of a Collage: Man with a Hat, by Pablo Picasso.” In Guy Petherbridge, ed. Conservation of Library and Archive Materials and the Graphic Arts. London: Butterworths. Ref. pp. 85–96. Repr. pp. 89–93, 95 1989 Leighten, Patricia. Re-ordering the Universe: Picasso and Anarchism, 1897– 1914. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Ref. p. 142. Fig. 102



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1990 Palau i Fabre, Josep. Picasso: Cubism (1907–1917). Trans. Susan Branyas, Richard-Lewis Rees, and Patrick Zabalbeascoa. New York: Rizzoli. Ref. pp. 305–7. Fig. 872 1992 Dabrowski, Magdalena. “Kazimir Malevich’s Collages and His Idea of Pictorial Space.” In Essays on Assemblage. Studies in Modern Art 2. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 24. Fig. 8 Poggi, Christine. In Defiance of Painting: Cubism, Futurism, and the Invention of Collage. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. Ref. p. 6. Fig. 11 1993 Karmel, Joseph Low. Picasso’s Laboratory: The Role of His Drawings in the Development of Cubism, 1910–14. Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, PhD diss. Ref. pp. 293–94. Fig. 170 1996 Varnedoe, Kirk. “Picasso’s Self-Portraits.” In William S. Rubin, ed. Picasso and Portraiture: Presentation and Transformation. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 138. Repr. p. 138 2000 Green, Christopher. Art in France: 1900–1940. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2000. Ref. pp. 112–15. Fig. 127 2003 Karmel, Pepe. Picasso and the Invention of Cubism. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. Ref. pp. 18, 121–22, 160–61, 194. Figs. 10, 139, 217, 278



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8.21



Glass, Guitar, and Bottle Paris, early 1913. Oil, cut-and-pasted newspaper, charcoal, and pencil on canvas, 25 ¾ × 21 ⅛" (65.4 × 53.6 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection, 641.1967. Z II (2) 419, DR 570



Recto



Verso



Raking Light



UV Light



X-ray



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9.1



Glass, Guitar, and Bottle Paris, early 1913. Oil, cut-and-pasted newspaper, charcoal, and pencil on canvas, 25 ¾ × 21 ⅛" (65.4 × 53.6 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection, 641.1967. Z II (2) 419, DR 570



1



   Glass, Guitar, and Bottle  



Etymologically, collage might concern itself with pasting, but procedurally, it is a matter of edges, a matter of difference.1 As French Surrealist Louis Aragon argued in “La Peinture au défi,” his landmark 1930 essay, “The use of glue is only one characteristic of this operation, and not even an essential one.” 2 Collage is indeed an operation, not a set of materials, as evidenced by Picasso’s Glass, Guitar, and Bottle. This 1913 work is a collage made almost entirely of paint. Using a range of brushes and palette knives to apply paint with different properties in varied amounts, Picasso explored the qualities of heterogeneity possible in the medium of oil on canvas.3 He began the work by applying a tinted, gluelike preparation to the support in horizontal strokes with a medium-sized paintbrush; the passes of his brush are exposed in the upper right corner of the canvas [1]. Over a rough sketch in pencil and charcoal, Picasso layered paint in shapes formed by masks and stencils—pieces likely snipped out of paper or cardboard



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9.2



2



3



4



5



6



7



8



9



10



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and quickly discarded after their use—which imposed their awkwardly cut edges on the boundaries of each form [2, 3]. In certain passages, such as the upper limit of the glass, Picasso reinforced the edge using the back end of his paintbrush or another stylus-like tool [ 4]. Contrast is present at the borders of each element, but it is also enacted in the interplay of textures. In the gray rectangle near the very center of the canvas, Picasso left palette-knife scrape marks [ 5]. He created an alligator-like skin on three shapes by layering glue, which contracted as it dried, over the paint [ 6], and he modeled and gouged the neck of the guitar [7]. This multiplicity of processes must have been finicky, a rare exercise in deferred pleasure for the artist and altogether unlike the immediacy of cutting and pasting thin newspaper for papiers collés, a practice he had begun in late 1912 [ 8]. When discussing Glass, Guitar, and Bottle many years after its making, Picasso explained to scholar Pierre Daix that he used lead white, “the same material he used to prime his canvases,” to make this painting. 4 Examination of an X-ray of the work [9] confirms defined passages of lead white, a paint that dries into a pliable skin and that has inherent adhesive properties, meaning Picasso could have applied cutout paints to his canvas, in addition to using stencils.5 He might have applied lead white to an oiled or waxed paper, let it dry, then cut it into shapes that he released and pressed onto the canvas support. The B-curved shape left of center, for example, is a discrete plane of lead white, possibly a cutout, covered in a thin brown glaze [10]. Glass, Guitar, and Bottle exemplifies what poet Jean Cocteau observed in his 1923 pamphlet Picasso: that within the Cubist vocabulary, “the objects found upon the café table were, with the Spanish guitar, the only



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9.3



11



12



13



14



pleasures permitted.”6 First reproduced as a black-andwhite plate [11] in Cocteau’s short monograph, Glass, Guitar, and Bottle numbers among the artist’s stridently frontal “guitar and . . . ” compositions of 1912–13. The work is closely related to Guitar, Gas-Jet, and Bottle [ 12] and the drawing Guitar and Bottle [13].7 Picasso included in both the drawing and Glass, Guitar, and Bottle patches of crudely rendered faux marble, an oblique evocation of the café table. This patterning used to be more evident on the surface of the painting, as documented in early photographs [14], but its appearance has diminished in intensity and clarity.8 In a moment of classically defined collage, Picasso added newspaper, another café scene accessory, to his layered paints. 9 A reviewer of one of Picasso’s earliest exhibitions of 1912–14 Cubist work captured the twinned issues of tactility and visuality that were central to the artist’s Cubist project: You run your finger over the piece of newspaper to see if the ink on it will smudge as it does on your own last edition. You can’t rest until you know whether what looks rough is rough and what looks smooth is smooth. That’s Picasso. But not quite all of Picasso. He really is to be admired for carrying it further than mere cheating of the eye, for such cheating is child’s play to his technical command . . . . Let us hope he will keep on with his play of line and color, his technical conundrums, his entirely serious jokes. 10 From among his “technical conundrums” and “entirely serious jokes,” the artist specially selected Glass, Guitar, and Bottle for inclusion in his very first retrospective exhibition, held in 1932 at Galeries Georges Petit in



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9.4



15



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Paris [15].11 Hung among works dating from 1906 to 1932, Glass, Guitar, and Bottle was by no means the only still life with a guitar, but its unusual methods of facture and diverse surface effects marked it as one of the most complex paintings of his Cubist years. American collector Sidney Janis, who went on to acquire the work, recalled seeing Glass, Guitar, and Bottle when it was installed in the retrospective: “That picture I saw for the first time in person at the great Picasso exhibition in Paris at the Galeries Georges Petit in—I think it was 1932. I just couldn’t sleep over it.” 12 Was Picasso aping the appearance of collage in Glass, Guitar, and Bottle? Aragon reported, in accordance with his Surrealist agenda, that Picasso retrospectively regretted “that painters subsequently imitated the effect of papier collé in paint.”13 Even if true, that statement would not condemn Glass, Guitar, and Bottle, which is not so much a copy of effects but an attempt to build a collage out of the tricky, uneven masonry of shaped paint. Looking back, Picasso remarked to Daix that “he and Braque went to their furthest point in works like The Museum of Modern Art’s still life [Glass, Guitar, and Bottle] . . . it was, as he put it, ‘in the years of papier collé that we pushed painting the furthest.’” 14 —Blair Hartzell



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9.5



Notes 1. The terms collage and papier collé derive from the French verb coller, meaning to stick, glue, or paste. Harriet Janis and Rudi Blesh observed that the word collage had “the slang meaning of an illicit love affair, which must have delighted Braque and Picasso with its inferences of shameful cohabitation between nobly born oil paint and the streetwalker newspaper. Beyond this, the past participle collé (pasted or glued) used as slang means faked or pretended.” Janis and Blesh, Collage: Personalities, Concepts, and Techniques (Philadelphia: Chilton Company, 1967), p. 21. See also the entries for coller and collage in Albert Barrère, Argot and Slang: A New French and English Dictionary of the Cant Words, Quaint Expressions, Slang Terms, and Flash Phrases Used in the High and Low Life of Old and New Paris (London: Whittaker & Co., 1889), pp. 89–90. 2. Louis Aragon, La Peinture au défi (Paris: José Corti, 1930), p. 10. (Max Ernst later echoed this sentiment in his observation that “it is not glue that makes the collage.” See Ernst, “Au-delà de la peinture,” Cahiers d’art 11, nos. 6–7 [1936]: 167.) Aragon’s essay was included in the catalogue that accompanied the March 1930 Exposition de collages at Galerie Goemans, Paris. The show included six works by Picasso, along with work by Arp, Braque, Duchamp, Ernst, Gris, Magritte, Man Ray, Miró, Picabia, and Tanguy. 3. These properties include different viscosities and drying rates. Special thanks to MoMA conservators Anny Aviram and Michael Duffy for their many insights into this complex painting. 4. Pierre Daix reported this in Daix and Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), cat. no. 570, pp. 131–32, 298. Daix had many in-depth conversations with Picasso about his oeuvre in the last twenty-five years of the artist’s life. See note 14, below. 5. Traditionally, a paste of white lead in oil is used to adhere a painted canvas to a wall in the mural technique of marouflage (from the French term maroufle, which originally referred to the sticky, partially dried scraps of paint left in the bottom of an artist’s pots). See entries on white lead and marouflage in Ralph Mayer, A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1969). 6. Jean Cocteau, Picasso (Paris: Stock, 1923), n.p.



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9.6



7. Guitar, Gas-Jet, and Bottle has two passages that also look like applied cutouts of paint, and a gluelike ground preparation. With thanks to Jacqueline Ridge, Keeper of Conservation, National Galleries of Scotland, for the opportunity to examine this painting in MoMA’s conservation lab (January 29, 2011). 8. See Conservation Notes. On Georges Braque’s training in the craft of simulated materials (faux bois and faux marble) and stenciling, and his subsequent sharing of this knowledge with Picasso, see Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, ed., Braque: The Papiers Collés (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1982). 9. “[R]ENNES” was executed on newspaper using pochoir, according to Picasso, although he drew in the character that appears to be an “R” by hand. The other letters and black lines in the work were cut from newspaper. For the artist’s recollection of executing this work, and for suggested associations for the cutout letters, see William S. Rubin, Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1972), pp. 80–81, 210. 1 0. [Esther Luther Carey?], “Art Notes: Picasso at the Modern Gallery,” The New York Times, December 21, 1915, p. 12. 1 1. The non-chronological installation of the retrospective was the product of Picasso’s close involvement in the planning. He hung Glass, Guitar, and Bottle amid a cluster that included other guitar compositions, a number of earlier Cubist figures, and the 1929 welded sculpture Woman in the Garden. The painting was included in the first presentation but did not travel to the second venue, in Zurich. See Exhibitions. For a thorough account of the Paris exhibition, see Simonetta Fraquelli, “Picasso’s Retrospective at the Galeries Georges Petit, Paris, 1932: A Response to Matisse,” in Tobia Bezzola, ed., Picasso: His First Museum Exhibition, 1932 (Zurich: Kunsthaus Zürich, 2010), pp. 77–93. 1 2. Sidney Janis, interview with Helen M. Franc, June 1967, The Museum of Modern Art Library, Special Collections. Janis pursued the painting immediately and successfully acquired it from Marie Harriman, who had already received at least one other offer. See Provenance. 1 3. Louis Aragon, La Peinture au défi (Paris: José Corti, 1930), p. 12. Aragon went on to denounce as tragic “pictures that are nothing but reproductions of the discoveries they made with scissors and paste” (p. 17). 1 4. Pierre Daix reported this in “Discussion,” in Lynn Zelevansky, ed., Picasso and Braque: A Symposium (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992), p. 259. Elsewhere, Daix recounted a



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9.7



conversation with Picasso, probably the same one he referred to in the 1992 symposium proceedings: “Standing in front of a complete series of reproductions of complex paintings from the beginning of 1913, Picasso gave me a detailed analysis of the processes he used, and then said: ‘You see, there is what is most important . . . . It’s here that we went the furthest. After that, I would even say it’s a bit spoiled.’” Daix, “‘For Picasso, truth was art; and falsity, the death of art’” ARTnews (Summer 1973): 48.



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9.8



Glass, Guitar, and Bottle Paris, early 1913. Oil, cut-and-pasted newspaper, charcoal, and pencil on canvas, 25 ¾ × 21 ⅛" (65.4 × 53.6 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection, 641.1967. Z II (2) 419, DR 570



Conservation Notes



16



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In this painting—perhaps the most technically complex work discussed in this publication—the artist used many of the materials featured in other works of the 1912–14 period: a fine linen canvas support, oil paints, charcoal and pencil drawing, and cut-and-pasted newspaper fragments. But here, most notably, Picasso manipulated the oil paint, inventively exploiting its pastelike qualities and film-forming properties to create extremely subtle surface effects. The intricate layering makes the overall order of execution difficult to establish. The linen canvas that serves as the primary support was prepared with a brushy application of glue, which is visible where there are no painted additions: in the upper right corner and along the right edge, for example [16]. The collagelike shapes appear to have been formed using a variety of techniques, including painting with a brush or palette knife; painting against a template; and treating semidried paint much like a piece of paper, cutting it with



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9.9



17



18



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a knife or perhaps even scissors. The central black form, which serves as the face of the guitar, has been painted directly onto the glue-primed canvas in a very conventional manner, using a brush. In other areas, such as the four white shapes at top, the thickness of the paint film, its well-defined edges, and the occasional jagged projection seem to indicate that viscous paint was thickly applied with a palette knife, perhaps against the scissor-cut contours of a handmade cardboard template or stencil. Picasso occasionally used the tip of a brush handle or a pencil to carve out straight edges, along the right, straight edge of the backward B-shape cutout left of center, for example [17]. Many of the collagelike shapes that compose this work are executed in lead white oil paint, which resists the penetration of X-rays, producing characteristic and prominent solid white forms in a radiograph [ 18]. Some shapes—such as the two small crescents near the center of the painting and the rectangle that contains the backward B in the lower left corner—appear to have been cut out of paint, much as a collage element is cut from paper. This feat would have been facilitated by the inherent characteristics of lead white oil paint, which not only forms a tough film as it dries but also has adhesive qualities. The X-ray image reveals locations where Picasso added paint to disguise the joins between adjacent shapes, covering, for example, the gap between the brown B-shape right of center and the rectangle immediately to its left. Picasso used an array of imitative and surface techniques in this work, including faux marbling to create the gray, striated L-shape below center; a different splatter technique to create the white graining in the black marbleized shape at far right; and an additive,



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9.10



19



20



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stuccolike technique to build up the topography of the form just above the guitar strings and of the brown backward B-shape left of center. The surface of the latter was further modified by incising with a sharp tool. Letters and word fragments cut from newspaper headlines along with the occasional adjacent printed line were adhered with glue that was generously applied to the green painted surfaces, resulting in the prominent craquelure visible today [19]. Contrary to their traditional function in paintings as underdrawing, almost all of the pencil and charcoal in the work was applied in the final steps. A label on the painting’s frame at the time of its acquisition by The Museum of Modern Art documented a conservation treatment: the work had been “relined and cleaned” in May 1950 and the stretcher replaced. The relining procedure involved the application of heat and pressure, which resulted in physical damage, especially to the black marbleized area at right, where the visibility of the painted white graining was reduced (see 20 for comparison). An overall varnish layer and overpainting, both also dating to 1950, became discolored, and they were removed in 2011. The painting remains unvarnished, which is consistent with the artist’s preparation of the work. —SG



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9.11



Glass, Guitar, and Bottle Paris, early 1913. Oil, cut-and-pasted newspaper, charcoal, and pencil on canvas, 25 ¾ × 21 ⅛" (65.4 × 53.6 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection, 641.1967. Z II (2) 419, DR 570



Provenance BY c. MARCH 10, 1913 Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris. Purchased from the artist 1 1914–1921 Galerie Kahnweiler stock sequestered by the French government as property of an enemy alien 2 NOVEMBER 17, 1921 Hôtel Drouot, Paris. Vente de biens allemands: Collection Henri Kahnweiller [sic]. Tableaux modernes. Deuxième vente. Lot 1943 21



BY JUNE 1932 Galerie Pierre, Paris [ 21] 4 BY FEBRUARY 1933 Marie Harriman Gallery, New York 5



22



1934–1967 Sidney and Harriet Janis, New York. Purchased from the above [ 22]6 OCTOBER 18, 1967 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection (Fractional gift completed December 1986) 7 —BH



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9.12



Notes 1. Galerie Kahnweiler was founded in 1907 by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (German, 1884–1979) at 28, rue Vignon, Paris. Picasso entered into an exclusive three-year contract, beginning December 2, 1912, to sell works at fixed prices to Kahnweiler. This arrangement is outlined in the artist’s letter, dated December 18, 1912, to his dealer (original letter on deposit with Galerie Louise Leiris Archives, Paris, and reproduced in Maurice Jardot, Picasso: Peintures 1900–1955 [Paris: Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 1955], pp. 50–52). We can conclude that Glass, Guitar, and Bottle went directly from the artist’s studio to Galerie Kahnweiler per the terms of their contract. Early published records indicate that the work was signed and dated on its verso in a manner consistent with other paintings that left the artist’s studio in the same period for sale at Galerie Kahnweiler; however, the canvas was lined in 1950, rendering any inscriptions inaccessible. See Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Vente de biens allemands: Collection Henri Kahnweiller [sic] Tableaux modernes. Deuxième vente (November 17–18, 1921), p. 26 (“Nature morte. Haut. 0m65, Larg. 0m54. [Signé au dos]. Daté 1913”). See also Charles Vrancken, Exposition Picasso (Paris: Galeries Georges Petit, 1932), repr. cat. no. 88 (“Nature morte à la guitare. Toile. Haut 0,63 cent.; Larg., 0,54 cent. Signée au dos. Peint en 1913. Ancienne collection Henri Kahnweiler, Paris”). The Kahnweiler papers are held by Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, and are not accessible at this time, but a number of other resources offer information about Glass, Guitar, and Bottle in the inventory of Galerie Kahnweiler. According to Pepe Karmel’s unpublished 1991 transcription of Kahnweiler’s inventory book and photo files, a number of works were delivered to the gallery before Picasso’s departure for Céret in early March 1913 (see also Judith Cousins, “Documentary Chronology,” in William S. Rubin, Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism [New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1989], p. 414). The works from that delivery that were photographed were entered into Kahnweiler’s photograph files in a continuous run, numbered from 232 to 270. Glass, Guitar, and Bottle is no. 248, per the pencil inscription on the back of a Galerie Kahnweiler archive photograph (see fig. 14) provided to MoMA by Galerie Louise Leiris in 1967 (see MoMA, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Museum Collection File, 641.1967). This photo file number is confirmed in Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. no. 570.



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9.13



For further reading on Kahnweiler, see Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler with Francis Crémieux, My Galleries and Painters, trans. Helen Weaver (New York: Viking Press, 1971); Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, ed., Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler: Marchand, éditeur, écrivain (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984); Monod-Fontaine, ed., Donation Louise et Michel Leiris: Collection Kahnweiler-Leiris (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984); and Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990). 2. As a German national living in France, Kahnweiler was designated an enemy alien during World War I. He was abroad at the outbreak of the war, and his gallery stock was sequestered by the French government. He lived in exile in Switzerland until his return to Paris in 1920, at which time he reopened his business under the name Galerie Simon. The French government ultimately sold Kahnweiler’s original prewar stock in a series of public auctions in 1921–23 at Hôtel Drouot, Paris. On this period in Kahnweiler’s life and business, see Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990), pp. 114–89. 3. Lot 194 was listed in the auction catalogue as “Nature morte. Haut. 0m65, Larg. 0m54. (Signé au dos). Daté 1913.” See Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Vente de biens allemands: Collection Henri Kahnweiller [sic]. Tableaux modernes. Deuxième vente (November 17–18, 1921), p. 26. The public preview was held on November 16; even-numbered lots such as Glass, Guitar, and Bottle were sold on November 17, and oddnumbered lots on November 18. Glass, Guitar, and Bottle sold for nine hundred francs, per the annotated copy of the sale catalogue on deposit at the Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Prices achieved (with buyer’s premiums added) were published in “Echos de l’Hôtel Drouot: Liste complète des prix atteints à la deuxième vente Kahnweiller [sic],” L’Esprit nouveau (February 1922): 1825–27. The auction generated a total of 175, 211 francs in sales. See Epilogue for further discussion. 4. Galerie Pierre was founded in 1924 by Pierre Loeb (French, 1897– 1964) at 13, rue Bonaparte, Paris. In 1926, the gallery moved to 2, rue des Beaux-Arts. In the 1920s and 1930s, Picasso did not have an exclusive contract with his primary dealer, Paul Rosenberg, and he often sold work—especially Cubist work—through Loeb. Galerie Pierre’s first solo show of Picasso’s work, which was devoted to the artist’s Cubist period, was held in December 1927. The Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Papers in The Museum of Modern Art Archives contain annotated documents that record Galerie Pierre as the owner of the work in 1932. Margaret Scolari Barr visited the 1932 Exposition Picasso at Galeries Georges Petit in Paris and returned to New York with an annotated exhibition catalogue. Added to the entry “88. Nature



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9.14



morte à la guitar. Toile. Haut 0,63 cent.; Larg., 0,54 cent. Signée au dos. Peint en 1913” is the notation “Gal Pierre” and “[?] letters . . .  chartreuse emerald green / white black tan” (MoMA Archives, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Papers, 12a.8). A photograph (reproduced here) documenting the “accrochage” process at the Georges Petit exhibition also has several annotations, including this, written in ink, over Glass, Guitar, and Bottle: “88 (1913) / Gal. Pierre” (MoMA Archives, AHB, 12a.8). In addition, Loeb is listed in the provenance information for the work published in Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. no. 570. For further reading on Loeb and Galerie Pierre, see Pierre Loeb, Voyages à travers la peinture (Paris: Bordas, 1946); André Berne Joffroy et al., L’Aventure de Pierre Loeb: La Galerie Pierre, Paris, 1924–1964 (Paris: Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1979); and Sonia and Albert Loeb, Il y a cent ans (Paris: Galerie Albert Loeb, 1997). 5. Marie Harriman Gallery, New York, was owned and operated by Marie Harriman (née Norton; American, 1903–1970). The 61–63 East FiftySeventh Street gallery specialized in modern French and American painting. Marie divorced her first husband, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, in 1929 and married W. Averell Harriman (American, 1891– 1986) the following year, opening her gallery shortly thereafter. Walt Kuhn (American, 1877–1949), one of the organizers of the 1913 Armory show, was an adviser and friend. Paris dealer Paul Guillaume (French, 1891–1934) was another important business associate. The gallery closed in 1942 and did not reopen after the war. From 1955 to 1959, works from the Harriman collection were installed in the New York State Executive Mansion, in Albany, New York, while Averell served as governor. According to Nancy Yeide, “The Harrimans rarely made a distinction between personal and gallery stock” (Yeide, “The Marie Harriman Gallery [1930–1942],” Archives of American Art Journal 39, no. 1/2 [1999]: 2–11). Much of the gallery inventory that remained after Marie’s death was sold through auctions in New York in 1972–73. A number of works from the Harrimans’ private collection were ultimately donated to the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C. (which had exhibited highlights from their collection in 1961); others passed into the estate of Averell’s third wife, Pamela Harriman. The Marie Harriman Gallery exhibition catalogues and announcements, 1932–61, are held by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Glass, Guitar, and Bottle was exhibited in the Marie Harriman Gallery show French Paintings in February 1933 as “Nature morte à la guitare— Papier collé” (cat. no. 4). Harriman then loaned the work to domestic



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9.15



exhibitions such as: The Renaissance Society of the University of Chicago, Abstract Paintings by Four Twentieth-Century Artists: Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger, January 12–February 2, 1934, cat. no. 12 (“Picasso. 1913. Oil. Loaned by The Marie Harriman Galleries [ sic ]. New York”); and the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Conn., Pablo Picasso, February 6–March 1, 1934, cat. no. 24 (“Nature morte à la Guitare, 1913. Canvas. Collection Marie Harriman Gallery, New York. G.P. No. 88”). A partial label for the gallery was documented on the back of the work (see MoMA, Department of Registrar, collection worksheet, 641.1967), and an undated photograph of Glass, Guitar, and Bottle stamped on its reverse “Marie Harriman Gallery, Inc.” is included in MoMA Archives, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Papers, 12.V.B.1. Finally, the Marie Harriman Gallery is listed in the provenance information for the work published in Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. 570. 6. Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, was founded in 1948 by collector, businessman, and former vaudeville dancer Sidney Janis (American, 1896–1989). The gallery, located at 15 East Fifty-Seventh Street, represented and sold works by European modernists, Abstract Expressionists, and Pop artists. Janis and his wife Harriet (known as Hansi, née Grossman; American, 1898–1963) began to develop a personal collection in the 1920s. He joined the Advisory Committee of The Museum of Modern Art in late 1933 and exhibited the family collection at MoMA in 1935. Janis donated over one hundred works to the Museum in 1967, and the collection was widely exhibited thereafter. For more information on Janis, see Alfred H. Barr, Jr., The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection: A Gift to The Museum of Modern Art (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1968); and Alfred H. Barr, Jr., and William S. Rubin, Three Generations of Twentieth-Century Art: The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection of The Museum of Modern Art (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1972), pp. x–xv. See also William S. Rubin, A Curator’s Quest: Building the Collection of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art, 1967–88, ed. Phyllis Hattis (New York: Overlook Duckworth, 2012), pp. 43–44. About Glass, Guitar, and Bottle, Janis recalled: “The 1912 Picasso, Nature Morte à la Guitare—that picture I saw for the first time in person at the great Picasso exhibition in Paris at the Galeries Georges Petit in—I think it was 1932. I just couldn’t sleep over it. It belonged at the time to Marie Harriman who had acquired it from Pierre Loeb, and I got Marie Harriman to part with it and it became my picture. Incidentally, after I acquired the picture there was someone else who was after it, who called me and upbraided me on the fact that I overpaid for the picture, that he was negotiating for the picture for $500 less than I got



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9.16



it for” (Janis, interview with Helen M. Franc, June 1967, p. 2, MoMA Library, Special Collections). Janis acquired the work in 1934 (see Barr, 1968, p. 19, and Barr and Rubin, 1972, p. 198) and began exhibiting it with his collection in 1935. The identity of the person who “upbraided” Janis is not known, though a photograph of the work has been observed in the papers of French collector Pierre Gaut. See the Pierre Gaut Papers, 1918–69, Photographs VI.1.43, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. The back of Glass, Guitar, and Bottle’s stretcher (reproduced here) bears a label from the Sidney Janis Gallery, and the work was exhibited in a number of Sidney Janis Gallery shows, including: 20th-Century Old Masters, February 27–March 25, 1950, cat. no. 12; Climax in 20th-Century Art, 1913, January 2–February 3, 1951, cat. no. 4; and A Selection of 20th-Century Art of 3 Generations, November 24– December 26, 1964, cat. no. 17. Janis is listed as the owner of the work in Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917, vol. II (2) (Paris: Cahiers d’art, 1942), cat. no. 419, pl. 195 (“Verre, Guitare, Bouteille. Paris. Printemps 1913. Huile sur toile et papiers collés. 65 × 54 cm. Coll. Sidney Janis, New-York”). In addition, the Sidney Janis Gallery is listed in the provenance for Glass, Guitar, and Bottle published in Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907– 1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. no. 570. 7. The Deed of Gift, signed on June 15, 1967, lists no. 73 as “Oil painting on canvas by Pablo Picasso, approximately 25" high × 21" wide, entitled ‘Nature morte à la Guitare,’ 1913” (MoMA, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Sidney Janis Donor File, 1960s). Glass, Guitar, and Bottle was accessioned into the collection on October 18, 1967, and the final interest in the work was given in December 1986 (per MoMA, Department of Painting and Sculpture, collection card, 641.167). Regarding the terms of the Janis gift, see The Museum of Modern Art, Press Release no. 63, June 17, 1967. For further information, see Alfred H. Barr, Jr., The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection: A Gift to The Museum of Modern Art (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1968); and Alfred H. Barr, Jr., and William S. Rubin, Three Generations of Twentieth-Century Art: The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection of The Museum of Modern Art (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1972).



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9.17



Glass, Guitar, and Bottle Paris, early 1913. Oil, cut-and-pasted newspaper, charcoal, and pencil on canvas, 25 ¾ × 21 ⅛" (65.4 × 53.6 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection, 641.1967. Z II (2) 419, DR 570



Selected Exhibitions 1921 Paris, Hôtel Drouot. Vente de biens allemands: Collection Henri Kahnweiller [sic]. Tableaux modernes. Deuxième vente. Lot 194. Public preview: November 16. Even-numbered lots sold November 17 23



1932 Paris, Galeries Georges Petit. Exposition Picasso. June 16–July 30. Cat. no. 88 [23] 1933 New York, Marie Harriman Gallery. French Paintings. Opened February 21. Cat. no. 4 1934 Chicago, The Renaissance Society of the University of Chicago. Abstract Paintings by Four Twentieth-Century Artists: Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger. January 12–February 2. Cat. no. 12 Hartford, Conn., Wadsworth Athenaeum. Pablo Picasso. February 6– March 1. Cat. no. 24



24



1935 Chicago, Arts Club of Chicago. The Sidney Janis Collection of Modern Paintings. April 5–24. Cat. no. 3 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Summer Exhibition: The Museum Collection and a Private Collection on Loan. June 4–September 24. Checklist p. 4 [24]



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1936 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Cubism and Abstract Art. March 3–April 19. Cat. no. 220. Tour venues, organized through the Department of Circulating Exhibitions: San Francisco Museum of Art. July 27–August 24; Cincinnati Art Museum. October 19–November 16; Minneapolis Institute of Art. November 29–December 27; Cleveland Museum of Art. January 7–February 7, 1937; Baltimore Museum of Art. February 17–March 17, 1937; Providence, Rhode Island School of Design. March 31–April 21, 1937; Grand Rapids, Mich., Grand Rapids Art Gallery, April 29–May 26, 1937 [ 25]



25



1939 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso: Forty Years of His Art. November 15, 1939–January 7, 1940. Cat. no. 111. Tour venue: The Art Institute of Chicago. February 1–March 3, 1940 1944 New York, Nierendorf Gallery. Pioneers of American and European Contemporary Art. December 5–31 (No catalogue) 1948 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Collage. September 21–December 5. Checklist no. 70 1968 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection. January 17–March 4. Cat. p. 19. Tour venues, organized through the Department of Circulating Exhibitions: Minneapolis Institute of Arts. May 15–June 30; Portland, Ore., Portland Art Museum. September 13–October 13; Pasadena Art Museum. November 11–December 15; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. January 13–February 16, 1969; Seattle Art Museum. March 12–April 13, 1969; Dallas Museum of Art. May 14–June 15, 1969; Buffalo, Albright-Knox Art Gallery. September 15–October 19, 1969; Cleveland Museum of Art. November 18, 1969–January 4, 1970; Kunsthalle Basel. February 28–March 30, 1970; London, Institute of Contemporary Arts. May 1–31, 1970; Berlin, Akademie der Künste. June 12–August, 1970; Nuremberg, Kunsthalle Nürnberg. September 11–October 25, 1970; Stuttgart, Kunstverein Würtemberg. November 12–December 27, 1970; Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts. January 7–February 11, 1971; Cologne, Kunsthalle Köln. March 5–April 18, 1971 [26]



26



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1972 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art. February 3–April 2. Cat. p. 81 1976 Basel, Kunstmuseum Basel. Picasso: Aus dem Museum of Modern Art New York und Schweizer Sammlungen. June 15–September 12. Cat. no. 17 Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art. Pikaso: Hakai to sōzō no kyojin. October 2–November 14. Cat. no. 75. Tour venue: Kyoto, National Museum of Modern Art. November 23–December 19



27



1977 Tokyo, Museum of the City of Tokyo. Exposition Picasso. October 15– December 4. Cat. no. 22. Tour venues: Nagoya, Aichi Prefectural Museum. December 13–26; Fukuoka, Cultural Center. January 5–22, 1978; Kyoto, National Museum of Modern Art. January 28–March 5, 1978



28



1980 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective. May 22–September 16. Cat. p. 170 [ 27] 1989 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. September 24, 1989–January 16, 1990. Cat. p. 278. Tour venue: Kunstmuseum Basel. February 22–June 4, 1990 [ 28]



29



1994 London, Tate Gallery. Picasso: Sculptor/Painter. February 16–May 8. Cat. no. 28 2007 Paris, Musée Picasso. Picasso cubiste. September 19, 2007–January 7, 2008 (Not included in catalogue)



30



2011 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. February 13–June 6. Cat. no. 44 [ 29, 30]



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Glass, Guitar, and Bottle Paris, early 1913. Oil, cut-and-pasted newspaper, charcoal, and pencil on canvas, 25 ¾ × 21 ⅛" (65.4 × 53.6 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection, 641.1967. Z II (2) 419, DR 570



Selected References 31



1923 Cocteau, Jean. Picasso. Paris: Stock. Repr. n.p. [ 31] 1930 D’Ors, Eugenio. Pablo Picasso. Paris: Chroniques du jour. Pl. 21 1932 Vrancken, Charles. Picasso. Paris: Galeries Georges Petit. Repr. cat. no. 88 1934 Austin, A. Everett, Jr. Pablo Picasso. Hartford, Conn.: Wadsworth Atheneum. Repr. cat. no. 24 1935 Sidney Janis Collection of Modern Paintings. Chicago: Arts Club of Chicago. Ref. n.p. Cat. no. 3 Soby, James Thrall. After Picasso. New York: Dodd, Mead. Ref. p. 82. Pl. 30 1936 Barr, Alfred H., Jr. Cubism and Abstract Art. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 82. Fig. 67 1939 Barr, Alfred H., Jr. Picasso: Forty Years of His Art. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 82. Repr. cat. no. 111 1942 Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917. Vol. II (2). Paris: Cahiers d’art. Cat. no. 419. Pl. 195



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1944 Eluard, Paul. À Pablo Picasso. Geneva: Trois Collines. Repr. p. 46 (“La Table”) 1950 Kahnweiler, Daniel-Henry. Les Années héroïques du cubisme. Paris: Braun & Cie. Fig. 25 1967 Murray, J. Charlat. “Picasso’s Use of Newspaper Clippings in His Early Collages.” MA thesis, Columbia University, New York. Ref. pp. 28–30. Pl. 13 1972 Barr, Alfred H., Jr., and William S. Rubin. Three Generations of TwentiethCentury Art: The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection of The Museum of Modern Art. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 10, 13, 198. Repr. p. 12 Rubin, William S. Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, Including Remainder-Interest and Promised Gifts. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 80–81, 210. Repr. p. 81 1973 Daix, Pierre. “Des Bouleversements chronologiques dans la révolution des papiers collés (1912–1914).” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 82, no. 1257 (October). Ref. p. 223. Fig. 9 1979 Daix, Pierre, and Joan Rosselet. Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. Trans. Dorothy S. Blair. London: Thames & Hudson. Ref. pp. 131–32, 298. Repr. cat. no. 570 1990 Palau i Fabre, Josep. Picasso: Cubism (1907–1917). Trans. Susan Branyas, Richard-Lewis Rees, and Patrick Zabalbeascoa. New York: Rizzoli. Ref. p. 311. Fig. 883 1992 Daix, Pierre. “Discussion.” In Lynn Zelevansky, ed. Picasso and Braque: A Symposium. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 259. Waldman, Diane. Collage, Assemblage, and the Found Object. New York: Harry N. Abrams. Ref. p. 34. Fig. 42 1994 Cowling, Elizabeth, and John Golding. Picasso: Sculptor/Painter. London: Tate Gallery. Ref. pp. 259–60. Repr. cat. no. 28 2003 Karmel, Pepe. Picasso and the Invention of Cubism. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. Ref. p. 166. Fig. 227



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9.22



Head of a Man Paris, early 1913. Oil, gouache, varnish, ink, gesso, charcoal, and pencil on paper, 24 ¼ × 18 ¼" (61.6 × 46.4 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Richard S. Zeisler Bequest, 595.2010. Z II (2) 431, DR 615



Recto



Verso



Raking Light



UV Light



Reflected Infrared



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10.1



Head of a Man Paris, early 1913. Oil, gouache, varnish, ink, gesso, charcoal, and pencil on paper, 24 ¼ × 18 ¼" (61.6 × 46.4 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Richard S. Zeisler Bequest, 595.2010. Z II (2) 431, DR 615



It is always an error to assume that histories of reception hold the key to histories of production, or to think that what early viewers saw in a picture should completely govern interpretation of what it means. Still, the ownership of this painting by Roger Fry—perhaps the twentieth century’s greatest formalist critic—seems a fact too fascinating to ignore. As to his view of it, we have a tantalizing piece of evidence. The painting was already listed as belonging to Fry when he included it in the second exhibition of The Grafton Group in London in January 1914 [1], where hostile critics singled it out for special derision. In The Saturday Review, C. H. Collins Baker told a story of bombastically challenging the gallery’s secretary: “Where is this man’s head?” After which, he wrote, “The secretary informed me that in Mr. Roger Fry’s opinion this was another misnomer. The painter ought not to have called it ‘Head of a Man,’ but rather a ‘Design.’” 1 Baker was clearly an ass, but his story remains



1



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2



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intriguing. “Design,” implying intention as well as formal coherence, brings the painting into the main line of Fry’s developing formalist aesthetic. 2 Fry would later grow dissatisfied with Picasso’s work, which he found deficient in “plastic values”—too lacking in intuitive, humanizing suggestions of three-dimensionality—but during the early 1910s he seems to have been drawn to the least three-dimensional examples of Cubism (as Christopher Green has astutely noted), the present work among them.3 Early on, Fry had a slide made of Picasso’s Head of a Man with a Moustache of 1912 [2], which would become a mainstay of his lectures. 4 In that work, for all the figure’s disintegrating facets, writing—particularly the “GR”—brings us ineluctably back to surface. And Head of a Man is flatter still. Part of the draw for Fry at this moment likely lay in Picasso’s increasing abstraction, and in the vividness of surface such abstraction provided. The paradoxical twisting of planes in Head of a Man with a Moustache gave way the following year to a superimposition of fictional layers, a formal organization designed never to give us depth but to create an ever more claustrophobic apprehension of surface. With this flatness came new pressures on—and perhaps toward—figuration, and it was to this that Fry reacted. By de-emphasizing figuration, “design” settles down what is most troublesome in Head of a Man: its both presenting and refusing to present a face. Faces are problems in Picasso’s work. Head of a Man approaches the issue deliberately, with a chaotic mixture of mediums and textures. The painting both pretends to be a collage (it is “a papier-collé composition without papier collé,” writes Green) and revels in its own fakeness.5 For instance, the central “collage” element— the blue parallelogram, given jaunty internal rhythm by



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10.3



3



two rows of black “teeth”—flaunts its failure to cohere as a form, its shaggy edge rendered unstable not only by the contrast between matte blue gouache and shiny black oil, but also by the white paint and thick pencil lines that cross it. Matters are made worse by the halo of varnish lurking about its edges like a stain [ 3]. The varnish has yellowed somewhat over the years, but it has always been visible, a positive presence in the composition [4]. The blue shape’s even more ludicrous chalk-white companion, housing the sideways suggestion of an ear, butts up against the disintegrating stripes and sloppy white dots of other faux-collage forms [ 5]. The work’s surface is frenetically busy. Painted planes jostle against each other, and the hastily drawn and redrawn curved lines at their edges suggest movement and directionality, like the snapping open of a fan. The process is impersonally exuberant, almost cheerless: a mechanical exfoliation of form. The painting produces, then, a coolly funny face, with its too-small, too-close eyes and a dislocated ear. It is playful in a bloodless sort of way. But the face seems also mysterious, almost melancholic, especially as we begin to separate the features gathered around the eyes from the riot of color unfolding toward the left. The eyes’ displacement from the painting’s center produces an effect of withdrawnness: a lateralized, surface-level analogue to covering or hiding—for in terms of depth, there is nowhere to go. The mouth has disappeared altogether, an effect exaggerated by the abstract orality of the blue form’s alligator “teeth.” What are we to make, then, of the painting’s emotional tone? It seems radically insecure. And yet the face, floating in its affective void, really hides nothing at all. 6 Tied to this evacuation of feeling is a decided loss



4



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6



7



8



9



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of bodily presence. Prominently, an inverted anchorlike form recurs in several related works of early 1913, including this painting and its closest companion, Head of a Girl [6].7 What this form was intended to represent is mysterious, but it might profitably be compared to the line running down the right cheek in Picasso’s forceful Self-Portrait of 1907 [7], a feature to which art historian Leo Steinberg has drawn attention. 8 For Steinberg, this cheek line is a privileged instance of anatomical features becoming semiotic and thus drifting toward abstraction. Picasso presents us with “a cheek line apart from its physicality—not a thing, but a meaning,” Steinberg says; the artist “dissociates” the form from “the mass it articulates—almost as an abstracted sign.” 9 By 1913, of course, that process had long been underway, and the point here is not that the anchorlike form somehow “is” a cheek line in Head of a Man. Rather, the comparison helps us to see how, in this more extreme manifestation, Picasso called the whole relation between mark-making and the figuration of bodily presence into question. To pursue matters another way: Head of a Man is closely related to the alarmingly flat figure in one of Picasso’s strange and extraordinary studio constructions of early 1913, memorialized by the artist in a photograph [8].10 Picasso drew over a print of this photograph emphatically in ink [ 9], elaborating and clarifying the construction’s geometry. There, the anchorlike form multiplies, cutting across and extending the body even as it locks the guitar into place. In the painting it is as if Picasso wished to bring this extension of “body” upward into “face,” concentrating its interlocked forms—but in a way that would avoid any palpable sense of embodied flesh. For such complexities prove to be aggressively superficial in their effect. No



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10.5



longer secured in description of a body, the configuration floats all but free. Form is adrift in Head of a Man—in flux. Even the lines that anchor the composition to the paper’s bottom edge, which can seem to resolve into a great columnar neck and even something like a set of shoulders, cannot produce stability. The materials of depiction interfere with each other as much as they cooperate. Painting’s procedures are ruthlessly ironized. Picasso ultimately signed the painting twice, once with his name, in ink, and once with a mark the size and shape of a thumbprint, as if he applied varnish with his finger [10, 11].11 If the former establishes a literal surface, the fiction over at last, the latter indexes an inconsolable absence: a bodiliness the figure can never sustain. Plasticity went with human content for observers such as Fry. It provided space for absorption in imaginative experience, for the fullness—the roundedness—of emotional and ethical life. 12 It is precisely this space that Picasso flattened out in Head of a Man, much to Fry’s eventual worry. For all this painting’s brightness and devotion to surface, such losses seem almost to have been Picasso’s worry, too. —Jeremy Melius



10



11



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Notes 1. C. H. Collins Baker, “The Grafton Group Academy,” The Saturday Review, January 31, 1914, p. 138. 2. Its mature formulation is expressed in Roger Fry, Vision and Design (London: Chatto & Windus, 1920). 3. See Christopher Green, “Cubism,” in Green, ed., Art Made Modern: Roger Fry’s Vision of Art (London: Merrell Holberton and The Courtauld Gallery, 1999), pp. 153–56. For the key statement of Roger Fry’s growing worries, see “Picasso,” in A Roger Fry Reader, ed. Christopher Reed (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1996), pp. 343–46. Originally published in The New Statesman, January 29, 1921, pp. 503–4. 4. Fry wrote to Gertrude Stein on March 5, 1913, “Do you know the effect of Picasso’s Tête d’Homme (the one with the G.R. on it) as lantern slide is simply amazing. The increase of scale and the intensity of light and shade make it a most impressive thing.” Letters of Roger Fry, ed. Denys Sutton, vol. 1 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1972), p. 365. 5. Christopher Green, “Cubism,” in Green, ed., Art Made Modern: Roger Fry’s Vision of Art (London: Merrell Holberton and The Cortauld Gallery, 1999), p. 156. 6. Christine Poggi describes this effect in Head of a Man in terms of a topos of unmasking: “The self . . . revealed is shown to consist only in another schematic representation (a vertical line for a nose and two dots for eyes), as if the self for Picasso were a layering of masks, of paperlike surfaces without interiority or depth.” Poggi, In Defiance of Painting: Cubism, Futurism, and the Invention of Collage (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992), p. 88. We might extend Poggi’s observations to suggest that the painting pictures a face in which there is no self at issue at all. 7. What a difference the centering of the eyes and the literally combed, pseudo-illusionistic hair make in consolidating the face in this second work! By comparison, Head of a Man falls hopelessly apart. 8. Pepe Karmel suggests we see the “upside-down anchor” as “representing nose and brows.” Karmel, Picasso and the Invention of Cubism (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2003), p. 138. Perhaps. But while a similar (though not identical) configuration suggests nose and brows in certain works of the previous year (for instance, the drawing Head of a Man with a Moustache of 1912, Z II [2], p. 325; reproduced in Karmel, 2003, fig. 172),



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10.7



I am not entirely sure the form retains so stable a meaning—that the particular representative function continues to stick. The configuration pointedly raises the question of what happens when representational stability becomes unfixed over time in Picasso’s work and forms are increasingly divorced from their iconic origins. 9. Leo Steinberg, “The Prague Self-Portrait and Picasso’s Intelligence,” in Anne Baldassari et al., Cubist Picasso (Paris: Flammarion, 2007), p. 106. 1 0. Although Head of a Man has sometimes been taken to actually have been cut down from that construction, this is unlikely to be the case. I take it to be an elaboration, perhaps even a visual commentary on the construction. See Anne Umland, Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2011), p. 37n35. 1 1. “As if”: for under close examination no fingerprint impression is visible in the varnish, even though the shape and size strongly evoke a thumbprint. At minimum, it appears to be a purposefully executed shape, not an errant drip. Most works of Picasso’s Cubist period are signed on the verso of their supports; signatures on the recto are very often later additions requested from the artist by collectors. The “Picasso” in ink on the recto of Head of a Man is not visible in early reproductions of the work (see References); catalogue raisonné author Pierre Daix noted that the work was signed “subsequently.” See Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916 (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), cat. no. 615. 1 2. On absorptive themes in Fry’s criticism, see Michael Fried, “Roger Fry’s Formalism” (The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, November 2 and 3, 2001), http:// tannerlectures.utah.edu/_documents/a-to-z/f/fried_2001.pdf.



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10.8



Head of a Man Paris, early 1913. Oil, gouache, varnish, ink, gesso, charcoal, and pencil on paper, 24 ¼ × 18 ¼" (61.6 × 46.4 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Richard S. Zeisler Bequest, 595.2010. Z II (2) 431, DR 615



Conservation Notes 12



This drawing’s primary support, a full sheet of artist’s paper, was unevenly prepared with an unrefined and clumpy coating of white gesso. The work’s irregular, striated surface texture is the result, primarily, of the artist’s use of a coarse-haired brush in applying the gesso and also, in some spots, of the paper’s inherent laid pattern [12]. The watermark “Ingres 1862” is very faintly visible in the sheet’s upper right corner in raking light. The countermark visible in its lower right corner (a shield bearing the initials “C F” and a caduceus and, below, the location of its manufacture, France) identifies it as made for the French distributor Catel et Farcy. Picasso began the work using pencil. The sketchy contours and jaggedly strengthened lines may indicate that the artist was actively working out the composition as he was drawing it. Some pencil lines are reinforced with charcoal (the arcs at the top of the work, for example), but the reinforcements appear to have been made later in the working process. Liquid mediums,



10j Detail of Head of a Man



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10.9



primarily matte paints and ink, were used to loosely fill in and around the articulated shapes and lines. The rough bleed along the curved edge of the black B-shape at far right suggests that it may have been painted against a template or other masking device. The artist deliberately left traces of his overpainting and correcting or editing of certain compositional elements. For example, a large area of patchy overpainting is visible next to and around the subject’s right eye. The pattern of dabs of white oil paint on the black painted shapes at left was applied in one of the final steps. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy analysis of a sample taken from the yellow painted areas indicates that the material is a now-degraded natural varnish, probably the tree-based resin dammar, a material widely used by artists for picture varnishes. In some areas Picasso applied the varnish, rather unusually, as a painting material rather than as a finishing glaze. He used it more traditionally in other locations to saturate and add gloss, especially in the black painted areas (this is particularly visible under ultraviolet illumination [13]). Sometimes the varnish picked up and spread friable charcoal particles across the surface. For example, when the work is viewed under a microscope, it is evident that the varnish within the central striped band contains countless charcoal particles (perhaps picked up from light shading in this area), creating something akin to a tinted varnish; in other places particles are present where the varnish smeared adjacent charcoal lines as it was brushed on. The varnish is now discolored, although it is likely that it was always somewhat yellow, given the thickness of the coating and its inherent material characteristics. It registered against the white ground of the work in an image published in 1924 [14].



13



14



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10.10



Pinholes at all four corners suggest that the work was executed on the unmounted sheet of paper and subsequently mounted overall onto a canvas support, now trimmed, perhaps immediately after its departure from Picasso’s studio. The mounted work is now adhered overall to a second canvas support and stretched over a wood strainer that probably dates from the 1950s or later [15]. There is extensive overpainting along the sheet edges, intended to disguise tears most likely sustained during the later mounting procedure; the tears and the overpainting now partially obscure the pinholes. The signature “Picasso” at upper left is understood to be a later addition by the artist and does not appear in early reproductions of the work. —SG



15



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10.11



Head of a Man Paris, early 1913. Oil, gouache, varnish, ink, gesso, charcoal, and pencil on paper, 24 ¼ × 18 ¼" (61.6 × 46.4 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Richard S. Zeisler Bequest, 595.2010. Z II (2) 431, DR 615



Provenance



16



BY c. MARCH 10, 1913 Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris. Purchased from the artist 1 [1913] [Léonce] Rosenberg, Paris. Purchased from the above 2 BY JANUARY 1914 Roger Fry, London [16] 3 [AFTER 1921] [Comtesse de Noailles, Paris] 4 [BEFORE 1929] [Serge Diaghilev, Paris (primarily)] 5 [ANYTIME c. 1930s–1950s] [Max-Pol Fouchet, Algiers and later Paris and Vézelay] 6 17



AFTER 1944–1955 Rose Fried Gallery, New York [ 17] 7 1955 Richard Zeisler, New York. Purchased from the above 8 SEPTEMBER 16, 2010 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. By bequest from the above 9 —BH



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10.12



Notes 1. Galerie Kahnweiler was founded in 1907 by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (German, 1884–1979) at 28, rue Vignon, Paris. Picasso entered into an exclusive three-year contract, beginning December 2, 1912, to sell works at fixed prices to Kahnweiler. This arrangement is outlined in the artist’s letter, dated December 18, 1912, to his dealer (original letter on deposit with Galerie Louise Leiris Archives, Paris, and reproduced in Maurice Jardot, Picasso: Peintures 1900–1955 [Paris: Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 1955], pp. 50–52). We can conclude that this work went directly from the artist’s studio to Galerie Kahnweiler per the terms of their contract. The Kahnweiler papers are held by Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, and are not accessible at this time. Head of a Man has been identified in the records of Galerie Kahnweiler, pictured in photo file no. 262, inscribed: “Tête d’homme/Paris, printemps 1913.” (The date in Kahnweiler’s photo files seems more often to align with the date the artwork was delivered to rue Vignon and when the photograph was taken of it than with the date of the execution of the work.) This same photo file number is connected to Head of a Man in Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. no. 615. Photo file no. 262 matches the stockbook entry inv. no. 1245, “Dessin (couleurs) /1500 / Rosenberg,” according to Pepe Karmel’s unpublished 1991 transcription of Kahnweiler’s inventory book. A large cache of 1912–13 drawings and papiers collés— including Head of a Man, inv. no. 1245—was delivered to the gallery before Picasso’s departure for Céret in early spring 1913, around March 10 (see Judith Cousins, “Documentary Chronology,” in William S. Rubin, Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism [New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1989], p. 414). These Cubist works on paper were recorded in the inventory under the generic entry “Dessin” or “Dessin (couleurs).” For further reading on Kahnweiler, see Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler with Francis Crémieux, My Galleries and Painters, trans. Helen Weaver (New York: Viking Press, 1971); Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, ed., Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler: Marchand, éditeur, écrivain (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984); Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, ed., Donation Louise et Michel Leiris: Collection Kahnweiler-Leiris (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984); and Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990).



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10.13



2. Léonce Rosenberg (French, 1879–1947) was a collector and dealer who began buying Cubist works before World War I and, after his military service, went on to open Galerie l’Effort Moderne, in 1918, at 19, rue de la Baume, Paris. Rosenberg came from a family of art dealers, including his father Alexandre and his brother Paul, who would represent Picasso after World War I. According to the unpublished 1991 transcription of Galerie Kahnweiler’s inventory book prepared by Pepe Karmel, Head of a Man (inv. no. 1245) was sold for “1500” to “Rosenberg,” very likely Léonce. While Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler lived in exile during the war, as a German citizen and an enemy alien of France, Rosenberg operated as the main Parisian dealer of Cubism. Rosenberg would later, under great criticism from the Cubist circle (including a punch in the face from artist Georges Braque), serve as the expert helping to organize the 1921–23 government auctions of sequestered Galerie Kahnweiler stock. Regarding Rosenberg’s role in these Paris auctions and anecdotal recollections of the sales, see Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990), pp. 163–79. For further reading on Léonce Rosenberg, see E. Tériade, “Entretien avec M. Léonce Rosenberg,” in “Feuilles volantes,” supplement to Cahiers d’art 2, no. 6 (1927): 1–3; Malcolm Gee, Dealers, Critics, and Collectors of Modern Painting: Aspects of the Parisian Art Market Between 1910 and 1930 (New York: Garland Publishing, 1981), pp. 44–58; and Douglas Cooper, “Early Purchasers of True Cubist Art,” in Cooper and Gary Tinterow, The Essential Cubism: Braque, Picasso & Their Friends (London: Tate Gallery, 1983), pp. 20, 26–67. See also Centre Pompidou, Paris, Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Fonds Léonce Rosenberg; and MoMA Archives, New York, Léonce Rosenberg Papers, Correspondence Relating to Cubism. 3. Roger Fry (English, 1866–1934) was a critic, curator, scholar, and artist active in the Bloomsbury Group in London and founder of the Omega Workshops in 1913. He helped to found The Burlington Magazine (1903); served in prominent roles at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1905–10); and became the Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge University (1933). Fry’s ownership of the work is established as early as January 1914, when he loaned it to the second Grafton Group exhibition, held at the Alpine Club in London. The pamphlet The Grafton Group: Vanessa Bell, Roger Fry, Duncan Grant. Second Exhibition (London: Alpine Club, 1914) (reproduced here) lists cat. no. 43 as: “Pablo Picasso. Tête d’homme. Lent by Roger Fry.” On January 1, 1914, Fry wrote from London to his friend, the gallerist and poet Charles Vildrac, in Paris: “The pictures have arrived safely and I have just hung them in the beautiful Alpine Club Gallery. There are forty canvases in all. I really think it is the best exhibition we have organized yet. Would it be possible for you and



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10.14



Doucet to come and see them? . . . It strikes me for the first time that the French pictures do not stand out from ours. That is to say that I believe our mutual understanding has been so greatly to our advantage that now we are beginning to construct real pictures” (Fry, letter to Charles Vildrac, January 1, 1914, in The Letters of Roger Fry, vol. 2, ed. Denys Sutton [New York: Random House, 1972], pp. 376–77). A few years later, in 1920, Fry would write: “Now that Matisse has become a safe investment for persons of taste, and that Picasso and Derain have delighted the miscellaneous audience of the London Music Halls with their designs for the Russian Ballet, it will be difficult for people to imagine the vehemence of the indignation which greeted the first sight of their works in England” (Fry, “Retrospect,” in Vision and Design [London: Chatto and Windus, 1920], p. 193). It is possible that Fry also loaned Head of a Man to the January 1921 Leicester Galleries Picasso exhibition, which was the first major survey exhibition of the artist’s work to be held in Great Britain (“Nature morte, 1914. Lent by Roger Fry, Esq.,” in Exhibition of Works by Pablo Picasso [London: Leicester Galleries/Ernst, Brown & Phillips, 1921], cat. no. 26). This suggestion was made by James Beechey and Christopher Stephens in their recent exhibition catalogue, based on the observation that Head of a Man was the only Picasso painting Fry ever purchased, and hence, it must be the “Nature morte” he loaned for exhibition in 1921. See Beechey and Stephens, eds., Picasso and Modern British Art (London: Tate Publishing, 2012), pp. 60, 221. Though Kahnweiler’s records indicate that he sold Head of a Man to “Rosenberg,” it is commonly assumed that Galerie Kahnweiler was Fry’s source for the work. See, for example, Judith Collins, The Omega Workshops (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), p. 62: “On the way back to England from his fortnight-long painting holiday, Fry stopped for a day or two in Paris, possibly meeting Clive and Vanessa Bell there, and purchased a Picasso from Kahnweiler, the Head of a Man, painted in the spring or summer 1913.” Even if he sourced the work from Rosenberg and not Kahnweiler, Fry has been considered one of the “regular foreign correspondents” who helped Kahnweiler promote his artists outside of France (see Patrick-Gilles Persin, DanielHenry Kahnweiler: L’Aventure d’un grand marchand [Paris: Bibliothèque des Arts, 1990], pp. 11–12). Fry also visited Paris periodically throughout the 1910s and 1920s, making visits to Picasso’s home and studio. Fry was praised in later years for this prescient purchase, and Roland Penrose wrote in 1960 of Head of a Man : “This painting, formerly belonging to Roger Fry, was one of the earliest cubist paintings to be bought by an English collector” (Penrose, Picasso [London: The Arts Council of Great Britain, 1960], p. 31). It has been observed that Fry’s “repeated financial crises and a generous nature combined to deplete his stock . . . . To appreciate fully Fry’s commitment to recent art,



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10.15



one must add to the holdings of the [Fry] Collection at the Courtauld Picasso’s Tête d’homme, purchased in 1913” (Christopher Reed, A Roger Fry Reader [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996], p. 189n30). Additional sources that list Fry in the provenance include the 1979 catalogue raisonné on the artist: Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. no. 615. The credit recorded in Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917, vol. II (2) (Paris: Cahiers d’art, 1942), cat. no. 431, pl. 201 (“Tête d’homme. Paris. Printemps 1913. Huile sur papier. Col. Roger Fry, Londres”) is thought to have been outdated information at the time of its publication, though it was once accurate. For additional information on Fry, see Virginia Woolf, Roger Fry: A Biography (London: Hogarth Press, 1940); The Letters of Roger Fry, 2 vols., ed. Denys Sutton (New York: Random House, 1972); Christopher Reed, A Roger Fry Reader (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996); and Mary Ann Caws and Sarah Bird Wright, Bloomsbury and France: Art and Friends (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000). See also King’s College Archive Centre, Cambridge, The Papers of Roger Eliot Fry; and Tate Archive, London, Charleston Trust Papers, TGA8010. 4. Comtesse de Noailles (Romanian, born France; 1876–1933), née Princess Anna-Élisabeth Bibesco Bassaraba de Brancovan, was an author and collector. She married Mathieu, Comte de Noailles (the fourth son of the seventh Duc de Noailles), in 1897. She maintained a literary salon in Paris at her avenue Hoche home, which was frequented by writers such as Jean Cocteau, Colette, Max Jacob, and Paul Valéry. Anna de Noailles was awarded a Grand Prix from the Académie Française (1921) and was the first woman to become a Commander of the Légion d’Honneur (1931). An inscription on the back of a photograph of Head of a Man archived in the records of the Rose Fried Gallery, New York, lists the following as former owners of the work: “Collection: Serge Diagieloff [ sic ] /Comtesse de Noailles /Roger Fry” (Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art, Rose Fried Gallery Records, Archives of American Art, Reel 2206—Picasso). It is not known, at this time, when or how Anna de Noailles acquired the work. She and Fry moved in overlapping social and artistic circles, so common connections would not be implausible. For example, Fry was familiar with a cousin of the comtesse, Princess Marthe Bibesco (see The Letters of Roger Fry, 2 vols., ed. Denys Sutton [New York: Random House, 1972], p. 702). It is worth considering the possibility that the inscription on the Rose Fried Gallery photograph could refer to the Vicomtesse de Noailles, née Marie-Laure Bischoffsheim. The Vicomte and Vicomtesse de Noailles



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10.16



were exceptionally active collectors of modern art in Paris between 1923 and 1932 (even more so than the Comte and Comtesse de Noailles). For more on key aristocratic supporters of modern art, see Malcolm Gee, Dealers, Critics, and Collectors of Modern Painting: Aspects of the Parisian Art Market Between 1910 and 1930 (New York: Garland Publishing, 1981), pp. 186–90. 5. Sergei (Serge) Diaghilev (Russian, 1872–1929) was the founder of the Ballets Russes, one of the most innovative and influential dance companies of the twentieth century. Diaghilev first collaborated with Picasso on Parade (1917), alongside Jean Cocteau, composer Erik Satie, and choreographer Léonide Massine. Later projects with the artist included Le Tricorne (1919), Pulcinella (1919–20), and Mercure (1924), and it was through Picasso’s association with the Ballets Russes that he met his first wife, the ballet dancer Olga Khokhlova. Diaghilev’s ambitious and exacting plans for the Ballets Russes, along with his lavish lifestyle, are thought to have left him and his company periodically bankrupt (see Malcolm Gee, Dealers, Critics, and Collectors of Modern Painting: Aspects of the Parisian Art Market Between 1910 and 1930 [New York: Garland Publishing, 1981], pp. 198–200). He died in Venice in 1929 of complications related to diabetes. Recent scholarship has argued that his financial situation was not as hopeless as previously thought, and that “in fact, he had a large sum of money in the hotel safe [in Venice] . . . . He had also assembled an important and valuable collection of Russian books, pictures, and letters, which later went to [Boris] Kochno and [Serge] Lifar” (Nina LobanovRostovsky, “Diaghilev’s Death,” in Jane Pritchard, ed., Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, 1909–1929: When Art Danced with Music [London: Victoria and Albert Museum; Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2013], p. 225). An inscription on the back of a photograph of Head of a Man archived in the records of the Rose Fried Gallery, New York, lists the following as former owners of the work: “Collection: Serge Diagieloff [ sic ] /Comtesse de Noailles /Roger Fry” (Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art, Rose Fried Gallery Records, Reel 2206— Picasso). The previous owner indicated, Anna de Noailles, attended the opening of the Ballets Russes in Paris, and the comtesse and Diaghilev moved in the same Paris social circles (Joan Acocella, “The Reception of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes by Artists and Intellectuals in Paris and London, 1909–1914,” PhD diss., Rutgers University, 1984, p. 1). More detailed information to confirm ownership by Diaghilev has not been established at this time.



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For additional information on Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes, see Sjeng Scheijen, Diaghilev: A Life (London: Profile Books, 2009); and Pritchard, ed., 2013. See also The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev Papers, 1910–29, ZBD-163. 6. Max-Pol Fouchet (French, 1913–1980) was a poet, publisher, critic, and journalist who spent much of his youth in Algeria. Fouchet was a prominent figure in the French Resistance, publishing the 1942 poem “Liberté” (under the title “Une Seule Pensée”), by Paul Eluard, in defiance of the wartime censors. He was part of a circle in the 1940s that included Eluard, Louis Aragon, Brassaï, and Picasso. Fouchet traveled widely after the war, then returned to France and worked in television. He was a key supporter and chronicler of the May 1968 demonstrations in Paris. Fouchet is listed in the provenance information published in Jean Sutherland Boggs, Picasso and Man (Toronto: The Art Gallery of Toronto), repr. cat. no. 62 (“Head of a Man/Tête d’homme. Spring 1913. Oil, charcoal, ink and pencil on sized paper. Lent by Mr. Richard S. Zeisler. Provenance: Roger Fry, London. Max-Pol Fouchet, Paris. Acquired by the present owner in 1955”). Fouchet also appears in the provenance listed in Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. no. 615 (“Head of a Man. Céret 1913. Oil, charcoal, ink and crayon on sized paper. Prov.: Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris [archive photograph 262]; Roger Fry, London; Max-Pol Fouchet, Paris; purchased from the Rose Fried Gallery, New York, by Richard Zeisler, 1955”). According to the biography compiled by Les Amis de Max-Pol Fouchet, Fouchet’s aunt Alice Simond offered him the gift of several drawings by Picasso. See “Biographie détaillée de Max-Pol Fouchet,” Association des Amis de Max-Pol Fouchet, www.maxpolfouchet.com/ index.php/A_propos_de_Max-Pol/Biographie/Biogra phie_detaillee_ de_Max-Pol_Fouchet.html. For further reading on Fouchet, see Jean Queval, Max-Pol Fouchet: Choix de textes, bibliographie, portrait, fac-similés (Paris: Éditions Seghers, 1963); Max-Pol Fouchet, “Mémoire parlée,” Magazine littéraire, nos. 9, 12–13 (1967); and Max-Pol Fouchet with Albert Mermoud, Fontaines de mes jours (Paris: Éditions Stock, 1979). 7. Rose Fried Gallery was the name given to the Pinacotheca Gallery, New York (founded by Dan Harris), when it was taken over in the early 1940s by Rose Fried (American, died early 1970s). Fried owned and operated her namesake gallery for several decades. The gallery, located at 6 East Sixty-Fifth Street, exhibited and sold significant works of modern European art.



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10.18



On the left portion of the crossbar of Head of a Man’s stretcher a printed and typed sticker (reproduced here) reads: “Rose Fried Gallery / 6 East 65 Street / New York 21, N.Y. / Pablo Picasso / ‘Tete d’Homme’ 1913 / 19 × 25—oil on paper /  Z ervos Vol. II, page 201 / Formerly Roger Fry Col.” In addition, a reproduction of the work is included in the gallery’s records (Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art, Rose Fried Gallery Records, Reel 2206—Picasso). Fried’s name also appears in the published provenance in Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. no. 615 (“Head of a Man. Céret 1913. Oil, charcoal, ink and crayon on sized paper. Prov.: Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris [archive photograph 262]; Roger Fry, London; Max-Pol Fouchet, Paris; purchased from the Rose Fried Gallery, New York, by Richard Zeisler, 1955”). 8. Richard S. Zeisler (American, 1916–2007) was an investor, philanthropist, and collector of twentieth-century art. He served as a longtime trustee to The Museum of Modern Art, New York, after joining the board in 1979. Zeisler purchased the work in 1955, according to the provenance published in Jean Sutherland Boggs, Picasso and Man (Toronto: The Art Gallery of Toronto), repr. cat. no. 62 (“Head of a Man/Tête d’homme. Spring 1913. Oil, charcoal, ink and pencil on sized paper. Lent by Mr. Richard S. Zeisler. Provenance: Roger Fry, London. Max-Pol Fouchet, Paris. Acquired by the present owner in 1955”). This information is repeated in Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. no. 615 (“Head of a Man. Céret 1913. Oil, charcoal, ink and crayon on sized paper. Prov.: Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris [archive photograph 262]; Roger Fry, London; Max-Pol Fouchet, Paris; purchased from the Rose Fried Gallery, New York, by Richard Zeisler, 1955”). A 1960 exhibition label pasted onto the backing board of Head of a Man records Zeisler as the owner when he loaned the work to a London retrospective organized by Roland Penrose. Zeisler is listed as the lender in the exhibition catalogue for the show: Roland Penrose, Picasso (London: The Arts Council of Great Britain, 1960), cat. no. 69, pl. 16e (“Head of a Man. Paris, spring 1913. Oil and charcoal on paper, laid on canvas. Lent by Mr. Richard S. Zeisler, New York”). Zeisler is listed as the lender of the work in exhibition catalogues for several decades thereafter. 9. Head of a Man was accessioned into the Museum’s collection on September 16, 2010 (per MoMA collection database). Richard Zeisler first promised the work to MoMA in a 1972 letter regarding his bequest. See Zeisler, letter to William Rubin, March 15, 1972 (no. 8 on



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10.19



the attachment to this letter is “Pablo Picasso. Head of a Man. 1913. Various mediums on paper, 24 ¼ × 18 ¼”). The work was formally bequeathed to MoMA in Zeisler’s Will and Trust Agreement of February 24, 1994. Following Zeisler’s death, in 2007, his collection of over one hundred works of modern art was dispersed to sixteen institutions by his estate. Over thirty works were given to MoMA, including Head of a Man (no. 69 on Sotheby’s “The Property of the Estate of Richard S. Zeisler,” p. 23). Relevant documentation is filed with MoMA, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Zeisler Donor Files. See also Carol Vogel, “Inside Art: A Collector Gives the Gift of Modern Art,” The New York Times, December 7, 2007, p. E38.



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10.20



Head of a Man Paris, early 1913. Oil, gouache, varnish, ink, gesso, charcoal, and pencil on paper, 24 ¼ × 18 ¼" (61.6 × 46.4 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Richard S. Zeisler Bequest, 595.2010. Z II (2) 431, DR 615



Selected Exhibitions 1914 London, Alpine Club Gallery. The Grafton Group: Vanessa Bell, Roger Fry, Duncan Grant. Second Exhibition. January. Cat. no. 43 [1921] [London, Leicester Galleries, Ernst Brown & Phillips. Exhibition of Works by Pablo Picasso. January. Cat. no. 26 (“Nature morte, 1914.”)] 1960 London, Tate Gallery. Picasso. July 6–September 18. Cat. no. 60 1962 New York, Saidenberg Gallery. Picasso: An American Tribute. April 25–May 12. Cat. no. 15 1964 Toronto, The Art Gallery of Toronto. Picasso and Man. January 11– February 16. Cat. no. 62. Tour venue: The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. February 28–March 31 Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art. Pablo Picasso Exhibition: Japan. May 23–July 5. Cat. no. 25. Tour venues: Kyoto, National Museum of Modern Art. July 10–August 2; Nagoya, Prefectural Museum of Art. August 7–August 18 1966 Tel Aviv, Muze’on Tel-Aviv. Picasso. January. Cat. no. 16



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10.21



18



1967 Dallas, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. Picasso: Two Concurrent Retrospective Exhibitions. February 8–March 26. Cat. no. 24 1980 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective. May 22–September 16. Cat. p. 173 [ 18]



19



1989 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. September 24, 1989–January 16, 1990. Cat. p. 281. (Note: Exhibited only at the New York venue. The work did not travel with the exhibition to Kunstmuseum Basel.) [ 19]



20



2011 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. February 13–June 6. Cat. no. 53 [ 20, 21] 2012 London, Tate Britain. Picasso and Modern British Art. February 15–July 15. Cat. no. 8. Tour venue: Edinburgh, The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. August 4–November 4



21



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10.22



Head of a Man Paris, early 1913. Oil, gouache, varnish, ink, gesso, charcoal, and pencil on paper, 24 ¼ × 18 ¼" (61.6 × 46.4 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Richard S. Zeisler Bequest, 595.2010. Z II (2) 431, DR 615



Selected References 1914 Anonymous. “The Grafton Group at the Alpine Club Gallery.” The Athenaeum, no. 4498 (January 10). Ref. p. 70 Baker, C. H. Collins. “The Grafton Group Academy.” The Saturday Review (January 31). Ref. p. 138 1924 Reverdy, Pierre. Pablo Picasso: Vingt-Six Reproductions de peintures et dessins. Paris: Éditions de la “Nouvelle revue française.” Repr. p. 53  [22]



22



1942 Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917. Vol. II (2). Paris: Cahiers d’art. Cat. no. 431. Pl. 201 1960 Penrose, Roland. Picasso. London: The Arts Council of Great Britain. Cat. no. 69. Pl. 16e 1964 Boggs, Jean Sutherland. Picasso and Man. Toronto: The Art Gallery of Toronto. Ref. p. 74. Repr. cat. no. 62 1966 Kahnweiler, Daniel-Henry. Picasso. Tel Aviv: Muze’on Tel-Aviv. Ref. n.p. Repr. cat. no. 16



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1979 Daix, Pierre, and Joan Rosselet. Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. Trans. Dorothy S. Blair. London: Thames & Hudson. Ref. p. 307. Repr. cat. no. 615, p. 135 1988 Poggi, Christine. “Frames of Reference: ‘Table’ and ‘Tableau’ in Picasso’s Collages and Constructions.” Art Journal 47, no. 4. Ref. pp. 320, 322n35. Fig. 18 1990 Palau i Fabre, Josep. Picasso: Cubism (1907–1917). Trans. Susan Branyas, Richard-Lewis Rees, and Patrick Zabalbeascoa. New York: Rizzoli. Ref. p. 328. Fig. 933 (“Oscillating Head of Man”) Richardson, John. A Life of Picasso: The Cubist Rebel, 1907–1917. Vol 2. New York: Random House. Ref. p. 310. Repr. p. 310 1992 Poggi, Christine. In Defiance of Painting: Cubism, Futurism, and the Invention of Collage. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992. Ref. p. 88. Fig. 67 1999 Green, Christopher. Art Made Modern: Roger Fry’s Vision of Art. London: Merrell Holberton and The Courtauld Gallery. Ref. pp. 154–56. Cat. no. 60. Fig. 96 2000 Léal, Brigitte, Christine Piot, and Marie-Laure Bernadac. The Ultimate Picasso. Trans. Molly Stevens and Marjolin de Jager. New York: Harry N. Abrams. Ref. p. 170. Fig. 366 2003 Karmel, Pepe. Picasso and the Invention of Cubism. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. Ref. pp. 137–38. Fig. 173 2011 Umland, Anne. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 37n35. Repr. cat. no. 53 2012 Beechey, James, and Christopher Stephens, eds. Picasso and Modern British Art. London: Tate Publishing. Ref. p. 60. Repr. cat. no. 8



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10.24



Bar Table with Guitar Céret, spring 1913. Cut-and-pinned wallpaper and colored paper, and charcoal and chalk on colored paper, 24 ⅜ × 15 ⅜" (61.9 × 39.1 cm). Private collection. Z II (2) 418, DR 601



Recto



Verso



Raking Light



UV Light



Infrared Light



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11.1



Bar Table with Guitar Céret, spring 1913. Cut-and-pinned wallpaper and colored paper, and charcoal and chalk on colored paper, 24 ⅜ × 15 ⅜" (61.9 × 39.1 cm). Private collection. Z II (2) 418, DR 601



1



2



3



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Thirteen straight pins hold Bar Table with Guitar together. These slim silver pins [ 1] conjure a sense of process, of the layering and arrangement of papers just so. 1 The work is secured only at essential points, but abandoned pinholes, often paired, suggest that additional pins— or alternatively placed ones—were once incorporated [2, 3].2 Though it was executed with a deft, deliberate hand, there is an air of impermanence associated with this delicate method of attachment: what is pinned can be unpinned.3 The primary support of this 1913 papier épinglé (not papier collé, for Picasso applied no glue) is a brown laid paper of unevenly cut contours. 4 To this ground, which shuttles between background and foreground, Picasso attached cutouts of floral-printed wallpaper and finequality colored papers in shades of Delft blue, mustard, and a mauve that now appears gray. The Surrealist André Breton once invoked “great blue and pink cutouts” by Picasso, Cubist masterpieces faded by light; perhaps Bar



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11.2



4



5



6



7



8



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Table with Guitar was among them.5 The late-nineteenthcentury printed wallpaper is French in origin: decorative, repetitively patterned, and modestly bourgeois. 6 Picasso cut notches and curves in these pieces, though in some places he maintained and prominently displayed the soft deckle edge of the artist’s paper [ 4]. Picasso’s materials and methods emphasize how objects, real or represented, behave at their boundaries. 7 Cast shadows are the product of one such behavior, and the rendering of shadows has been central to Western art at least as far back as Masaccio’s fifteenth-century Expulsion of Adam and Eve [5]. Through a different kind of artifice Picasso created real shadows in Bar Table with Guitar. Examination of the work under raking light emphasizes its exceptionally low relief [ 6]. It was made by manipulating paper much more than by markmaking, but there are elements of traditional drawing practice as well: Picasso paired with his real shadows a few hand-drawn additions in black charcoal, building up the sinuous left curve of the instrument through soft shading [7] and drawing in one of his favorite fringed tables in white chalk.8 Shortly after Bar Table with Guitar was exhibited for what was probably the first time, in 1935 at Galerie Pierre in Paris [ 8], French critic and collector Maurice Raynal pondered the category-defying nature of Picasso’s works on paper. In a 1935 essay accompanied by illustrations of Bar Table with Guitar and other 1912–14 works, he posed the perennial question, “Is it drawing, painting, or sculpture?” 9 Depth is compressed in the wallpaper-lined room represented in Bar Table with Guitar, but Picasso indirectly evoked space insofar as he figured the objects that occupy it. As scholar T. J. Clark has argued, at the heart of Picasso’s project “lay an unshakeable



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11.3



commitment to the space of a small or middle-sized room and the little possessions laid out on its table.” 10 Clark further observed:



9



10



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Bohemians tend to live in places where the property is deteriorating: the wallpaper is oldfashioned and peeling, the armchair broken, the music nostalgic, the frame on the mirror a fright . . . . And here, given form at last, is the central dream of the bourgeoisie. The world, for the bourgeois, is a room. Rooms, interiors, furnishings, covers, curlicues are the “individual” made flesh. And no style besides Cubism has ever dwelt so profoundly in these few square feet, this little space of possession and manipulation. 11 The room—the world—that Bar Table with Guitar manifests with paper, chalk, charcoal, and pins was that of the bohemian circles to which Picasso belonged. These artists lived amidst this brand of fading, middleclass modernity, with its mechanically produced decorations and well-worn furniture [ 9, 10].12 The handful of pins that hold together Bar Table with Guitar charge the work with a perilous fragility, a seeming material impermanence that complements the fleeting world to which Cubism was oriented. —Blair Hartzell



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11.4



Notes 1. In reproductions published in 1935 and 1964, the white cutout in Bar Table with Guitar was positioned in front of the piece of wallpaper to its lower right. The impermanent method of attachment used in this work means that the paper cutouts could easily change position in the process of handling during framing or treatment. 2. Additional pins could have been lost, though those presently in place are documented as early as April 1935 in their current configuration. See the first known reproduction of the work (fig. 18), published in Maurice Raynal, “Les Papiers collés de Picasso,” Arts et métiers graphiques, no. 46 (April 15, 1935): 30. Pins were also used by Georges Braque in the creation of his papiers collés, though as part of a more complex and precise process: first he drew; then he pinned and repinned his cutouts until he was satisfied with their placement, after which he carefully marked their position in pencil; and then he removed his pins and pasted down the paper pieces in line with his registration marks. Finally, Braque added his last graphic elements, usually repeating the initial drawing on top of his collage elements. With thanks to Emily Braun and Scott Gerson for the opportunity to examine and discuss Braque’s papier collé techniques. 3. And repinned. The pins were removed, cleaned, dipped in a protective coating, and returned to their holes in a 1965 conservation treatment at the Fogg Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. See Elizabeth Jones, letter to Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., February 10, 1965 (Archives of the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Mass.). Elizabeth Cowling has argued that Picasso’s use of pins invites comparison with dressmaking and tailoring. See Cowling, “The Fine Art of Cutting: Picasso’s Papiers Collés and Constructions in 1912– 14,” Apollo 142, no. 405 (November 1995): 10–18. 4. Traces of dried adhesive visible on the back of the wallpaper cutouts suggest that the paper may have been used for its traditionally intended decorative purpose. No adhesive has been observed on the other paper cutouts. For additional information on the papers in this work, see Conservation Notes. 5. André Breton, “Picasso dans son élément,” Minotaure 1, no. 1 (June 1933): 14. The change—even the degradation—embedded in Picasso’s papery materials was emphasized and applauded by Breton and his fellow Surrealists in the 1930s.



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11.5



6. Elizabeth Cowling has undertaken a thorough study of the wallpapers several artists used in their Cubist works, and has published some of her findings in “What the Wallpapers Say: Picasso’s Papiers Collés of 1912–14,” The Burlington Magazine 155, no. 1326 (September 2013): 594–601. Cowling identified the pattern used in Bar Table with Guitar in the albums of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris: “Although the manufacturer’s label has been lost, the album is attributed to the 1880s and [the sample matching the wallpaper in Bar Table with Guitar] is stamped on the reverse with its name, Sévigné (after Madame de Sévigné, of course), pattern number (2729), and price per roll (1,90 francs).” Cowling, 2013, p. 597. Patterns of this sort first came into fashion in the late eighteenth century. 7. T. J. Clark has described Picasso as an artist interested in things at their edges and has posited that, in particular, the devices of Cubism serve to lock the edges of things together. See Clark, “Picasso and Truth,” especially Part 1: Object, and Part 2: Room (The Fifty-Eighth A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., March 22 and 29, 2009), audio accessible at www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/audio-video/audio. html. This six-lecture series was recently published in Clark, Picasso and Truth: From Cubism to Guernica, The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, Bollingen Series 35, no. 58 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2013). 8. For case studies in twentieth-century approaches to paper, from Picasso to Jasper Johns, see Catherine Craft, “‘Cut, Tear, Scrape, Erase’: Notes on Paper in Twentieth-Century Drawing,” Master Drawings 50, no. 2 (Summer 2012): 161–86. On the tasseled pedestal table in Bar Table with Guitar and other works, see Anne Baldassari, Picasso and Photography: The Dark Mirror, trans. Deke Dusinberre (Paris: Flammarion, 1997), p. 106; and Christine Poggi, “Frames of Reference: ‘Table’ and ‘Tableau’ in Picasso’s Collages and Constructions,” Art Journal 47, no. 4 (Winter 1988): 313. 9. Maurice Raynal, “Les Papiers collés de Picasso,” Arts et métiers graphiques, no. 46 (April 15, 1935): 31. Raynal’s query bears comparison with André Salmon’s first questions about Picasso’s 1914 sheet metal Guitar: “Does it rest on a pedestal? Does it hang on a wall? What is it, painting or sculpture?” Salmon, La Jeune Sculpture française (Paris: Albert Messein, 1919), pp. 103–4. 1 0. T. J. Clark, Picasso and Truth: From Cubism to Guernica, The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, Bollingen Series 35, no. 58 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2013), p. 17.



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11.6



1 1. T. J. Clark, Picasso and Truth: From Cubism to Guernica, The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, Bollingen Series 35, no. 58 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2013), p. 79. 1 2. Picasso’s primary gallerist during the Cubist years, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, recalled of Picasso’s favorite Bateau Lavoir studio (occupied 1904–09): “The wallpaper hung in tatters from the unplastered walls. There was dust on the drawings and rolled-up canvases on the caved-in couch. Beside the stove was a kind of mountain of piled-up lava, which was ashes.” Kahnweiler with Francis Crémieux, My Galleries and Painters, trans. Helen Weaver (New York: Viking Press, 1971), p. 38.



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11.7



Bar Table with Guitar Céret, spring 1913. Cut-and-pinned wallpaper and colored paper, and charcoal and chalk on colored paper, 24 ⅜ × 15 ⅜" (61.9 × 39.1 cm). Private collection. Z II (2) 418, DR 601



Conservation Notes



11



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This papier épinglé was assembled from five pieces of mold-made laid paper cut from larger sheets, including the brown primary support; four pieces of printed wallpaper, probably cut from one sheet; white chalk; charcoal; and thirteen metal straight pins. Only one piece of laid paper—the yellow one—retains any information about its manufacture: the watermark “INGRES” is legible in reverse, set parallel to the paper’s cockled deckle edge [ 11]. This watermark matches those of Ingres charcoal papers made by the Italian papermaker Fabriano, countermarked “P.M.F. (ITALIA),” that Picasso used in other works from spring 1913. Further comparison with contemporaneous works suggests that Picasso also cut the other four laid paper elements in Bar Table with Guitar from sheets of Fabriano Ingres charcoal paper. This paper was commercially available in a variety of colors, including dark brown, several different blues, yellow, and white. The paper that now appears gray was once mauve; the original hue is



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11.8



12



13



14



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still visible in the area that remains protected by the flap of blue paper. This mauve paper was likely tinted using a dye-based colorant that is very susceptible to fading. A whisper of the original color is visible in the first color reproduction of Bar Table with Guitar, published in 1964 (see Collection André Lefèvre: Tableaux modernes [Paris: Palais Galliera, 1964], cat. no. 77). The paper elements were cut with scissors and attached solely with the straight pins; there is no evidence that adhesive was used to hold the work together. There is white adhesive residue visible on the verso of the wallpaper pieces but no corresponding residue on the primary support, which suggests that the adhesive was related to the wallpaper’s earlier use as interior decoration. Empty pin or tack holes in some of the applied elements [12, 13] have been interpreted as evidence of Picasso’s process (pinning and unpinning pieces as he moved them around in composing the work). However, the relative paucity of holes on the primary support seems to contraindicate this. Many of the holes on the attached pieces correspond to those on the support sheet, suggesting that the artist did not move the pieces around significantly but rather used more pins for the initial attachments. In 1965 the straight pins, which had begun to rust, were removed, treated with an anti-corrosion agent, and reinserted. The pin method of attachment has allowed for some change in the relationship between the two bottom right components: in the earliest photographs the white element is situated on top of the wallpaper [14], but since at least 1967 their positions have been reversed, as evidenced by a photograph of the work published that year (see References). —SG



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11.9



Bar Table with Guitar Céret, spring 1913. Cut-and-pinned wallpaper and colored paper, and charcoal and chalk on colored paper, 24 ⅜ × 15 ⅜" (61.9 × 39.1 cm). Private collection. Z II (2) 418, DR 601



Provenance 15



BY FEBRUARY 20, 1935 Galerie Pierre, Paris [ 15] 1 APRIL 4, 1935–1963 André Lefèvre, Paris. Purchased from the above 2 DECEMBER 1, 1964 Palais Galliera, Paris. Collection André Lefèvre: Tableaux modernes. Lot 77 3 DECEMBER 1964 M. Knoedler & Co., New York, Paris, and London. Purchased at the above sale 4 FEBRUARY 1, 1965–1993 Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., St. Louis. Purchased from the above 5 1993 Private collection 6 —BH



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11.10



Notes 1. Galerie Pierre was founded in 1924 by Pierre Loeb (French, 1897– 1964) at 13, rue Bonaparte, Paris. In 1926, the gallery moved to 2, rue des Beaux-Arts. In the 1920s and 1930s, Picasso did not have an exclusive contract with his primary dealer, Paul Rosenberg, and he often sold work—especially Cubist work—through Loeb. Galerie Pierre’s first solo show of Picasso’s work, which was devoted to the artist’s Cubist period, was held in December 1927. During the Nazi occupation of France, Loeb closed his gallery and left for Cuba, traveling via Marseille and Casablanca. He reopened his business in Paris in 1945. An exhibition of Picasso’s 1912–14 papiers collés was presented at Galerie Pierre, February 20–March 20, 1935. The exhibition pamphlet included a text by Tristan Tzara. It is likely that Bar Table with Guitar was included in that 1935 exhibition, as its sale to collector André Lefèvre was completed shortly thereafter (see note 2, below). It is possible, even probable, that the work passed from the artist directly to Galerie Pierre. To date, no earlier owner (such as Galerie Kahnweiler in the 1910s) has been identified. For further reading on Loeb and Galerie Pierre, see Pierre Loeb, Voyages à travers la peinture (Paris: Bordas, 1946); André Berne Joffroy et al., L’Aventure de Pierre Loeb: La Galerie Pierre, Paris, 1924–1964 (Paris: Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1979); and Sonia and Albert Loeb, Il y a cent ans (Paris: Galerie Albert Loeb, 1997). 2. André Amédée Nicolas Lefèvre (French, 1882–1963) was a financier and collector of European and African art. After receiving the Croix de Guerre 1914–1918, he married Jeanne Françoise Hortense Mathieu Laurent (French, died 1957). The Lefèvres lived on avenue de New York, and André kept an office at Galerie Percier, with partners Alfred Richet and André Level (of La Peau de l’Ours fame). André Lefèvre steadily developed a collection of Cubism such that at his death he owned more than fifty works by Picasso, along with many by Braque, Derain, Gris, Laurens, and Léger. He also collected Masson, Miró, and Modigliani. Lefèvre donated seventeen works from his collection to the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris. Everyone from Brassaï to Douglas Cooper described Lefèvre as one of the most important French collectors of his generation (see Brassaï, Conversations with Picasso [1964], trans. Jane Marie Todd [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999], p. 244; and Cooper “Early Purchasers of True Cubist Art,” in Cooper and Gary Tinterow, The Essential Cubism: Braque, Picasso & Their Friends [London: Tate Gallery, 1983], p. 31). In his study of the French art market, Malcolm Gee noted:



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11.11



“In 1927, at the age of forty-five, Lefèvre retired. Three inferences may be made from this fact: that he devoted most of his time to his collection, and to the affairs of Galerie Percier, from this time onwards; that his fortune was increased and secure, which meant that he could spend more on his collection; and finally, that his friendship and association with D.-H. Kahnweiler (who was an expensive dealer in the 1920s) developed mainly after this date. . . . Level had introduced him to art collecting: under his influence, [Lefèvre] had travelled to Brussels to buy art-nègre, and bought his first Picassos. He had accompanied Level to the Kahnweiler sales, and purchased several pieces” (Gee, Dealers, Critics, and Collectors of Modern Painting: Aspects of the Parisian Art Market Between 1910 and 1930 [New York: Garland Publishing, 1981], p. 178). For further reading on Lefèvre’s collection, see Antoinette Huré, ed., Collection André Lefèvre (Paris: Musée National d’Art Moderne, 1964); and Jérome Peignot, “Jérome Peignot parle d’André Lefèvre,” Connaissance des arts, no. 168 (February 1966): pp. 41–46. Lefèvre’s purchase of Bar Table with Guitar is confirmed by a receipt on Galerie Pierre letterhead, dated April 4, 1935 (Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Paris, Fonds André Lefèvre, B1, 1910.1955/421). When the work was first published, later that same month, it was reproduced with the caption “Collection Lefèvre” (Maurice Raynal, “Les Papiers collés de Picasso,” Arts et métiers graphiques, no. 46 [April 15, 1935]: 30). The work appears in detailed card catalogues, photographic albums, and inventories of the Lefèvre collection, prepared at various points in Lefèvre’s life and after his death. For further documentation see Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Paris, Fonds André Lefèvre, B1. In 1942, Bar Table with Guitar was catalogued erroneously as being in the collection of the artist; in Christian Zervos’s catalogue raisonné the work was marked with an asterisk, and the head note reads, “Les oeuvres précédés d’un asterisque appartient à l’artiste.” See Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917, vol. II (2) (Paris: Cahiers d’art, 1942), cat. no. 418, pl. 195. Lefèvre is listed in the provenance compiled by Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. no. 601 (“André Lefèvre, Paris”). 3. Following the March–April 1964 Collection André Lefèvre exhibition at the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris (Bar Table with Guitar was exhibited as cat. no. 259), the bulk of Lefèvre’s collection was auctioned off in a series of sales in Paris. Bar Table with Guitar (lot 77) was sold on December 1, 1964. See Palais Galliera, Paris, Collection André Lefèvre: Tableaux modernes (December 1, 1964), lot 77 (“Guitare. Papiers collés. Signé en haut, à gauche. Haut, 0m615, Larg 0m395”).



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11.12



The hammer price of 130,000 francs was published in Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot, no. 42 (December 4, 1964): 3. The auction generated 1,488,850 francs in total sales. Numerous news and journal clippings covering the exhibition and sales are gathered in the Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Paris, Fonds André Lefèvre, B6. 4. M. Knoedler & Co. was founded in New York by Michael (or Michel) Knoedler (German, 1823–1878) around 1848. Paris and London branches of the gallery followed in the 1890s. One of the oldest galleries in New York, Knoedler had a significant role in shaping important private and public collections in the United States. Michael Knoedler’s grandson Roland Balaÿ (French, 1902–2004) took over the gallery in 1956 and incorporated his interest in Braque, Léger, and Picasso into the family business. Lionel Prejger (French, active mid- to late 1900s) bid on behalf of Knoedler at the Lefèvre auction in December 1964, buying lot 77, Bar Table with Guitar (see the “liste des acheteurs” annotated by Etienne Ader and sent to André Richet, executor of the Lefèvre estate, marked “Prejger / Knoedler,” Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Fonds André Lefèvre, B4). February 1965 correspondence between Roland Balaÿ and Elizabeth Jones, Chief Conservator, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass., confirms Knoedler’s brief period of ownership (see Balaÿ, letters to Elizabeth Jones, February 1 and 16, 1964, Archives of the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Mass.). At the suggestion of Jones, Bar Table with Guitar was recategorized as a “papier épinglé” rather than a “papier collé.” Knoedler is also listed in the provenance published by Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. no. 601 (“M. Knoedler & Co., New York”). The records of M. Knoedler & Co. are now accessible as part of the Knoedler Gallery Archive at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. 5. Joseph Pulitzer, Jr. (American, 1913–1993) was a publisher and art collector who bought his first six Picassos upon his graduation from Harvard in 1936. Pulitzer married his first wife, Louise (née Vauclain; American, 1914–1968), in 1939, and worked in the family business at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He continued to develop his collection of twentieth-century art and was active in his support for the St. Louis Art Museum and the Harvard Art Museums. His second wife, Emily Rauh Pulitzer, was an assistant curator of drawings at the Fogg Museum and a curator at the St. Louis Art Museum. She is the founder and chairman of the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts in St. Louis and a trustee of The Museum of Modern Art, New York.



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11.13



In a 1967 interview, Pulitzer related how he was first “seduced” by Bar Table with Guitar when it came up for sale at the Lefèvre auction in 1964, but the final hammer price was higher than he had anticipated spending (see Rosamond Bernier, “Depuis trente ans, Joseph Pulitzer Jr. enrichit inlassablement l’admirable ensemble d’oeuvres modernes qu’il a réuni à Saint-Louis,” L’Œil 156 [December 1967]: 35). Though the work went to Knoedler, Pulitzer couldn’t forget it. He pursued the acquisition again, very shortly after the Paris auction, and was pleased with his final purchase of Bar Table with Guitar, a work he found to be as “fragile as a butterfly” (Pulitzer, letter to Elizabeth Jones, January 30, 1965, Archives of the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Mass.). Knoedler shipped the work on February 1, 1965, to the Fogg Art Museum, where it was conserved, matted, framed, and exhibited anonymously (see correspondence on file at the Archives of the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Mass.). The purchase details, including the February 1, 1965, date of purchase from Knoedler, were published in Charles Scott Chetham, ed., Modern Painting, Drawing and Sculpture: Collected by Louise and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., vol. 3 (Cambridge, Mass.: Fogg Art Museum, 1971), repr. cat. no. 211. This information also appears in the provenance prepared by Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907– 1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. no. 601 (“Purchased in New York, February 1965, by Joseph Pulitzer, Jr.”). The Pulitzer Collection of modern art was catalogued in the fourvolume Modern Painting, Drawing and Sculpture (1957–88), which accompanied exhibitions of the collection. For further information on the development of Pulitzer’s collection and his interest in art, see a pair of oral history interviews with Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., January 11, 1978, and July 9, 1985, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-historyinterview-joseph-pulitzer-12419; and www.aaa.si.edu/collections/ interviews/oral-history-interview-joseph-pulitzer-12399. See also Marjorie B. Cohn, Classic Modern: The Art Worlds of Joseph Pulitzer, Jr. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Art Museums, 2012). 6. As confirmed by the lender to the 2011 exhibition Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914, at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.



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11.14



Bar Table with Guitar Céret, spring 1913. Cut-and-pinned wallpaper and colored paper, and charcoal and chalk on colored paper, 24 ⅜ × 15 ⅜" (61.9 × 39.1 cm). Private collection. Z II (2) 418, DR 601



Selected Exhibitions [1935] [Paris, Galerie Pierre. Papiers collés 1912–1914 de Picasso. February 20– March 20 (No catalogue)] 1964 Paris, Musée National d’Art Moderne. Collection André Lefèvre. March– April. Cat. no. 259 Paris, Palais Galliera. Collection André Lefèvre: Tableaux modernes. Lot 77. Public exhibition: November 30–December 1. Auction: December 1 1965 Cambridge, Mass., Fogg Art Museum. Approx. February–April (No catalogue) 1968 St. Louis, City Art Museum. Works of Art of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Collected by Louise and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr. January 23– March 24. Cat. no. 62 1971 Cambridge, Mass., Fogg Art Museum. Modern Painting, Drawing and Sculpture: Collected by Louise and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr. November 5, 1971–January 3, 1972. Cat. no. 211. Tour venue: Hartford, Conn., Wadsworth Atheneum. February 2–March 19, 1972



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11.15



1988 Cambridge, Mass., Fogg Art Museum. Modern Art from the Pulitzer Collection: 50 Years of Connoisseurship. April 16–June 12. Cat. no. 211. Tour venue: St. Louis Art Museum. July 8–August 28



16



1989 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. September 24, 1989–January 16, 1990. Cat. p. 286. Tour venue: Kunstmuseum Basel. February 22–June 4, 1990 [ 16]



17



2001 St. Louis, The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts. Inaugural Installation. October 14, 2001–April 17, 2002. Checklist no. 30 2011 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. February 13–June 6. Cat. no. 76 [ 17]



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11.16



Bar Table with Guitar Céret, spring 1913. Cut-and-pinned wallpaper and colored paper, and charcoal and chalk on colored paper, 24 ⅜ × 15 ⅜" (61.9 × 39.1 cm). Private collection. Z II (2) 418, DR 601



Selected References 18



1935 Raynal, Maurice. “Les Papiers collés de Picasso.” Arts et métiers graphiques, no. 46 (April 15). Repr. p. 30 [ 18] 1942 Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917. Vol. II (2). Paris: Cahiers d’art. Cat. no. 418. Pl. 195 1956 Elgar, Frank. “Une Conquête du Cubisme: Le Papier collé.” XXe Siècle (January). Ref. p. 14. Repr. p. 10 1967 Bernier, Rosamond. “Depuis trente ans, Joseph Pulitzer Jr. enrichit inlassablement l’admirable ensemble d’oeuvres modernes qu’il a réuni à Saint-Louis.” L’Œil 156 (December). Ref. p. 35. Repr. p. 24 1968 Wescher, Herta. Collage. Trans. Robert E. Wolf. New York: Harry N. Abrams. Ref. pp. 24–25. Pl. 13 1971 Chetham, Charles Scott, ed. Modern Painting, Drawing and Sculpture: Collected by Louise and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr. Vol. 3. Cambridge, Mass.: Fogg Art Museum. Ref. pp. 512, 514. Repr. cat. no. 211



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11.17



1979 Daix, Pierre, and Joan Rosselet. Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. Trans. Dorothy S. Blair. London: Thames & Hudson. Ref. p. 304. Repr. cat. no. 601 1990 Palau i Fabre, Josep. Picasso: Cubism (1907–1917). Trans. Susan Branyas, Richard-Lewis Rees, and Patrick Zabalbeascoa. New York: Rizzoli. Ref. pp. 328–29. Fig. 936 1992 Boggs, Jean Sutherland. Picasso and Things. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art. Ref. p. 125. Fig. 41a Poggi, Christine. In Defiance of Painting: Cubism, Futurism, and the Invention of Collage. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. Ref. p. 99. Fig. 68 ———. “Braque’s Early Papiers Collés: The Certainties of Faux Bois.” In Lynn Zelevansky, ed. Picasso and Braque: A Symposium. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 139. Fig. 10 1995 Cowling, Elizabeth. “The Fine Art of Cutting: Picasso’s Papiers Collés and Constructions in 1912–14.” Apollo 142, no. 405 (November). Ref. p. 13. Fig. 10 2002 Cowling, Elizabeth. Picasso: Style and Meaning. London: Phaidon. Ref. pp. 250–51. Fig. 214 2004 Taylor, Brandon. Collage: The Making of Modern Art. London: Thames & Hudson. Ref. pp. 26, 28. Fig. 22 2011 Umland, Anne. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 25–26. Repr. cat. no. 76 2013 Cowling, Elizabeth. “What the Wallpapers Say: Picasso’s Papiers Collés of 1912–14.” The Burlington Magazine 155, no. 1326 (September). Ref. p. 598. Fig. 7



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11.18



Guitar Céret, spring 1913. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated March 31, 1913), wallpaper, paper, ink, chalk, charcoal, and pencil on colored paper, 26 ⅛ × 19 ½" (66.4 × 49.6 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest, 967.1979. Z II (1) 348, DR 608



Recto Essay 



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UV Light



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12.1



Guitar Céret, spring 1913. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated March 31, 1913), wallpaper, paper, ink, chalk, charcoal, and pencil on colored paper, 26 ⅛ × 19 ½" (66.4 × 49.6 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest, 967.1979. Z II (1) 348, DR 608



1



Guitar is composed on a large sheet of blue Ingres paper, the kind historically associated with Old Master drawings [1]—largely foreign, in any 2 case, to modernist practice. The color is what strikes us when we first glimpse the work. Once we begin to decipher the image, the blue inevitably recedes; but the all-over saturation first compels us to look past the image to the sheet. When we do, the optical weight of the color (heavier than 3–6 the off-white paper support common in Picasso’s papiers collés [2]) intensifies our sense of the sheet as a tangible surface, heightening the literal  ⅞ × 24  ⅝ " (48 × 62.5 cm). implications of “support” “ground.”  ½  × 10" (19.2 × 25.5 cm).and The British Museum, London. Accepted Musée National Picasso, Pablo Picasso, 1979 by HM Government in lieu Paris. of tax Dation on the estate of thebelongs 9th Duketo of a Devonshire, Guitar group of1957 still-life compositions in both papier collé and papier épinglé that Picasso also produced in spring 1913 [3–6], each of which features a guitar on a pedestal table (a guéridon, such as that pictured in a photograph of Georges Braque  7⁄16 × 18 ½ " (62 × 47 cm).  ⅜  × 15    1⅜ 3⁄16 × 14  " (61.9 × 39.1 ½ Paris. " (63 × 36.9 cm). collection Centre Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Gift Private of cm). HenriNational Laugier,Gallery 1963 of Art, Washington, D.C. Collection Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985   Guitar



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12.2



taken in Picasso’s studio around 1911 [7])—the same table in each case, judging from the scalloped brocade and hanging fringe.1 Most of these works are, like Guitar, vertical in format. It should be remarked, however, as William Rubin did in 1972, that Guitar was conceived and partly executed as a horizontal image. 2 The table was originally represented that way and then partially rubbed out; the first draft remains faintly visible in what is now the upper right corner of the composition [8], where it closely corresponds to the position of the table in one of the horizontal pictures, Guitar, Wineglass, and Bottle of Vieux Marc [see 6]. Any material description of Guitar should acknowledge that it has undergone significant change since it left the artist’s studio. The work has been flattened considerably [9], and it was exposed to smoke and soot in a fire in 1961 [10]. It was probably disassembled and reassembled in the course of conservation treatments.3 But certain steps in Picasso’s process can still be determined. It is possible, for example, to reconstruct the sequence in which various papers were laid down by observing how they overlap, although we cannot be certain at what point Picasso stopped in order to reimagine the work in its new orientation. Close examination shows that the second campaign of drawing could have occurred after a number of papers had been fixed in place; the artist’s lines sit adjacent to or are interrupted by collage elements but do not seem to run underneath them [11]. The resemblance, in shape and configuration, of some of the paper elements to those in Guitar, Wineglass, and Bottle of Vieux Marc also indicates that the shift might have come at a late stage: it appears that for Picasso this arrangement of papers was equally well suited to a horizontal or a



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vertical format. But the front page of the newspaper was probably added after the turn. At this moment in Picasso’s practice, newspapers and the like tend to “represent” themselves and are generally positioned such that they appear to rest directly on a tabletop, often beneath or below other objects. Placing the split sheet of newspaper at the lower left corner of the upright composition makes representational sense; placing it at the upper left corner of the horizontal composition does not. In fact, rotation, which had played a role in Cubist painting since 1910, occurs throughout the short history of Picasso’s papiers collés. In various sequences of work in late 1912, closely related compositions, which Picasso deliberately restricted to still-life subjects and heads or busts, adopt multiple orientations. It would be a mistake to take this for granted: Cubism is a form of representation, and rotation—as an operation or a kind of permuting procedure—belongs instead to the practice of pictorial abstraction, which Picasso never came to pursue.4 Indeed, abstraction originated around the time of Picasso’s development of papier collé, a meaningful coincidence: the dissolution of the representational image in painting was historically reciprocated by the material thickening of pictorial and representational means in papier collé. The very method of producing a work with pasted papers is derived, then, from the medium’s attenuated relation to representational norms. In other words, construction (using assorted material elements) and rotation (working from multiple directions) are abstract physical and formal moves that are applied, in papier collé, to a representational context—in the case of Guitar, that of a pictorial still life. Similarly, in Guitar, the interrupted bands of white wallpaper and



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black ink, and the “negative” bands of blue paper that show between them, may correspond to things observed (the decorative paneling or paper on the wall of a room, the shadow beneath a table); but, as a principle for the division of space, they are choices that issue less from representation than from the language of form. In speaking of the pictorial and material precepts of Guitar, we must also address papier collé as a medium that possesses an intrinsic mode of address. That is, to claim that various papers, deployed within and across a system of drawing, signify the objects of an actual still life, for example, begs consideration of the rhetoricity of the medium with respect to representation. The depicted and pasted objects in a Cubist picture are now generally said to possess unstable identities, thereby revealing all representational means to be aesthetic conventions or devices. Yet the material and semantic identities of the pasted papers also represent conventions, and in so doing reflect back on the strategies of the Cubist project per se. The chief factor in this regard is the role of the support in papier collé as a receptacle for scraps of consumerism and ersatz fine-art culture. Guitar is a prominent example. Its pasted papers include: the front page of El Diluvio, a Spanish gazette; seven cuttings from two kinds of printed wallpaper with opposing designs (a friezelike geometric pattern on a white ground, and a dark, curvilinear floral motif); and brown paper (probably something like modern kraft paper). In that they maintain their original character despite their subordination to an overall pictorial whole, these cut-and-pasted papers are, especially in the context of an otherwise unique aesthetic object, conspicuously mass-produced. That is, they derive from common commercial culture and are therefore foreign to the province of fine art. Indeed,



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that status is complemented by the fact that they are literally—in the material sense—added or attached. In this way, Picasso’s collage papers share certain conceptual qualities with the readymade, which Marcel Duchamp originated in 1913 (coincidentally, the year of Guitar) with Bicycle Wheel [12]. Both genres represent the introduction into art of the so-called commonplace. This refers to the deployment, in an aesthetic context, of the stereotype or, in literature, the semantic cliché: language that, culturally devalued through discursive repetition, is “already-read,” mechanical or banal. In the proto-modernist work of Gustave Flaubert, for example, the commonplace word, or cliché (which, throughout the 1857 novel Madame Bovary is italicized in the text, and thereby made to function as a meta-semantic device), is already at work activating an opposition between apparently unmediated narrative or descriptive representation and the conventionality of language, which, through stereotype and the mechanicity of repetition, reveals itself to be a form of artifice or code. 5 Guitar, can, in this sense, be described as an inventory of clichés. The wallpapers are facsimiles of designs that, in interior decoration, were once woven, painted, or carved; now replicated, they are, relative to their artisanal origins, debased. El Diluvio—from its melodramatic masthead to its political claims to its commercial litany of goods and services (gramophone records and quack treatments for venereal disease, among other things)—is a virtual broadsheet of commodified language. Together, wallpaper and newsprint italicize (in the Flaubertian sense) the blue Ingres paper, which was, by 1913, an antiquated tool of fine-art technique: that is, given their commercial identity, they heighten the status of the blue paper as a refined medium, one that, in



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this context, might even be said to signify conventional studio practice. Cliché typifies Picasso’s Cubism in 1912–14: the typography of slogans and sentimental songs; the painted imitation of faux marble and faux bois; and the incorporation of other papers—sheet music, a department store label, a calling card [13, 14]. Picasso’s iconography is also relevant. It is often remarked, for example, that the guitar itself, surely the most often repeated object in his still-life repertoire, is a metonymy of Spanishness. In the context of how Picasso’s papiers collés traffic with cheap commercial culture and mechanical reproduction, can’t we also say that the Spanishness of the guitar is itself a lowly cultural cliché? That it would be impossible to say for certain whether or not Picasso meant to enunciate “guitar” in this fashion is germane to the commonplace as a device. For, whatever else we might want to say Guitar signified for the artist, one consequence of the cliché, and of the ensuing “italicization” of the blue Ingres paper support (the real and ideological space of “fine art”), is a decentering, if not an eradication, of the author’s voice, now implicated as a convention of its own and therefore impossible to fix. —Jeffrey Weiss



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 ½  × 8 ¼ " (14 × 21 cm). Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas Collection, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.



 ⅞ × 14 ⅜ " (47.9 × 36.4 cm). McNay Art Museum, San Antonio. Bequest of Marion Koogler McNay   Guitar



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Notes 1. William Rubin tells us that the instrument in Guitar is resting on a chair, but the piece of furniture, as depicted, shares elements with images of a table in other works of the period. See Rubin, Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, Including RemainderInterest and Promised Gifts (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1972), p. 82. Its model may have been the pedestal table that appears in multiple photographs of Picasso’s studio on the boulevard de Clichy (such as fig. 7), covered with a patterned cloth and decorated with long fringe. 2. William Rubin, Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, Including Remainder-Interest and Promised Gifts (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1972), p. 211n5. 3. For the condition and treatment history of this work, see Conservation Notes. 4. Regarding rotation in abstract painting, see Yve-Alain Bois, “El Lissitzky: Radical Reversibility,” Art in America 76, no. 4 (April 1988): 161–81. 5. The classic treatment of this topic in Flaubert’s work is Shoshana Felman, “Mémoires d’un fou; Novembre: Modernity and the Commonplace” (1978), in Laurence Porter, ed., Critical Essays on Gustave Flaubert (Boston: Cengage Gale, 1986), pp. 29–48. Quoting Felman: “If, in the cliché, the content is preconceived and stereotyped, the content, as a result, is of lesser import than the formal action and the structure of the signifier; that which is expressed is of lesser importance than its functioning, the effect of the act of expression. The structural order takes precedence over, from then on, and overrides the semantic order, which it modifies, displaces, predetermines” (p. 34). See also Christine Poggi, for whom the materials from commercial culture in papier collé and collage represent “the obsolescence of contemporary cultural hierarchies and theories of representation in an age in which cultural artifacts had become commodities.” Poggi, In Defiance of Painting: Cubism, Futurism, and the Invention of Collage (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992), p. 153.



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Guitar Céret, spring 1913. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated March 31, 1913), wallpaper, paper, ink, chalk, charcoal, and pencil on colored paper, 26 ⅛ × 19 ½" (66.4 × 49.6 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest, 967.1979. Z II (1) 348, DR 608



Conservation Notes The full sheet of blue laid paper that serves as the primary support for this papier collé has the watermark “P.M.F. (ITALIA)” in the upper right corner, which identifies it as manufactured by the Italian papermaker Fabriano. The countermark in the lower right corner, “INGRES,” designates it as a fine art paper. Picasso incorporated seven pieces of wallpaper into Guitar: five of white paper with a stenciled design and two of brown floral relief-printed paper. A photograph taken around 1913–14 and published in 1929 [15] reveals that the white wallpaper was already severely damaged when Picasso chose it. The other collage elements include a piece cut from brown industrial-grade paper, a piece of white laid paper similar in quality to the primary support, three pieces cut from the Spanish newspaper El Diluvio, and one piece of newsprint-like paper. This last piece abuts the triangular newspaper fragment at the bottom of the work. Additional mediums include white chalk, charcoal, and shiny black India ink.



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The blue paper is quite thin and very moisture reactive, which accounts for the severe puckering visible throughout the sheet, most noticeably adjacent to collage elements, in the early photograph. Guitar was flattened and adhered to a secondary support sometime prior to 1936, when it was documented shortly before going on display in Spain [16]. An installation view from the 1948 exhibition Collage at The Museum of Modern Art [17] suggests that some slight puckering and rippling could still be observed in the work at that time. A condition photograph taken in 1961 [18] documents damage sustained during a fire at the New York State Executive Mansion in Albany, New York, while Guitar was in the collection of Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller. A contemporaneous condition report notes that the papier collé was mounted overall on a piece of white paper and attached to a linen canvas and stretcher. The changes observed across the photographic documentation suggest that the papier collé was taken apart and reassembled as part of the pre-1936 flattening and lining procedure. There are small but noticeable differences in the position and relationship of the collage elements, especially in the bottom left quadrant, and a triangular extension of El Diluvio had gone missing by 1936 (compare 15 and 16). In addition, there are paper remnants immediately above the long strip of white wallpaper, in the thin margin between the brown floral wallpaper and the white laid paper element, and along the top edge of the right-hand piece of floral wallpaper that are not present in the early photograph, providing additional evidence that adhered collage elements were removed and then replaced in slightly different positions. In the 1961 fire, the entire surface of the collage was covered with soot and grime and the upper right corner



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was scorched. At that time the surface of the collage was cleaned and detached from the linen canvas and stretcher support. The papier collé was removed from the secondary paper support in 2010, which has helped to restore some of the work’s original three-dimensionality. —SG



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Guitar Céret, spring 1913. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated March 31, 1913), wallpaper, paper, ink, chalk, charcoal, and pencil on colored paper, 26 ⅛ × 19 ½" (66.4 × 49.6 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest, 967.1979. Z II (1) 348, DR 608



Provenance BY SUMMER 1914 Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris. Purchased from the artist 1 [1914–1923] [Galerie Kahnweiler stock sequestered by the French government as property of an enemy alien] 2 [MAY 7–8, 1923] [Hôtel Drouot, Paris. Vente de biens allemands: Collection Henri Kahnweiller [sic ]. Tableaux modernes. Quatrième et dernière vente] 3 [MAY 1923]–JULY 1924 Paul and Gala Eluard, Paris. [Purchased at the above sale] 4 J U LY 3 , 1 9 2 4 Hôtel Drouot, Paris. Collection Eluard: Tableaux modernes, aquarelles, gouaches & dessins. Bois nègres. Lot 48 5 BY 1936–1953 Lise Deharme, Paris and Montfort-en-Chalosse 6 MARCH 6, 1953 Hôtel Drouot, Paris. Collection de Madame Lise Deharme: Livres surréalistes, tableaux modernes, curieux bijoux du XVIIIe et XIX siècle. Lot 58 7



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MARCH–SEPTEMBER 1953 Sidney Janis Gallery, New York. Purchased at the above sale [19] 8



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SEPTEMBER 25, 1953 Nelson A. Rockefeller, New York. Purchased from the above [20] 9 OCTOBER 9, 1979 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest 10 —BH



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Notes 1. Galerie Kahnweiler was founded in 1907 by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (German, 1884–1979) at 28, rue Vignon, Paris. Picasso entered into an exclusive three-year contract, beginning December 2, 1912, to sell works at fixed prices to Kahnweiler. This arrangement is outlined in the artist’s letter, dated December 18, 1912, to his dealer (original letter on deposit with Galerie Louise Leiris Archives, Paris, and reproduced in Maurice Jardot, Picasso: Peintures 1900–1955 [Paris: Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 1955], pp. 50–52). We can conclude that this work went directly from the artist’s studio to Galerie Kahnweiler per the terms of their contract. The Kahnweiler papers are held by Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, and are not accessible at this time. A Galerie Kahnweiler label reading “inv. no. 2000” was observed on the work and noted in a September 1953 record prepared by Nelson Rockefeller’s curator Carol Uht (collection record for Picasso, “La Guitare,” September 1953, MoMA, Department of Drawings and Prints Museum Collection File, 967.1979; see also note 9, below, regarding Rockefeller’s ownership of the work). Per the catalogue raisonné of Picasso’s Cubist years, Guitar was assigned Kahnweiler photo file no. 355 (see Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair [London: Thames & Hudson, 1979], repr. cat. no. 608, pl. XXXVIII). This information indicates that the work entered the gallery’s inventory at some point prior to the outbreak of World War I, in 1914. At that time, given Kahnweiler’s status as a German national and enemy alien, his business operations were suspended. For further reading on Kahnweiler, see Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler with Francis Crémieux, My Galleries and Painters, trans. Helen Weaver (New York: Viking Press, 1971); Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, ed., Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler: Marchand, éditeur, écrivain (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984); Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, ed., Donation Louise et Michel Leiris: Collection Kahnweiler-Leiris (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984); and Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990). 2. As a German national living in France, Kahnweiler was designated an enemy alien during World War I. He was abroad at the outbreak of the war, and his gallery stock was sequestered by the French government. He lived in exile in Switzerland until his return to Paris in 1920, at which time he reopened his business under the name Galerie Simon. The French government ultimately sold Kahnweiler’s original prewar stock in a series of public auctions in 1921–23 at Hôtel Drouot, Paris.



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On this period in Kahnweiler’s life and business, see Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990), pp. 114–89. The speculative suggestion that Guitar was among the sequestered works is based upon the information that Paul Eluard (see notes 3 and 4, below) was a known attendee and purchaser of work from the Kahnweiler auctions, especially the fourth and final sale in 1923 (Robert Desnos, “La Dernière Vente Kahnweiler,” Paris-Journal, May 1923, reprinted in Isabelle Monod-Fontaine with E. A. Carmean, Braque: The Papiers Collés [Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1982], pp. 173–74). 3. Out of the four auctions of sequestered Galerie Kahnweiler stock held at Hôtel Drouot, the final sale, held on May 7–8, 1923, included the largest number of Picasso’s Cubist works on paper. The two-day auction generated a total of 227,662 francs in sales, per the Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot 32, no. 58 (May 15, 1923): 1. Pierre Daix stated that Guitar was “first purchased by Paul Eluard at the Kahnweiler sales” (see Daix, “Guitare Rockefeller,” Dictionnaire Picasso [Paris: Robert Laffont, 1995], p. 432). While Daix provides no particular evidence, and no lot number has been associated with Guitar, it is probable that the work was among the gallery stock sold at the fourth sale. Eluard attended this sale with André Breton and Robert Desnos and was an active bidder, purchasing papiers collés and drawings (Desnos, “La Dernière Vente Kahnweiler,” Paris-Journal, May 1923, reprinted in Isabelle Monod-Fontaine with E. A. Carmean, Braque: The Papiers Collés [Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1982], pp. 173–74). See note 4, below. Of these auctions, Douglas Cooper wrote: “A group of far-seeing contemporary French artists, writers, and Dadaist poets—for example, Ozenfant, Le Corbusier, Lipchitz, André Breton, Paul Eluard, Tristan Tzara, and Maurice Raynal—appeared unexpectedly and bought in quantity” (Cooper, “Early Purchasers of True Cubist Art,” in Cooper and Gary Tinterow, The Essential Cubism: Braque, Picasso & Their Friends [London: Tate Gallery, 1983], p. 27). 4. Paul Eluard (born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel; French, 1895–1952) was a poet and leading figure in the French Dadaist and Surrealist movements. He was active in the Resistance during World War II and was a prominent member of the French Communist Party. He married Gala (born Elena Ivanovna Diakonova; Russian, 1894–1982) in 1917. They later divorced, and Gala married Salvador Dalí. A significant friendship developed between Picasso and Paul Eluard beginning in 1935 (see Pierre Daix, “Eluard et Picasso,” in Germain Viatte and Stanislas Zadora, Eluard et ses amis peintres [Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1982], pp. 25–35; and Jean-Charles Gateau, Eluard, Picasso, et la peinture, 1936–1952 [Geneva: Droz, 1983]).



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Guitar was certainly in the Eluards’ collection when Paul left Paris in March 1924, ultimately to embark on a trip to Saigon later that spring. After his departure, Gala organized a sale of sixty-one works, including Guitar, at Hôtel Drouot, Paris, on July 3, 1924 (see note 5, below). According to Pierre Daix, Guitar was “first purchased by Paul Eluard at the Kahnweiler sales” (see Daix, “Guitare Rockefeller,” Dictionnaire Picasso [Paris: Robert Laffont, 1995], p. 432). While the work has not yet been linked to a particular lot number from the auctions, it is likely that Eluard acquired the work at the fourth sale, which took place on May 7–8, 1923, in which large numbers of papiers collés were sold. Per a contemporary account by poet Robert Desnos, Eluard attended the 1923 auction and bought works for himself and for friends (Desnos, “La Dernière Vente Kahnweiler,” Paris-Journal, May 1923, reprinted in Isabelle Monod-Fontaine with E. A. Carmean, Braque: The Papiers Collés [Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1982], pp. 173–74). Eluard scholar Jean-Charles Gateau noted: “Without a doubt, Eluard acquired, at the Kahnweiler auctions, at least seven drawings and five canvases by Picasso inventoried under the numbers 14–20 and 48–52 in the catalogue for the Eluard auction on July, 3, 1924” (Gateau, Paul Eluard et la peinture surréaliste 1910–39 [Geneva: Droz, 1982], p. 121). Additional sources that reference Eluard’s purchases at the Kahnweiler sales include: Douglas Cooper, “Early Purchasers of True Cubist Art,” in Cooper and Gary Tinterow, The Essential Cubism: Braque, Picasso & Their Friends [London: Tate Gallery, 1983], p. 27); Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990), p. 170; and Agnès de la Beaumelle and Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, eds., André Breton: La Beauté convulsive (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1991), p. 114. Malcolm Gee lists Eluard as the buyer of lot 93 at the fourth auction, which comprised “dix-sept dessins, plume, crayon, fusain, quelquesuns papier collé, sujets varies, époques diverses—(La plupart signés)” (Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Vente de biens allemands. Collection Henri Kahnweiller [sic ]. Tableaux modernes. Quatrième et dernière vente, May 7–8, 1923, p. 5). See Gee, Dealers, Critics, and Collectors of Modern Painting: Aspects of the Parisian Art Market Between 1910 and 1930 (New York: Garland, 1981), p. 82. No explicit link between Guitar and the seventeen works on paper in lot 93 has been established to date. An alternative method of acquisition may be read in Gee’s observation that “Eluard and Breton, who acted more or less together between 1920 and 1924, were able to buy some papiers collés directly from Picasso and Braque after the war .  .  .  [ and] both bought regularly at auctions throughout the period” (pp. 93–94). Guitar was included in the first Picasso retrospective, held at Galeries Georges Petit in Paris in 1932, and the work’s past ownership by Eluard was noted in the catalogue, prepared by Charles Vrancken: Exposition Picasso (Paris: Galeries Georges Petit, 1932), cat. no. 85 (“La Guitare.



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Papier collé. Exécuté en 1913. Haut. 0,70 cent; Larg. 0,50 cent. Reproduit dans ‘Cahiers d’Art’ Paris, No. 2 de 1931. Ancienne collection Paul Elluard [sic], Paris”). The work also appears in the Eluard collection catalogue compiled by Jean-Charles Gateau, “Catalogue d’oeuvres ayant appartenu à la collection Eluard,” in Eluard, Picasso, et la peinture, 1936–1952 (Geneva: Droz, 1983), p. 344. In addition, Eluard is listed in the provenance for Guitar published in Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. no. 608. Although Guitar left his collection after only a short period of ownership, Eluard included a reproduction of the work in his 1944 book, À Pablo Picasso (Geneva: Trois Collines, 1944), p. 47 (“La Guitare [papier collé], 1914”). For Eluard’s letters to Picasso, see Laurence Madeline, ed., “On est ce que l’on garde!” Les Archives de Picasso (Paris: Musée Picasso, 2003), pp. 228–37. For further reading on Eluard, see Gateau, 1982; Gateau, 1983; and Gateau, Paul Eluard ou le frère voyant (Paris: Laffont, 1988). 5. Guitar is listed in the Hôtel Drouot auction catalogue Collection Eluard: Tableaux modernes, aquarelles, gouaches & dessins. Bois nègres (July 3, 1924), lot 48 (“Picasso. La Guitare. Signé au dos. Haut: 0m65; Larg: 0m45 ½ "). The lot sold for 1,400 francs, per the sale results published in the Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot 33, no. 80 (July 5, 1924): 1. Along with the sale results, the Gazette described the auction’s contents as “des tableaux et dessins très modernes de la collection du poète Eluard” and reported that a Picasso fetched the highest price of any item in the sale (2,900 francs). Jean-Charles Gateau also lists the work as having been sold at the 1924 sale in his “Catalogue d’oeuvres ayant appartenu à la collection Eluard,” in Eluard, Picasso, et la peinture (Geneva: Droz, 1983), p. 344. The Hôtel Drouot sale was arranged by Gala Eluard. Sixty-one items were sold, raising a total of 44,675 francs, according to the Gazette. The purpose of the sale was to raise money to pay for her journey to Saigon to join her husband, Paul (who had disappeared and traveled to Asia via a Gauguinesque visit to Tahiti), and to repay her father-in-law a large sum of money Paul had taken for his own travels; Gala’s lover, Max Ernst (German, 1891–1976), joined the couple in Saigon. Before leaving France, Paul had granted his wife power of attorney, thereby enabling her to arrange the auction (Jean-Charles Gateau, Paul Eluard et la peinture surréaliste [Geneva: Droz, 1982], p. 88). Correspondence between Gala and Paul from the 1920s and 1930s frequently mentions purchases and sales, especially sales of artwork to fund travel, indicating this was customary activity for the couple (for examples, see Paul Eluard, Lettres à Gala, 1924–48, ed. Pierre Dreyfus [Paris: Gallimard, 1984], pp. 17–18, 23, 25).



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6. Lise Deharme (born Lise Anne-Marie Hirtz; French, 1898–1980) was a Surrealist poet and journal editor. Volumes of her poetry were illustrated by artists Joan Miró, Claude Cahun, and Leonor Fini. Deharme appeared in André Breton’s iconic Surrealist novel Nadja (1928) as “The Lady of the Glove.” Around 1927–28, she married her second husband, Paul Deharme, a pioneer in radio broadcasting and a friend of poet Robert Desnos. She often hosted friends such as Paul Eluard, Dora Maar, and Picasso at her home in the South of France. It seems probable that Deharme purchased the work from the 1924 Eluard auction or perhaps a few years thereafter from another collector. She loaned Guitar to the important 1936 Picasso exhibition organized by ADLAN (Amigos de las Artes Nuevas), which was presented in Barcelona, Bilbao, and Madrid. See the exhibition pamphlet for Exposició Picasso (Barcelona: Sala Esteva, 1936), cat. no. 3 (“Papiers collé. Appartenant à Mme. Lise Deharne [ sic ]”) (Fondo ADLAN, AHCOAC, Barcelona). See also the exhibition catalogue for the Madrid venue, Centro de la Construcción, cat. no. 20 (“Papeles pegados. Perteneciente à Mme. Lise Deharne [ sic ]”) (Fondo Documental, Museu Picasso, Barcelona). Eluard delivered a series of important lectures in Barcelona and Madrid in connection with this exhibition, and must have seen the work installed. Documentation for the ADLAN exhibition was published in Silvia Domènech, ed., Picasso 1936: Huellas de una exposición (Barcelona: Museu Picasso, 2011). Deharme was listed as the owner of Guitar in Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917, vol. II (1) (Paris: Cahiers d’art, 1942), no. 348, pl. 166 (“La Guitare. Printemps 1912. Papiers collés et dessin. 70 × 50 cm. Coll. Mme. Lise Deharme, Paris”). She is also listed as lender of the work to MoMA’s 1948 Collage exhibition, per the checklist (“65. The Guitar. 1912. Pasted papers with drawing. Lent by Mme. Lise Deharme, Paris”). Two labels on the backing board of Guitar—labels now lost but noted in a 1953 catalogue record— listed “Mme Lise Deharme” as the owner and lender. See “La Guitare,” catalogued by Carol Uht, curator of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection, September 1953, MoMA, Department of Drawings and Prints, Museum Collection File, 967.1979. In addition, Deharme is listed in the provenance for Guitar published in Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. no. 608. In a 1969 conversation with Jean-Charles Gateau, Deharme recounted trying in 1945 to buy a Picasso drawing from Eluard—the subject of the drawing was the poet Guillaume Apollinaire—but “Paul preferred not to ask his friends for money, and so sold it elsewhere” (Gateau, Eluard, Picasso, et la peinture, 1936–1952 [Geneva: Droz, 1983], p. 156). For information on Deharme, see Marie-Claire Barnet, “To Lise Deharme’s Lighthouse: Le Phare de Neuilly, A Forgotten



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Surrealist Review,” French Studies 57, no. 3 (2003): 323–34. See also the entries on Deharme in Pierre Daix, Dictionnaire Picasso (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1995), p. 243; and Keith Aspley, Historical Dictionary of Surrealism (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2010), p. 154. 7. Guitar was included in this Hôtel Drouot auction, per the catalogue for Collection de Madame Lise Deharme: Livres surrealistes, tableaux modernes, curieux bijoux du XVIIIe et XIX siècle, March 6, 1953, lot 58, pl. II (“58. Très important papier collé et dessin. Printemps 1912. A figure à l’Exposition Picasso du Museum of Modern Art. No. 348 du Livre de Picasso, par Christian Zervos. Haut., 0m65; Larg., 0m49”). The preface to the catalogue was written by André Breton, and the sale information highlights one particular item: “Très important papier collé de PICASSO 1912.” The preview day was March 5, 1953, before the auction on March 6. The hammer price of 1,550,000 francs appears in an annotated copy of the auction catalogue on deposit with the Frick Art Reference Library, New York. (Note: The 1912 date assigned to Guitar in this period was based on the dating provided by Christian Zervos in his 1942 catalogue raisonné. Scholarship published by Pierre Daix in the 1970s re-dated Guitar to 1913. See References for details.) 8. Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, was founded in 1948 by collector, businessman, and former vaudeville dancer Sidney Janis (American, 1896–1989). The gallery, located at 15 East Fifty-Seventh Street, represented and sold works by European modernists, Abstract Expressionists, and Pop artists. Janis and his wife Harriet (known as Hansi, née Grossman; American, 1898–1963) developed a personal collection beginning in the 1920s. He joined the Advisory Committee of The Museum of Modern Art in late 1933 and exhibited the family collection at MoMA in 1935. Janis donated over one hundred works to the Museum in 1967, and the collection was widely exhibited thereafter. For more information on Janis, see The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection: A Gift to The Museum of Modern Art (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1968); and Alfred H. Barr, Jr., and William S. Rubin, Three Generations of Twentieth-Century Art: The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection of The Museum of Modern Art (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1972), pp. x–xv. See also Rubin, A Curator’s Quest: Building the Collection of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art, 1967–88, ed. Phyllis Hattis (New York: Overlook Duckworth, 2012), pp. 43–44. In May 1953, Janis wrote to Alfred H. Barr, Jr., of The Museum of Modern Art: “We have just acquired a major collage by Picasso, La Guitare, 1912 which I think you should see .  .  .  . I thought you might want Burden or Nelson to see it; rarely does such a magnificent work come up for sale .  .  .  . It seems to me the first man to see it will want it” (Janis, letter to Alfred H. Barr, Jr., May 20, 1953, MoMA Archives, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Papers, 18.I.A.8). Later in the summer, Janis, writing from



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Portofino, noted that “indifferent collages of similar size by Braque and Picasso cannot be had in France today for less than four million” (Janis, letter to Alfred H. Barr, Jr., June 17, 1953, MoMA Archives, AHB, 18.I.A.8). Guitar was included in a 1958 show of thirty-eight works sold by the Sidney Janis Gallery during its first ten years in business: 10th Anniversary Exhibition: X Years of Janis, September 29–November 1, 1958, repr. cat. no. 57. The work was also included in the Janis Gallery catalogue 25 Years of Janis, Part I: From Picasso to Dubuffet; From Brancusi to Giacometti, October 2–November 3, 1973, repr. pls. 93 and 152 (installation view). In addition, Sidney Janis Gallery is listed in the provenance for Guitar published in Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. no. 608. 9. Nelson A. Rockefeller (American, 1908–1979) was a politician and collector. He served as governor of the state of New York (1959–73) and as vice president of the United States (1974–77). A MoMA trustee, he was the son of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, one of the founders of the Museum. Guitar was offered for sale to Rockefeller by Sidney Janis in the summer of 1953, and Rockefeller found it “gay and interesting” (Rockefeller, letter to Alfred H. Barr, Jr., MoMA Archives, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Papers, 18.I.A.8). His collection records indicate that the purchase was completed on September 25, 1953 (Rockefeller Archives Center, Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., The Rockefeller Family Archives, Nelson A. Rockefeller Personal Papers 4.C, NAR Art Cards, Inv. 25-626). Guitar was installed in the New York State Executive Mansion in Albany during his term, and was hanging in the governor’s study at the time of the March 3, 1961, fire at the mansion (see Nelson A. Rockefeller Personal Papers 4.C.III, Box 4, Folder 27). For further reading on Rockefeller’s collection, see Dorothy Canning Miller, ed., The Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection: Masterpieces of Modern Art (New York: Hudson Hill Press, 1981), repr. pp. 25 (installation view), 76. See also William S. Lieberman, Twentieth-Century Art from the Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller Collection (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1969), repr. frontispiece. 1 0. Article Five of Nelson A. Rockefeller’s will of December 6, 1978, lists twenty-seven works to be bequeathed to the Museum, including “Picasso, ‘La Guitare’ (Collage)” (MoMA, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Donor Files, Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1970s–80s). The work was formally accepted into the collection on October 9, 1979.



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12.20



Guitar Céret, spring 1913. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated March 31, 1913), wallpaper, paper, ink, chalk, charcoal, and pencil on colored paper, 26 ⅛ × 19 ½" (66.4 × 49.6 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest, 967.1979. Z II (1) 348, DR 608



Selected Exhibitions [1923] [Paris, Hôtel Drouot. Vente de biens allemands: Collection Henri Kahnweiller [sic ]. Tableaux modernes. Quatrième et dernière vente. Public preview: May 6. Odd-numbered lots sold May 7; evennumbered lots sold May 8] 1924 Paris, Hôtel Drouot. Collection Eluard: Tableaux modernes, aquarelles, gouaches & dessins. Bois nègres. Public preview: July 2. Auction: July 3. Lot 48 1932 Paris, Galeries Georges Petit. Exposition Picasso. June 16–July 30. Cat. no. 85. (Note: Exhibited only at the Paris venue. The work did not travel with the exhibition to Kunsthaus Zürich.)



21



1936 Barcelona, Sala Esteva (organized by ADLAN [Amigos de las Artes Nuevas]). Exposició Picasso. January 13–30. Cat. no. 3. Tour  5, 1948. MoMA Archives. Photographic ArchiveGaleria Arte. February 19–25; Madrid, Centro de la venues: Bilbao, Construcción. March 7–25 1948 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Collage. September 21– December 5. Checklist no. 65 [21]



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1957 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso: 75th Anniversary Exhibition. May 4–August 25. Cat. p. 42. Tour venues: The Art Institute of Chicago. October 29–December 8; Philadelphia Museum of Art. January 8–February 23 [22] 1958 New York, Sidney Janis Gallery. 10th Anniversary Exhibition: X Years of Janis. September 29–November 1. Cat. no. 57 [23]



23



1969 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Twentieth-Century Art from the Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller Collection. May 26–September 1. Cat. frontispiece [24] 24



1972 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of the Museum of Modern Art. February 3–April 2. Cat. p. 82 [25] 1980 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective. May 22–September 16. Cat. p. 168 [26]



25



1983 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. The Modern Drawing: 100 Works on Paper. October 29, 1983–January 3, 1984. Cat. p. 76 26



1988 Stockholm, Moderna Museet. Pablo Picasso. October 15, 1988–January 8, 1989. Cat. no. 171 1989 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism, September 24, 1989–January 16, 1990. Cat. p. 286. Tour venue: Kunstmuseum Basel. February 22–June 4, 1990 [27]



27



1998 Munich, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung. Pablo Picasso und seine Sammlung. April 30–August 16. Cat. no. 114 1999 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. ModernStarts: Things. November 18, 1999–March 14, 2000. Cat. p. 308



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2002 London, Tate Modern. May 11–August 18. Matisse/Picasso. Cat. no. 67. Tour venues: Paris, Grand Palais. September 25, 2002– January 6, 2003; New York, The Museum of Modern Art. February 13–May 19, 2003



28



2004 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Painting and Sculpture: Inaugural Installation. November 20, 2004–March 14, 2005. Checklist p. 89 [28]



29



2010 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century. November 16, 2010–February 7, 2011. Cat. p. 16 [29] 30



2011 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. February 13–June 6. Cat. no. 75 [30]



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Guitar Céret, spring 1913. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated March 31, 1913), wallpaper, paper, ink, chalk, charcoal, and pencil on colored paper, 26 ⅛ × 19 ½" (66.4 × 49.6 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest, 967.1979. Z II (1) 348, DR 608



Selected References 1929 Einstein, Carl. “Notes sur le cubisme.” Documents 1, no. 3. Repr. p. 151 [31]



31



1931 Einstein, Carl. Die Kunst des 20. Jahrhundert. Berlin: Propyläen Verlag. Ref. p. 91. Repr. p. 308. Tzara, Tristan. “Le Papier collé, ou le proverbe en peinture.” Cahiers d’Art 6, no. 2. Repr. p. 71 1932 Apollinaire, Guillaume. “Picasso et les papiers collés” (first published in Montjoie! [March 14, 1913]), Cahiers d’art 7, nos. 3–5. Repr. p. 118 1942 Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917. Vol. II (2) Paris: Cahiers d’art. Cat. no. 348. Pl. 166 1944 Eluard, Paul. À Pablo Picasso. Geneva: Trois Collines. Repr. p. 47 1962 Janis, Harriet, and Rudi Blesh. Collage: Personalities, Concepts, Techniques. Philadelphia: Chilton. Ref. pp. 23–24. Fig. 18



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1971 Rosenblum, Robert. “Picasso and the Coronation of Alexander III: A Note on the Dating of Some Papiers Collés.” The Burlington Magazine 113, no. 823 (October). Ref. p. 604. Fig. 42 1972 Rubin, William S. Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, Including Remainder-Interest and Promised Gifts. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 82, 211. Repr. p. 83 1979 Daix, Pierre, and Joan Rosselet. Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. Trans. Dorothy S. Blair. London: Thames & Hudson. Repr. cat. no. 608. Pl. XXXVIII 1983 Elderfield, John. The Modern Drawing: 100 Works on Paper from The Museum of Modern Art. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 76. Repr. p. 77 1989 Cousins, Judith. “Chronology.” In William S. Rubin. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 416. Repr. p. 286 Leighten, Patricia. Reordering the Universe: Picasso and Anarchism, 1897– 1914. Ref. p. 142. Fig. 103 1990 Palau i Fabre, Josep. Picasso: Cubism (1907–1917). Trans. Susan Branyas, Richard-Lewis Rees, and Patrick Zabalbeascoa. New York: Rizzoli. Ref. p. 324. Fig. 915 1995 Cowling, Elizabeth. “The Fine Art of Cutting: Picasso’s Papiers Collés and Constructions in 1912–14.” Apollo 142, no. 405 (November). Ref. p. 13. Fig. 12 Daix, Pierre. “Guitare Rockefeller.” In Dictionnaire Picasso. Paris: Robert Laffont, 1995. Ref. pp. 431–32 1996 Richardson, John, with Marilyn McCully. A Life of Picasso: The Cubist Rebel, 1901–1917. Vol 2. New York: Random House. Ref. p. 274. Repr. p. 275 Rosenblum, Robert. “The Spanishness of Picasso’s Still Lifes.” In Jonathan Brown, ed. Picasso and The Spanish Tradition. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. Ref. p. 79. Fig. 68



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1997 Léal, Brigitte. “Picasso cérétan: ‘Des Tableaux pas mal dans tout ça.’” In Pepe Karmel et al. Picasso: Dessins et papiers collés, Céret 1911–1913. Céret: Musée d’Art Moderne. Ref. pp. 52–53, 351. Repr. cat. p. 295 1999 Wilk, Deborah. “Nine Guitars.” In John Elderfield et al., eds. ModernStarts: People, Places, Things. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 310. Repr. pp. 278, 308, 310 2000 Léal, Brigitte, Christine Piot, and Marie-Laure Bernadac. The Ultimate Picasso. Trans. Molly Stevens and Marjolin de Jager. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2000. Ref. p. 170–72. Fig. 382 2001 Staller, Natasha. A Sum of Destructions: Picasso’s Cultures & The Creation of Cubism. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. Ref. p. 72. Fig. 77 2002 Varnedoe, Kirk. Chapter 12. In Elizabeth Cowling et al. Matisse/Picasso. London: Tate Publishing. Ref. p. 132. Repr. cat. no. 67 and p. 130 2007 Rose, Bernice. Picasso, Braque, and Early Film in Cubism. New York: PaceWildenstein. Ref. pp. 128–29. Repr. p. 123. 2010 Butler, Cornelia, and Catherine de Zegher. On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 27. Pl. 16 2011 Domènech, Silvia, ed. Picasso 1936. Huellas de una exposición. Barcelona: Museu Picasso. Ref. pp. 131, 172, 276. Repr. pp. 91, 179 (installation view), 206 Umland, Anne. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 26. Repr. cat. no. 75



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12.26



Head of a Man Céret, spring 1913. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated May 28, 1883), colored paper, pencil, and ink on paper, 17 ⅞ × 11 ⅜" (42.9 × 28.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection, 640.1967. Z II (2) 403, DR 592



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Head of a Man Céret, spring 1913. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated May 28, 1883), colored paper, pencil, and ink on paper, 17 ⅞ × 11 ⅜" (42.9 × 28.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection, 640.1967. Z II (2) 403, DR 592



With tiny circles for eyes, paired arcs for a mouth, and cursorily drawn curves for ears, Head of a Man is an unlikely candidate for transformation—it will not come to life—yet it seems to be on the verge of occupying much more space than its small laid-paper support. Picasso began by sketching out a pencil underdrawing, which remains visible throughout the finished work [ 1]. He then added two rectangles of cut-and-pasted paper and with a brush applied diluted ink to the larger B-shape at right. He proceeded with a pass in black ink, drawing lines that make a feature of their stop-and-start unevenness and wobbly overlapping [ 2], a suppression or rejection of the smooth, sure-handed draftsmanship available to the artist [ 3]. Head of a Man’s flat components add up to a work with unexpectedly strong three-dimensional potential. Its lines—especially the one dashed line at lower left—read as a diagram for action, directions to cut and fold in a manner reminiscent of how paper toys



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for children are made.1 Around the same moment in 1913, Picasso constructed a small paper figure, a pop-up gift for Gertrude Stein [4].2 Like the playful construction, the drawn and pasted planes of Head of a Man seem ready to expand or collapse at any moment. The unusual source of the work’s newspaper cutout— the May 28, 1883, edition of Le Figaro [5]—merits a moment of consideration.3 How and when Picasso came across this very old copy of Le Figaro is a matter of speculation.4 Did he seek it out, or stumble upon it by chance? And why did he choose to use it in his work?5 Whether or not Picasso noted or even prized the change in the appearance of his papers over time, especially his low-quality ones, has been a matter of scholarly conjecture and debate. 6 However, given that he incorporated clippings from thirty years prior into this and several other works, at the very least we know that he had the opportunity to consider what significantly aged newspaper looked like. Thus he had some sense of how his 1912–13 newspaper cutouts would come to look many years later.7 Picasso was adept at making figures out of objects, an impulse that is fundamentally sculptural in nature. Examples of this skill abound in his long career and encompass multiple mediums [ 6–8]. The correspondences between Head of a Man and the artist’s still life compositions are apparent when they are installed together, as they were in the landmark 1936 exhibition Cubism and Abstract Art at The Museum of Modern Art [9]. The guitar-ness of Head of a Man is also noticeable, the way the curved contours at right and the long neck evoke the shape and volume of an inverted instrument.8 Picasso made a guitar composition



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out of the same forms in several paintings, including Guitar, Gas-Jet, and Bottle [10]. This accessing of shared fundamentals was perhaps Picasso’s way of making something “more real than the real”—his definition of the surreal—and it further infused his composition with a sense of possible action.9 Head of a Man, occupying a category at the intersection of animate and inanimate, was much appreciated in the 1920s and 1930s by French Surrealists enamored of mythic mutation and inadvertent mimicry. 10 An early reproduction of Head of a Man appeared in the first issue of the avant-garde journal Documents, in 1929, in a layout with three similar Head compositions by Picasso: variations of light and dark, surface and ground, and drawn, pasted, and painted mediums [ 11].11 The works pictured in this two-page spread feature curious linear notations.12 In Head of a Man, a straight line with a curve across its end is still and centered, effecting the brow and nose. In two other works the line swings out, suggesting the occupation of space and either the brow [12] or, perhaps, a mustache or mouth [ 13]. The implied directionality and movement of this spare mark indicates the fullness of a head and gives information (however limited) about these anonymous faces. Whatever commonality may be visible among the forms in Picasso’s work in this period—guitars, violins, heads, bottles—each was distinct to the artist and related to a single identifiable thing. He insisted that a head was a head.13 Of course, a classically drawn head might begin with a perfectly shaded ovoid. Instead, in Head of a Man the small printed type of the newspaper cutout, turned on its side, evokes the patterned play of light and shade; the colored laid paper provides a



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flat tone; the inky wash is a gray veil. 14 Highly reductive stand-ins for chiaroscuro, these are Picasso’s shorthand versions of shadow. Without recourse to traditional methods of modeling, he made utter flatness into potential volume. His Head of a Man represents one possibility in constructed illusionism. —Blair Hartzell



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Notes 1. For a fascinating study of cutting and folding across Picasso’s long career, see Elizabeth Cowling, Picasso’s Late Sculpture: Woman (Málaga, Spain: Museo Picasso Málaga, 2009). 2. Stein later recalled this small gift from the artist and his constructed works in this period: “Picasso commenced to amuse himself with making pictures out of zinc, tin, pasted paper. He did not do any sculpture, but he made pictures with all these things. There is only one left of those made of paper and that he gave me one day and I had it framed in a box. He liked paper, in fact, everything at this time pleased him and everything was going on very lively and with enormous gaiety.” Gertrude Stein, Picasso (London: B. T. Batsford, 1938), p. 26. For images of the construction in Stein’s home, see Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow, eds., The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde (San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2011), pls. 360, 384. 3. This discovery was made by art historian Robert Rosenblum. See Rosenblum, “Picasso and the Coronation of Alexander III: A Note on the Dating of Some Papiers Collés,” The Burlington Magazine 113, no. 823 (October 1971): 604–6. Other works that incorporate clippings from this edition include DR 583, DR 591, DR 604, and DR 605. 4. Robert Rosenblum speculated that given the topic of the newspaper—the coronation of Czar Alexander III—Picasso’s Russian friends Serge Férat and Baroness Hélène d’Oettingen might have been involved in whatever circumstances led the artist to use it. And perhaps the fact that 1913 was the three hundredth anniversary of the Romanov dynasty may have been relevant to his encounter with the paper, whatever his ultimate reasons were for selecting to use it. See Rosenblum, “Picasso and the Coronation of Alexander III: A Note on the Dating of Some Papiers Collés,” The Burlington Magazine 113, no. 823 (October 1971): 605. 5. Robert Rosenblum recounted in a footnote, “In a recent conversation with William Rubin (summer 1971), Picasso was unable to recall any reason for this choice, some forty-eight years earlier, of so old a newspaper other than for its darkened tone.” Rosenblum, “Picasso and the Coronation of Alexander III: A Note on the Dating of Some Papiers Collés,” The Burlington Magazine 113,



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no. 823 (October 1971): 606n30. For a study of newspaper throughout Picasso’s career, see Anne Baldassari, Picasso: Working on Paper, trans. George Collins (London: Merrell, 2000). 6. See, for example, the discussion of color changes in wallpaper and newspaper in Lynn Zelevansky, ed., Picasso and Braque: A Symposium (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992), pp. 125–27. 7. One hundred years after Picasso made these papiers collés there are no significant differences in condition among their cut-and-pasted newspaper clippings, whether sourced from 1883 or 1912–13. It was possible to examine both vintages of newspaper in these works in the exhibition Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2011. Along with Head of a Man, DR 591 and DR 605, both of which incorporate 1883 newspaper, were included in the exhibition. See Anne Umland, Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2011), repr. cat. nos. 69, 71, and 78. 8. In works such as Head of a Man Picasso was able, as art historian YveAlain Bois put it, to give “free rein to his poetical manipulations and activate his metaphor of the guitar as head, and the head as guitar.” Bois, “The Semiology of Cubism,” in Lynn Zelevansky, ed., Picasso and Braque: A Symposium (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992), p. 191. 9. Picasso explained in a 1945 interview, “I seek always to observe nature. I cling to resemblance, to a deeper resemblance, more real than the real, attaining the surreal. That is how I understood surrealism, but the word was used in a completely different way.” See André Warnod, “‘En peinture tout n’est que signe’ nous dit Picasso,” Arts 22 (June 29, 1945), repr. in Marie-Laure Bernadac and Androula Michael, Propos sur l’art (Paris: Gallimard, 1998), p. 53. The word “surrealism” was first coined by the poet and critic Guillaume Apollinaire in reference to the 1917 performance of the ballet Parade, for which Picasso designed the decor. 1 0. Brassaï’s photographs of involuntary sculptures and Man Ray’s photographs of hats, both published in Minotaure, no. 3–4 (1933), come to mind, as does André Breton’s fascination with how “the animate is so close to the inanimate,” in his L’Amour fou (Paris: Gallimard, 1937). See Breton, Mad Love, trans. Mary Ann Caws (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1987), p. 11. 1 1. See Carl Einstein, “Pablo Picasso: Quelques tableaux de 1928,” Documents 1 (April 1929): 35–47. The other works in the layout (reproduced here) are DR 590 (fig. 12), DR 588, and DR 595 (fig. 13). Documents (1929–30) was edited by “dissident” Surrealist Georges



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13.7



Bataille and often included work by Picasso, whom some Surrealists claimed as a spiritual father. On this subject, see Anne Baldassari, The Surrealist Picasso (Paris: Fondation Beyeler, 2005). 1 2. Neil Cox described these marks as “clock hands” and “schematic anchors.” See Cox, Picasso’s “Toys for Adults”: Cubism as Surrealism (Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland and The University of Edinburgh, 2009), p. 13. For a related discussion, see the essay by Jeremy Melius in Chapter 10 of this publication. 1 3. Picasso defended the headish qualities of Head (fig. 13). In the 1960s, when asked by scholar Pierre Daix for the subject and title of “that thing with a triangle,” the artist answered, “But it’s a head, it’s a head.” See Daix, “Discussion,” in Lynn Zelevansky, ed., Picasso and Braque: A Symposium (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992), p. 213. Though the artist was rarely interested in giving formal titles to his work, he could be specific and descriptive about his subjects. For example, in a 1912 letter written from the South of France to his dealer, Picasso enumerated the subject (and the degree of completion) of every painting sitting in his Bateau Lavoir studio (Picasso, letter to Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, June, 5, 1912 [Archives Galerie Leiris, Paris]). Partial transcription and reproduction of this letter was published in Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, Donation Louise et Michel Leiris: Collection Kahnweiler-Leiris (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984), pp. 166–67. T. J. Clark observed that in Picasso’s 1911–12 correspondence with Kahnweiler and Georges Braque, the artist’s piling up of nouns to describe his subjects could be attributed to his poor French-language skills. See Clark, Farewell to an Idea: Episodes from a History of Modernism (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1999), p. 183. 1 4. The colored laid paper in this work is gray at present. A similar gray paper in Bar Table with Guitar of spring 1913 was once mauve in hue. No pinkness has been observed in the colored collage element of Head of a Man, but the possibility should not be ruled out entirely. See the Conservation Notes for this work as well as the discussion of Bar Table with Guitar in Chapter 11 of this publication, including the Conservation Notes.



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13.8



Head of a Man Céret, spring 1913. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated May 28, 1883), colored paper, pencil, and ink on paper, 17 ⅞ × 11 ⅜" (42.9 × 28.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection, 640.1967. Z II (2) 403, DR 592



Conservation Notes The primary support of this papier collé is a small piece of laid paper, most likely cut down from a larger piece. In addition to its size, its watermark of a large shield or coat of arms, partially visible in the center of the sheet, reveals a paper choice that is unique among the works featured in this publication. First, Picasso executed the drawing almost in its entirety, using a pencil. The jagged edges of the collage elements suggest that they were both cut using scissors; the gray collage element, of laid paper, was pasted down first: where it touches the newspaper fragment, the newspaper sits on top [ 14]. The colored paper has a pinhole at its center, made before the piece was pasted down. Two splits in the more fragile newspaper component suggest that it cracked as the glue was drying. In what was likely a late step, Picasso painted in the B-shaped form at right. The yellowing visible in blank passages within the form suggests that the medium may be ink, perhaps diluted with varnish. The artist reinforced



14



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13.9



some of the pencil lines, although very imprecisely, using black ink applied using a pen with a metal nib [ 15]. While it is clear that the pencil drawing continues and is present underneath both collage elements, the ink application likely followed the collage steps. Picasso used the nib very aggressively when he was drawing the eye-shaped form, almost carving it into the surface of the newsprint. Holes along the edges and at each of the corners of the support paper were made when the artist pinned the work to his studio wall, probably when it was nearly complete. A MoMA conservator bleached areas of foxing throughout the papier collé and reduced overall buckling of the support soon after the Museum acquired the work. The report for this 1967 treatment suggests that the collage may also have received an even earlier, undocumented restoration procedure. While there is no evidence to suggest that the gray paper in this work was ever any other color, it should be noted that this is not the case with other papiers collés containing gray paper collage elements that Picasso made in Céret. In some works the papers that now appear gray were once mauve (see, for example, Bar Table with Guitar of spring 1913, discussed in Chapter 11 of this publication). This mauve paper was likely tinted using a dye-based colorant that is very susceptible to fading.



15



—SG



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13.10



Head of a Man Céret, spring 1913. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated May 28, 1883), colored paper, pencil, and ink on paper, 17 ⅞ × 11 ⅜" (42.9 × 28.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection, 640.1967. Z II (2) 403, DR 592



Provenance BY SUMMER 1914 Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris. Purchased from the artist [ 16] 1



16



1914–1923 Galerie Kahnweiler stock sequestered by the French government as property of an enemy alien 2 MAY 8, 1923 Hôtel Drouot, Paris. Vente de biens allemands: Collection Henri Kahnweiller [sic]. Tableaux modernes. Quatrième et dernière vente. Lot 94 (lot of thirty-two works on paper) [ 16] 3 1923 OR LATER–1929 Theodore Schempp, Paris and New York 4 1929 Sidney and Harriet Janis, New York. Purchased from the above  5 OCTOBER 18, 1967 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection (Fractional gift completed December 1986) 6 —BH



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13.11



Notes 1. Galerie Kahnweiler was founded in 1907 by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (German, 1884–1979) at 28, rue Vignon, Paris. Picasso entered into an exclusive three-year contract, beginning December 2, 1912, to sell works at fixed prices to Kahnweiler. This arrangement is outlined in the artist’s letter, dated December 18, 1912, to his dealer (original letter on deposit with Galerie Louise Leiris Archives, Paris, and reproduced in Maurice Jardot, Picasso: Peintures 1900–1955 [Paris: Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 1955], pp. 50–52). We can conclude that Head of a Man went directly from the artist’s studio to Galerie Kahnweiler per the terms of their contract, probably sometime in the first half of 1914. The work is signed “Picasso” on the upper-left verso in a manner consistent with other works on paper that left the artist’s studio in the same period for sale at Galerie Kahnweiler. The Kahnweiler papers are held by Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, and are not accessible at this time. A number of marks and inscriptions on the back of Head of a Man (reproduced here) confirm its ownership in this period. A Galerie Kahnweiler stamp on the center verso is completed with the handwritten inventory number “1726.” In Pepe Karmel’s unpublished 1991 transcription of Kahnweiler’s stockbook, inv. no. 1726 is listed as “Dessin en couleurs.” “Dessin (couleurs)” was the generic entry Kahnweiler used to inventory Picasso’s papiers collés. “303” is handwritten on the upper-left verso; this matches the Kahnweiler photo file number recorded for Head of a Man in Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), p. 302, repr. cat. no. 592 and p. 134. For further reading on Kahnweiler, see Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler with Francis Crémieux, My Galleries and Painters, trans. Helen Weaver (New York: Viking Press, 1971); Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, ed., DanielHenry Kahnweiler: Marchand, éditeur, écrivain (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984); Monod-Fontaine, ed., Donation Louise et Michel Leiris: Collection Kahnweiler-Leiris (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984); and Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990). 2. As a German national living in France, Kahnweiler was designated an enemy alien during World War I. He was abroad at the outbreak of the war, and his gallery stock was sequestered by the French government. He lived in exile in Switzerland until his return to Paris in 1920, at which time he reopened his business under the name Galerie Simon. The French government ultimately sold Kahnweiler’s original prewar stock



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in a series of public auctions in 1921–23 at Hôtel Drouot, Paris. On this period in Kahnweiler’s life and business, see Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990), pp. 114–89. 3. The number “94” is handwritten in pencil on the verso of Head of a Man along the upper-center edge (reproduced here), indicating that it was among the thirty-two works on paper included in lot 94 of the fourth auction of sequestered Galerie Kahnweiler stock, held May 7–8, 1923. Lot 94 is listed in the auction catalogue as “Trente-deux dessins, plume, crayon, fusain, quelques-uns papier collé. Sujet variés, époques diverses—(La plupart signés).” See Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Vente de biens allemands: Collection Henri Kahnweiller [sic]. Tableaux modernes. Quatrième et dernière vente (May 7–8, 1923), p. 5. It is not known to what extent unframed drawings and papiers collés were available for consultation or display during the public exhibition day (May 6, 2:00–6:00 p.m.), or during the sale (even-numbered lots such as lot 94 were sold on May 8, and odd-numbered lots on May 7). It is presumed that they were not highly visible. This lot of thirty-two works, including Head of a Man, sold for 1,400 francs, according to the hammer prices published in Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot 32, no. 58 (May 15, 1923): 1. The auction generated a total of 227,662 francs in sales. In the course of preparing for the 2011 exhibition Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 at The Museum of Modern Art, lot numbers in the same handwriting and medium were observed on the versos of nearly twenty other Cubist works on paper. Previously, it was not thought possible to identify which unframed works on paper were sold at the Kahnweiler sales. See Epilogue for further discussion. For additional information, see Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990), pp. 155–89. 4. Theodore Schempp (American, 1904–1988) was an art dealer who specialized in modern French art. A well-connected painter and musician, he divided his time between the United States and France. Georges Braque and Nicolas de Staël were neighbors of Schempp’s in Paris, and his second wife, Odile (née Arnould; French, born c. 1930), was an artist’s model who sat for Henri Matisse. Head of a Man was “acquired from Theodore Schempp, Paris, 1929,” by the Janis family, per Alfred H. Barr, Jr., and William S. Rubin, Three Generations of Twentieth-Century Art: The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection of The Museum of Modern Art (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1972), p. 198, repr. cat. no. 77. Schempp is also listed in the provenance published in Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The



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13.13



Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), p. 302, repr. cat. no. 592 (“Théodore [sic] Schempp, Paris”). 5. Sidney Janis (American, 1896–1989) was a collector, businessman, and former vaudeville dancer who founded the Sidney Janis Gallery in 1948. The gallery, located at 15 East Fifty-Seventh Street, represented and sold works by European modernists, Abstract Expressionists, and Pop artists. Janis and his wife Harriet (known as Hansi, née Grossman; American, 1898–1963) began to develop a personal collection beginning in the 1920s. Sidney Janis joined the Advisory Committee of The Museum of Modern Art in late 1933. The family collection, including Head of a Man, was exhibited at MoMA in 1935. The Janis family acquired the work in 1929, per Alfred H. Barr, Jr., The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection: A Gift to The Museum of Modern Art (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1968), p. 19. It was further noted that Head of a Man was “acquired from Theodore Schempp, Paris, 1929,” in Alfred H. Barr, Jr., and William S. Rubin, Three Generations of Twentieth-Century Art: The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection of The Museum of Modern Art (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1972), p. 198, repr. cat. no. 77. When Head of a Man was exhibited with the Janis collection at the Arts Club of Chicago in 1935, Harriet Janis wrote in the catalogue foreword that this papier collé was “disciplined by poverty of materials and precision of scissors into a sharp definition of statement. This medium not only supplements the palette but introduces the surface plane” (Janis, “Foreword,” in The Sidney Janis Collection of Modern Paintings [Chicago: The Arts Club of Chicago, 1935], n.p.). After its 1935 display in New York and Chicago, the work was shown in exhibitions of the Janis collection at the University of Minnesota Art Gallery, Minneapolis (October 21–November 15, 1935), and the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York (summer 1937). Head of a Man is recorded in the “Coll. Sidney Janis, New York,” in Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917, vol. II (2) (Paris: Cahiers d’art, 1942), cat. no. 403, pl. 190. Janis is also listed in the provenance published in Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), p. 302, repr. cat. no. 592 (“Sidney and Harriet Janis, New York, 1929–67”). Sidney and Harriet Janis donated over one hundred works to MoMA in 1967, and the collection was widely exhibited thereafter. For more information on the Janis family, see Barr, 1968; and Barr and Rubin,



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1972, pp. x–xv. See also William S. Rubin, A Curator’s Quest: Building the Collection of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art, 1967– 88, ed. Phyllis Hattis (New York: Overlook Duckworth, 2012), pp. 43–44. 6. The Deed of Gift, signed on June 15, 1967, lists no. 72 as “Collage by Pablo Picasso, approximately 16" high × 11" wide, entitled ‘Head,’ 1912” (MoMA, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Janis Donor File, 1960s). Head of a Man was accessioned into the collection on October 18, 1967, and the final interest in the work was given in December 1986 (per MoMA, Department of Painting and Sculpture, collection card, 641.167). Regarding the terms of the Janis gift, see The Museum of Modern Art, Press Release no. 63, June 17, 1967. For further information, see The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection: A Gift to The Museum of Modern Art (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1968); and Alfred H. Barr, Jr., and William S. Rubin, Three Generations of Twentieth-Century Art: The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection of The Museum of Modern Art (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1972).



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13.15



Head of a Man Céret, spring 1913. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated May 28, 1883), colored paper, pencil, and ink on paper, 17 ⅞ × 11 ⅜" (42.9 × 28.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection, 640.1967. Z II (2) 403, DR 592



Selected Exhibitions 1923 Paris, Hôtel Drouot. Vente de biens allemands: Collection Henri Kahnweiller [sic]. Tableaux modernes. Quatrième et dernière vente. Lot 94. Public exhibition: May 6. Even-numbered lots sold May 8 [1934] [Hartford, Conn., Wadsworth Atheneum. Pablo Picasso. February 6– March 1. Cat. no. 100] 1935 Chicago, Arts Club of Chicago. The Sidney Janis Collection of Modern Paintings. April 5–24. Cat. no. 2



17



New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Summer Exhibition: The Museum Collection and a Private Collection on Loan. June 4–September 24. Checklist p. 4 [17] 1936 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Cubism and Abstract Art. March 3–April 19. Cat. no. 218. Tour venues, organized through the Department of Circulating Exhibitions: San Francisco Museum of Art. July 27–August 24; Cincinnati Art Museum. October 19–November 16; Minneapolis Institute of Art. November 29–December 27; Cleveland Museum of Art. January 7–February 7, 1937; Baltimore Museum of Art. February 17–March 17, 1937; Providence, Rhode Island School of Design. March 24–April 21, 1937; Grand Rapids, Mich., Grand Rapids Art Gallery, April 29–May 26, 1937 [ 18]



18



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13.16



1964 Toronto, Art Gallery of Toronto. Picasso and Man. January 10–February 16. Cat. no. 61. Tour venue: The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. February 28–March 31 1968 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection. January 17–March 4. Cat. p. 19. Tour venues, organized through the Department of Circulating Exhibitions: Minneapolis Institute of Arts. May 15–June 30; Portland, Ore., Portland Art Museum. September 13–October 13; Pasadena Art Museum. November 11–December 15; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. January 13–February 16, 1969; Seattle Art Museum. March 12–April 13, 1969; Dallas Museum of Art. May 14–June 15, 1969; Buffalo, Albright-Knox Art Gallery. September 15–October 19, 1969; Cleveland Museum of Art. November 18, 1969–January 4, 1970; Kunsthalle Basel. February 28–March 30, 1970; London, Institute of Contemporary Arts. May 1–31, 1970; Berlin, Akademie der Künste. June 12–August 2, 1970; Nuremberg, Kunsthalle Nürnberg. September 11–October 25, 1970; Stuttgart, Kunstverein Würtemberg. November 12–December 27, 1970; Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts. January 7–February 11, 1971; Cologne, Kunsthalle Köln. March 5–April 18, 1971 1972 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art. February 3–April 2. Cat. p. 80



19



1976 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Cubism and Its Affinities. February 9–May 9. Checklist p. 19 [ 19] 20



1980 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective. May 22–September 16. Cat. p. 168 [ 20] 1989 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism, September 24, 1989–January 16, 1990. Cat. p. 276. Tour venue: Kunstmuseum Basel. February 22–June 4, 1990



21



2008 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Pipe, Glass, Bottle of Rum: The Art of Appropriation. July 30–November 10. Checklist p. 18 [ 21]



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22



2010 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century. November 16, 2010–February 7, 2011. Cat. p. 222 [22] 2011 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. February 13–June 6. Cat. no. 69 [ 23]



23



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13.18



Head of a Man Céret, spring 1913. Cut-and-pasted newspaper (dated May 28, 1883), colored paper, pencil, and ink on paper, 17 ⅞ × 11 ⅜" (42.9 × 28.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection, 640.1967. Z II (2) 403, DR 592



Selected References 24



1921 Raynal, Maurice. Picasso. Munich: Delphin-Verlag. Pl. XXI (Also pl. XXI in French ed., Paris: G. Crès & Cie, 1922) [ 24] 1929 Einstein, Carl. “Pablo Picasso: Quelques tableaux de 1928.” Documents 1 (April). Ref. p. 35. Repr. p. 47 1931 Einstein, Carl. Die Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts. 3rd ed. Berlin: Propyläen Verlag. Repr. p. 314 1935 Janis, Harriet. “Foreword.” The Sidney Janis Collection of Modern Paintings. Chicago: Arts Club of Chicago. Ref. n.p. Cat. no. 2 1942 Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917. Vol. II (2). Paris: Cahiers d’art. Cat. no. 403. Pl. 190 1964 Boggs, Jean Sutherland. Picasso and Man. Toronto: Art Gallery of Toronto. Ref. p. 73. Repr. cat. no. 61 1971 Rosenblum, Robert. “Picasso and the Coronation of Alexander III: A Note on the Dating of Some Papiers Collés.” The Burlington Magazine 113, no. 823 (October). Ref. p. 606. Fig. 47



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1972 Barr, Alfred H., Jr., and William S. Rubin. Three Generations of TwentiethCentury Art: The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection of The Museum of Modern Art. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 10, 13, 198. Repr. cat. no. 77 Rubin, William S. Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, Including Remainder-Interest and Promised Gifts. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 80. Repr. p. 80 1979 Daix, Pierre, and Joan Rosselet. Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. Trans. Dorothy S. Blair. London: Thames & Hudson. Ref. p. 302. Repr. cat. no. 592 and p. 134 1989 Leighten, Patricia. Re-ordering the Universe: Picasso and Anarchism, 1897–1914. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Ref. p. 139. Repr. frontispiece and fig. 90 1992 Zelevansky, Lynn, ed. Picasso and Braque: A Symposium. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 191, 227, 301. Repr. pp. 195, 227, 301 2011 Umland, Anne. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 25–26. Repr. cat. no. 69



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13.20



Student with a Pipe Paris, autumn 1913–early 1914. Oil, gouache, cut-and-pasted paper, gesso, sand, and charcoal on canvas, 28 ⅜ × 23 ⅛" (73 × 58.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest, 973.1979. Z II (2) 444, DR 620



Recto



Raking Light



UV Light



Infrared Light



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X-ray



14.1



Student with a Pipe Paris, autumn 1913–early 1914. Oil, gouache, cut-and-pasted paper, gesso, sand, and charcoal on canvas, 28 ⅜ × 23 ⅛" (73 × 58.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest, 973.1979. Z II (2) 444, DR 620



In accordance with the terms of Picasso’s contract with his dealer, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, Student with a Pipe went straight from the artist’s studio to Galerie Kahnweiler in the early months of 1914. But before everyone left Paris for the summer holidays that fateful year, it had joined Gertrude Stein’s legendary collection of Picasso’s work in her apartment on rue de Fleurus.1 Over time, its position and immediate neighbors changed occasionally, but photographs [ 1–3] show that it always remained unglazed, so as not to compromise the relief effect of the student’s famous paper beret. As a child, Picasso had enchanted friends and relatives by cutting out lifelike silhouettes of birds and animals. Papier collé provided the perfect opportunity to exploit this talent, and the beret is one of his most flamboyant Cubist silhouettes. The student’s pipe was one of many Picasso cut out in the early months



1



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of 1914 [4].2 He used laid paper for the pipe but for the beret employed crumpled and creased paper that had probably done duty as packaging. 3 The playful whimsy of the beret and pipe implies insouciance and spontaneity, but scientific examination has revealed that Student with a Pipe involved timeconsuming methods and significant alterations. Picasso’s chosen support is of a fine weave and consists of four sewn-together sections tacked onto a makeshift strainer [5, 6]. He coated this eccentric ground with a gritty mixture of gesso and sand, spreading it roughly to create the effect of an inexpertly plastered wall, and since by conventional standards the drawing is crude and primitive as well as caricatural, he may have intended an allusion to graffiti. From the start, the plan was evidently for a tableau-objet, not a peinture. Drawing in charcoal on this uneven surface naturally resulted in slightly stuttering contours, and here and there Picasso also made corrections. One can see, for instance, that the student originally had a handlebar mustache and a larger, grinning mouth; faint traces of a diagonal sash and insignia are visible on his jacket [ 7]. The large rectangle of shiny gray paint was added later, and Picasso incised the ear into it when the paint was still wet [8]; if it represents cast shadow, it is a paradoxical, light-reflecting shadow of dense, malleable substance. The tiny red dots on the nose were also added at a late stage, and the paper hat and pipe last of all. This visibly piecemeal construction lends the work an exploratory, provisional air. A photograph taken of the picture when the beret was temporarily removed for conservation purposes [9] suggests that the subject began not as a university student but as some other character. Beneath the hat,



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14.3



10



11



12



13



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the strongly marked diagonal to the right of the face rises to a peak near the top of the canvas, carrying with it a rectangle to which a half circle is attached. A plausible reading of these shapes and the wavy lines flowing from the base of the half circle—lines that denote the student’s long hair in the definitive picture—is of a widebrimmed hat with streamers, worn at an extravagantly jaunty angle and secured to the ear by a band. Numerous kinds of headgear feature in Picasso’s Cubist pictures, often with comic effect, and this one may be a jokey carnival hat. At any rate, some of the oddities in this area of the composition as we know it are resolved when we look beneath the beret. The picture’s evolution raises questions about its date. In the Galerie Kahnweiler files it is given as “winter 1913–14.”4 But Pierre Daix has argued that it was executed earlier, in the autumn of 1913, on the grounds that its starting point was a rudimentary papier collé of a masklike head [10], which itself is closely related to schematic works Picasso is known to have made in Céret during the spring and summer of 1913. 5 The conservation photograph of the work with the beret removed lends weight to Daix’s argument, because in that form the charcoal composition is strikingly reminiscent of the abstracted triangular Heads Picasso made in Céret in 1913, notably a collage once owned by André Breton [11]. According to Pepe Karmel, however, Student with a Pipe and the more elaborate version depicting a masked, mustached student reading a newspaper [ 12] were created in March 1914. His prime evidence is a series of drawings [13 being among the most closely related] that he also ascribes to that moment. 6 It is true that Student with a Newspaper’s strip of imitation molding and flat



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14.4



14



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planes covered with minute colored dots are typical of Picasso’s Cubism in spring 1914, when his work in all mediums became busier and more decorative. It is also true that when our student briefly had a mustache and a larger mouth he must have looked very like his newspaper-reading brother, and, as noted earlier, cut-out pipes were a feature of the early months of 1914. Yet the drawings Karmel cites may have been made when Picasso decided to convert an earlier composition into the image of a student in his beret and also to create from scratch a second, more anecdotal version. Taken together, the evidence suggests that Student with a Pipe was begun in 1913 but transformed and completed in early 1914. In any case, both Picasso’s students belong in his Cubist gallery of types, with, among others, the aficionado, the Spaniard, and the woman from Arles. 7 Their defining emblem is the faluche—the voluminous velvet beret ornamented with a ribbon and faculty badge that French students adopted in 1888; the badge on Student with a Pipe’s faluche is a faithful, albeit simplified, reproduction of the badge specific to the students of Paris.8 Picasso most likely saw students thus attired, but given that he collected, and occasionally drew inspiration from, postcards depicting various types in their characteristic costumes, he may also have had in mind a postcard like the one illustrated here [ 14].9 Picasso’s eye for distinctive physiognomy and dress nourished his gift for caricature—a gift, like his gift for paper cutting, that blossomed in his childhood and never deserted him.10 If there were no students in his preCubist repertoire—MoMA’s seems to be the first—there were plenty of bohemians by the time he had joined their ranks in Barcelona in the late 1890s, and some,



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14.5



15



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including the languid aesthete labeled Un Modernista [15], have the long, thin features, floppy hair, and witless expression of our endearing antihero. So, Picasso was able to draw on long-standing expertise in the domain of satire. But the geometry of Cubism gave him a supremely economical tool for visual wit that he had not possessed when he still depended on realist conventions of representation, for the same reductive sign could be read in various ways, its implications accumulating rather than cancelling each other out. 11 Thus, the small circles denoting the student’s blank but staring eyes also suggest steel-rimmed spectacles: his myopia is real and metaphorical; the tiny dots reddening the tip of his long monkey’s nose may point to a cold caught in the proverbial freezing garret but equally to too much carousing with his cronies. As these forms slowly release their meanings, so the humorous characterization of the Parisian student type expands, and so the insinuating charm of the picture takes hold. —Elizabeth Cowling



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14.6



Notes 1. See Provenance. 2. For other silhouettes of pipes, see, for example, DR 663, DR 669, and DR 685. 3. It seems likely that Picasso did not, as has been sometimes said, color the paper himself, but it may have discolored over the years. See Conservation Notes. 4. See Provenance. 5. Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet attributed Student with a Pipe to “Céret or Paris, 1913.” See Daix and Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. no. 620 and p. 144. In his Dictionnaire Picasso (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1995), Daix revised that to “rue Schoelcher [Paris], automne 1913” (p. 311). For the artist’s work in Céret in 1913, see Pepe Karmel, Joséphine Matamoros, et al., Picasso: Dessins et papiers collés—Céret 1911–1913 (Céret: Musée d’Art Moderne de Céret, 1997), pp. 180–229, 248–295. 6. The drawings are Z VI 1171, Z VI 1179, Z XXIX 21, and Z XXIX 93. See Pepe Karmel, “Appendix 2: Notes on the Dating of Works,” in Lynn Zelevansky, ed., Picasso and Braque: A Symposium (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992), pp. 337–39. 7. See, for example, DR 500, DR 580, and DR 497. 8. Websites devoted to the history and significance of the faluche include www.faluche.info. 9. Several of Picasso’s postcards of distinctive types are reproduced in Anne Baldassari, Picasso and Photography: The Dark Mirror, trans. Deke Dusinberre (Paris: Flammarion, 1997); see figs. 44, 125, 196, 204, and 209. 1 0. See Valeriano Bozal Fernández, Brigitte Léal, et al., Picasso: From Caricature to Metamorphosis of Style (Barcelona: Museu Picasso, 2003). 1 1. For the relationship between Cubism and caricature, see Adam Gopnik, “High and Low: Caricature, Primitivism, and the Cubist Portrait,” Art Journal 43, no. 4 (Winter 1983): 371–76.



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14.7



Student with a Pipe Paris, autumn 1913–early 1914. Oil, gouache, cut-and-pasted paper, gesso, sand, and charcoal on canvas, 28 ⅜ × 23 ⅛" (73 × 58.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest, 973.1979. Z II (2) 444, DR 620



Conservation Notes 16



17



18



19



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The primary support for this work comprises four pieces of very fine linen, which, sewn together, were originally mounted onto what was described by MoMA conservators in a 1968 report as “a makeshift strainer.” The stitchedtogether fragments, of varying sizes, are somewhat visible under X-ray and ultraviolet illumination [ 16, 17]; an image of the verso of the canvas, unstretched during treatment [18], makes readily apparent the unusual characteristics of the support. The tool marks within the rough surface suggest that, in addition to a brush, Picasso used a pronged implement (such as a wood-graining tool) to manipulate and spread a mixture of gesso modified with coarse sand and perhaps other particulate matter onto the support [19]. This ground layer obscures the seams in the linen. The artist drew directly on the bumpy surface with a stick of charcoal. The ground layer was subsequently smoothed and faintly painted over in selected areas to mute but not hide compositional changes. For example, a handlebar mustache was present beneath the figure’s



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14.8



20



21



22



23



   Student with a Pipe  



nose; the mouth was larger, flashing a toothy smile; and a medallion once appeared near the figure’s collar [ 20]. The shiny gray paint and the red gouache stippling were added in the final steps of painting. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, performed at MoMA in 2010, indicates that the gray paint is mainly lead-based oil and does not appear to be Ripolin enamel, as some have speculated. Picasso added it within and around the charcoal outlines, and it was still wet when he used a stick of charcoal to draw and carve the student’s right ear [21]. The collage elements were glued to the surface last, with the hat covering the uppermost portion of the charcoal drawing. The pipe was cut from a piece of laid paper and the hat from a crumpled piece of industrialgrade paper. This work was one of many purchased from the Estate of Gertrude Stein by The Museum of Modern Art Syndicate and conserved at MoMA between 1968 and 1970. The work had never been glazed, and a very heavy layer of overall grime was removed at that time. The original secondary support was replaced with the current honeycomb panel. The paper hat was removed [ 22] and lined using a technique that retained its inherent creasing. Two questions about this work remain largely unanswered. The first concerns a photograph of the object [23], published in 1979, that shows distinct plumes of smoke, perhaps drawn in charcoal, within the gray-painted area and rising from the student’s pipe. There exists today no physical evidence of these plumes, and they are not visible in other images or installation views of the work, earlier or later. There is also a question concerning the original color of the paper hat. The earliest description, by Margaret Scolari Barr in an annotation in her copy of the catalogue



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14.9



for the 1932 Picasso retrospective at Galeries Georges Petit, suggests that the hat was brown when she saw it in the exhibition in Paris that year [ 24]. (Barr’s copy of the catalogue is in MoMA Archives, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Papers.) Microscopic examination at the Museum in 1969 revealed small red fibers scattered throughout the paper. Based on these, the examiner concluded that the hat had originally been entirely red, but had since faded. Edward Burns published this information in 1970 in Gertrude Stein on Picasso (New York: Liveright), writing that the beret was “at one time red.” William Rubin reiterated it in 1972, in Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art (New York: The Museum of Modern Art), suggesting further that Picasso had handcolored the paper a dark reddish-brown. The work was known within the collection of Nelson A. Rockefeller by a secondary title, Student with Red Paper Hat. Microscopic examination of the hat today no longer reveals any evidence that the paper was once red or that it was hand-colored. Further, while the red fibers observed in 1969 could be a sign that the paper was once entirely red, they could equally indicate that the paper was made from a widely varied mix of raw material. This was not uncommon for low-quality, industrial-grade papers, which were frequently made from an assortment of recycled materials. —SG



24



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14.10



Student with a Pipe Paris, autumn 1913–early 1914. Oil, gouache, cut-and-pasted paper, gesso, sand, and charcoal on canvas, 28 ⅜ × 23 ⅛" (73 × 58.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest, 973.1979. Z II (2) 444, DR 620



Provenance



25



c. WINTER–SPRING 1914 Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris. Purchased from the artist [ 25] 1 BY SUMMER 1914–1946 Gertrude Stein, Paris. [Purchased from the above] [ 26, 27] 2



26



1946–1967 Estate of Gertrude Stein (c/o Alice B. Toklas, Paris, 1946–1961). By bequest from the above [ 28] 3 1968 The Museum of Modern Art Syndicate, New York. Purchased from the above 4



27



1968–1979 Nelson A. Rockefeller, New York. Purchased from/through the above  5 OCTOBER 9, 1979 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest  6 —BH



28



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14.11



Notes 1. Galerie Kahnweiler was founded in 1907 by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (German, 1884–1979) at 28, rue Vignon, Paris. Picasso entered into an exclusive three-year contract with Kahnweiler beginning December 2, 1912, as outlined in the artist’s letter, dated December 18, 1912, to his dealer (original letter on deposit with Galerie Louise Leiris Archives, Paris, and reproduced in Maurice Jardot, Picasso: Peintures, 1900– 1955 [Paris: Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 1955], pp. 50–52). We can conclude that this work went directly from the artist’s studio to Galerie Kahnweiler per the terms of their contract. The Kahnweiler papers are held by Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, and are not accessible at this time. A Galerie Kahnweiler label on the back of the framed work is stamped with inv. no. 1887. The sequential numbering of inventory upon transfer from the artist to the gallery puts this painting’s transfer around winter–spring 1914. This inventory number corresponds to photo file no. 325, “L’étudiant à la pipe. Paris, hiver 1913–14,” in Pepe Karmel’s unpublished 1991 transcriptions of Galerie Kahnweiler’s photo files. For further reading on Kahnweiler, see Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler with Francis Crémieux, My Galleries and Painters, trans. Helen Weaver (New York: Viking Press, 1971); Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, ed., Donation Louise et Michel Leiris: Collection Kahnweiler-Leiris (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984); Monod-Fontaine, ed., Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler: Marchand, éditeur, écrivain (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984); and Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990). 2. Gertrude Stein (American, 1874–1946) was an author, collector, and close friend of Picasso. Stein lived in Paris most of her adult life and was a regular customer of Kahnweiler’s in this period. It is likely she purchased the work from Galerie Kahnweiler, though she occasionally traded works with the gallery or accepted gifts directly from the artist. An archival photograph (reproduced here) documents this work hanging in Stein’s Paris apartment at 27, rue de Fleurus, c. 1914–15. She must have acquired the work before the beginning of World War I in summer 1914, as she was abroad at the outbreak of war, and Kahnweiler’s business was subsequently suspended. Stein is credited as the owner and lender in exhibition catalogues beginning in 1932 (see Exhibitions), and documentary views of the work hanging in her home were published in the following early sources: Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1933), cover; and “L’Atelier de Gertrude Stein,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts (April 1934): figs. 5 and 7.



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14.12



Student with a Pipe is included in the following catalogues devoted to Stein’s collection: Irene Gordon, Four Americans in Paris: The Collections of Gertrude Stein and Her Family (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1970), pl. 51 and repr. p. 95 (installation view); and Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow, eds., The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde (San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2011), pp. 229, 282, cat. no. 265, pl. 223, and pls. 357, 360, 361 (installation views). 3. Alice B. Toklas (American, 1877–1967) was the longtime partner of Gertrude Stein. Toklas and Stein first met in 1907, and they lived together until Stein’s death in 1946. The bulk of Stein’s estate, including her art collection, was bequeathed to Toklas for use in her lifetime. A documentary photograph from 1956 (reproduced here) records Student with a Pipe in Paris, hanging near the telephone in the 5, rue Christine apartment Toklas lived in and had shared with Stein from 1938 to 1946. Publications from the 1950s regularly list the owner of the work as “Private collection, Paris”: Maurice Jardot, Picasso: 1900–1955 (Munich: Haus der Kunst, 1955), repr. cat. no. 36 (“Der Student mit der Pfeife. Öl, Sand, und Papier auf Leinwald. Paris, Winter 1913/4. Privatbesitz, Paris”); and Frank Elgar, “Une Conquête du cubisme: Le Papier collé,” XXe siècle 6 (January 1956), repr. p. 9 (“L’Étudiant à la pipe. Papier collé. 1914. Coll. particulière, Paris”). An exhibition label on the back of the framed work, from its loan to the Tate Gallery show Picasso (July 6–September 8, 1960), cat. no. 73, lists the owner of the work as “Private collection (Miss Alice B. Toklas).” The painting’s canvas support is marked on its verso with a red stamp associated with the Estate of Gertrude Stein. Subsequent legal disputes, around 1961, between Toklas and the Stein family resulted in the transfer of the collection to a Chase Manhattan Bank vault in Paris. For further information, see Edward Burns, “Alice Toklas and the Gertrude Stein Collection, 1946–67,” in Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow, eds., The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde (San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2011), pp. 259–65. 4. A syndicate of MoMA trustees David and Nelson Rockefeller, John Hay Whitney, and William S. Paley, plus André Meyer of Lazard Frères, Co., was formed with the purpose of purchasing works from the Estate of Gertrude Stein. It was understood that the bulk of these purchases ultimately would be donated to the Museum. For a brief summary of the syndicate’s activities, see Grace Glueck, “Modern Museum Gets Stein’s Art,” The New York Times, January 10, 1969. See also MoMA Archives, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Papers, 12.II.0, and MoMA, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Estate of Gertrude Stein Files.



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14.13



5. Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (American, 1908–1979) was the son of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, one of the founders of The Museum of Modern Art. A collector and MoMA trustee, Nelson A. Rockefeller served as governor of the state of New York (1959–73) and as vice president of the United States (1974–77). Records indicate that Student with a Pipe was Rockefeller’s first selection in the multi-round balloting process for selecting pictures from the syndicate’s holdings (MoMA, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Stein Collection Files). The work is listed as inv. 25-2047, “Student with a Pipe, also known as Student with a Red Paper Hat,” in Rockefeller’s collection records, and was installed in his apartment at 812 Fifth Avenue, New York, over the mantel in the living room (Rockefeller Archives Center, Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., The Rockefeller Family Archives, Nelson A. Rockefeller Personal Papers, RG4.C, Box 18, Folder 107). Numerous exhibition labels on its framed verso, and its appearance in exhibition catalogues, record Rockefeller as the owner in this period, beginning with Irene Gordon, Four Americans in Paris: The Collections of Gertrude Stein and Her Family (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1970), pl. 51 and repr. p. 95 (installation view) (“Student with a Pipe. 1913–14. Collection Nelson A. Rockefeller, New York ”). For further reading on Rockefeller’s collection, see Dorothy Canning Miller, ed., The Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection: Masterpieces of Modern Art (New York: Hudson Hill Press, 1981). Student with a Pipe is reproduced on p. 79. 6. Article Five of Nelson A. Rockefeller’s will lists the works to be bequeathed to the Museum, including “Picasso. Etudiant (Red paper hat), (Student with a Pipe)” (MoMA, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Donor Files, Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1970s–80s). The work was formally accepted into the collection on October 9, 1979.



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14.14



Student with a Pipe Paris, autumn 1913–early 1914. Oil, gouache, cut-and-pasted paper, gesso, sand, and charcoal on canvas, 28 ⅜ × 23 ⅛" (73 × 58.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest, 973.1979. Z II (2) 444, DR 620



Selected Exhibitions 29



1932 Paris, Galeries Georges Petit. Exposition Picasso. June 16–July 30. Cat. no. 86. Tour venue: Zurich, Kunsthaus Zürich. September 11– October 30. Cat. no. 75 [ 29] 1955 Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs. Picasso: Peintures, 1900–1955. June–October. Cat. no. 42. Tour venues: Munich, Haus der Kunst. October 25–December 19. Cat. no. 36; Cologne, Rheinisches Museum Köln-Deutz. December 30, 1955–February 29, 1956; Hamburg, Kunsthalle. March 10–April 29, 1956 1960 London, Tate Gallery. Picasso. July 6–September 8. Cat. no. 73 1970 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Four Americans in Paris: The Collections of Gertrude Stein and Her Family. December 19, 1970– March 1, 1971. Cat. p. 147. Tour venues: Baltimore Museum of Art. April 4–May 30, 1971; Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada. June 25–August 15, 1971; San Francisco Museum of Art. September 15–October 31, 1971 [ 30]



30



1972 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art. February 3–April 2. Cat. p. 88



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14.15



1980 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective. May 16–September 30. Cat. p. 174 1989 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. September 24, 1989–January 16, 1990. Cat. p. 302. Tour venue: Kunstmuseum Basel. February 22–June 18, 1990 [ 31]



31



1999 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. ModernStarts: People—Language of the Body. October 7, 1999–February 1, 2000. Cat. p. 63 2004 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Painting and Sculpture: Inaugural Installation. November 20, 2004–January 7, 2008. Checklist p. 90 [32]



32



2010 Zurich, Kunsthaus Zürich. Picasso: His First Museum Exhibition 1932. October 15, 2010–January 30, 2011. Cat. no. 30 2011 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. February 13–June 6. Cat. no. 72 [33]



33



San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde. May 21–September 6. Cat. no. 265. Tour venues: Paris, Grand Palais. October 3, 2011– January 16, 2012; New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. February 21–June 3, 2012



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14.16



Student with a Pipe Paris, autumn 1913–early 1914. Oil, gouache, cut-and-pasted paper, gesso, sand, and charcoal on canvas, 28 ⅜ × 23 ⅛" (73 × 58.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest, 973.1979. Z II (2) 444, DR 620



Selected References 1919 Deri, Max. Die Malerei im XIX Jahrhundert: Entwicklungsgeschichtliche Darstellung auf psychologischer Grundlage. 2 vols. Berlin: Cassirer. Ref. p. 312. Repr. vol. 2, p. 96 [34]



34



1926 Einstein, Carl. Die Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts. Berlin: Propylaen Verlag. Repr. p. 273 (1928 ed., repr. p. 273; 1931 ed., repr. p. 315) 1930 Mahaut, Henri. Picasso. Paris: G. Crès et Cie. Pl. 21 1931 Tzara, Tristan. “Le Papier collé ou le proverbe en peinture.” Cahiers d’art 6, no. 2. Repr. p. 66 1932 Apollinaire, Guillaume. “Picasso et les papiers collés.” (From Montjoie! [March 14, 1913].) Cahiers d’art 7, nos. 3–5. Repr. p. 119 1933 Stein, Gertrude. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co. Repr. cover (installation view) 1934 “L’Atelier de Gertrude Stein.” Gazette des Beaux-Arts (April). Figs. 5, 7 (installation views)



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14.17



1942 Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso. Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917. Vol. II (2). Paris: Cahiers d’art. Cat. no. 444. Pl. 208 1946 Barr, Alfred H., Jr. Picasso: Fifty Years of His Art. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Repr. p. 85 1955 Jardot, Maurice. Picasso: Peintures, 1900–1955. Paris: Musée des Art Décoratifs. Ref. n.p. Repr. cat. no. 42 1959 Golding, John. Cubism: A History and an Analysis, 1907–1914. New York: Wittenborn. Ref. p. 108. Pl. 19B 1960 Penrose, Roland. Picasso. London: Arts Council of Great Britain. Ref. p. 31. Cat. no. 73. Pl. 16h 1972 Kozloff, Max. “Cubism and the Human Comedy.” Art News 71, no. 5 (September). Ref. p. 39. Repr. p. 38 Rosenberg, Harold. The De-Definition of Art: Action Art to Pop to Earthworks. New York: Horizon Press. Ref. p. 175. Repr. p. 174 Rubin, William S. Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, Including Remainder-Interest and Promised Gifts. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 88, 212. Repr. p. 89 1979 Daix, Pierre, and Joan Rosselet. Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. Trans. Dorothy S. Blair. London: Thames & Hudson. Ref. pp. 138, 308. Repr. cat. no. 620 and p. 144 1990 Palau i Fabre, Josep. Picasso: Cubism (1907–1917). Trans. Susan Branyas, Richard-Lewis Rees, and Patrick Zabalbeascoa. New York: Rizzoli. Ref. pp. 354–55. Fig. 1017 1992 Karmel, Pepe. “Appendix 2: Notes on the Dating of Works.” In Lynn Zelevansky, ed. Picasso and Braque: A Symposium. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 337



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14.18



2000 Léal, Brigitte, Christine Piot, and Marie-Laure Bernadac. The Ultimate Picasso. Trans. Molly Stevens and Marjolin de Jager. New York: Harry N. Abrams. Ref. p. 172. Fig. 362 2003 Karmel, Pepe. Picasso and the Invention of Cubism. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. Ref. p. 194. Fig. 279 2007 Lebensztejn, Jean-Claude. “Periods: Cubism in Its Day.” In Anne Baldassari, ed. Cubist Picasso. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux and Flammarion. Ref. p. 45. Fig. 11 2011 Bishop, Janet, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow, eds. The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde. San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 229, 282. Cat. no. 265. Pl. 223 and pls. 357, 360, 361 (installation views) Umland, Anne. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 20, 26. Repr. cat. no. 72



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14.19



Guitar Paris, January–February 1914. Ferrous sheet metal and wire, 30 ½ × 13 ¾ × 7 5/8" (77.5 × 35 × 19.3 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist, 94.1971. Z II (2) 773, DR 471, S 27



360°



Front



X-ray



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15.1



Guitar Paris, January–February 1914. Ferrous sheet metal and wire, 30 ½ × 13 ¾ × 7 5/8" (77.5 × 35 × 19.3 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist, 94.1971. Z II (2) 773, DR 471, S 27



1



2



  Guitar  



“With instruments far too rudimentary, scratching his hands a thousand times, with a stubborn tenacity, he makes his first sheet metal works.” 1 To read the manuscript “Picasso et les cathédrales, Picasso sculpteur” by Catalan artist and master craftsman Julio González is to see Picasso’s 1914 encounter with sheet metal at a vividly practical level. Picasso’s friend since their 1899 meeting at the Barcelona café Els Quatre Gats, González offered an account of Picasso’s crafting of Guitar that synchs with its crudely snipped forms, crimped by small-bladed scissors barely up to the task of cutting into the resistant metal [ 1].2 The work features neither elaborate welding nor complex armature, and an X-ray image [2] reveals how little there is to reveal about Guitar, structurally: how the artist punched holes in the metal sheets and threaded and twisted wire through them, judiciously selecting only the key points of juncture to hold his planar instrument together. He repurposed one premade item—a five-inch piece of ordinary pipe—for the



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15.2



3



4



projecting sound hole. The uniformly neat French seam running its length is evidence of its industrial fabrication. 3 Serial variation pursued to the point of near exhaustion is a hallmark of Picasso’s practice, such that the closely related forms of his 1912 cardboard Guitar [3] and 1914 sheet metal construction are hardly, at first glance, noteworthy. However, measurement of the two objects, considered in tandem with reevaluated material from the artist’s estate, indicates that Picasso undertook a uniquely deliberate, careful process of translation from one version to the next that was altogether unlike the freehand repetitions he cycled through often and with great intensity. Comparison of the components of the two works reveals the full-scale transfer not just of motif, but of precise form.4 A paper cutout [4] that corresponds strikingly to the shape and dimensions of the back planes of both Guitars may be evidence that the artist traced the forms of the cardboard construction onto templates in order to transfer its design into sheet metal. 5 In addition, successive creation by way of an intermediary set of templates would account for the very slight increase in size from the cardboard to the sheet metal versions. 6 It is generally accepted that Picasso translated the guitar form into sheet metal in 1914. 7 Artist Vanessa Bell visited Picasso’s rue Schoelcher studio that year between January 17 and 21, a studio she described upon her return to London in a letter to fellow Bloomsbury painter Duncan Grant as filled with “amazing arrangements of colored papers and bits of wood. . . . He wants to carry them out in iron. Roger [Fry] recommended aluminum, which rather took his fancy.”8 Newly available archival material suggests a fairly precise date range, following Bell’s Paris trip, for the making of Guitar. In a letter dated February 18, 1914, French critic André Salmon claimed



  Guitar   |  Conservation  Provenance  Exhibitions  References



15.3



5



6



that he had just finished the manuscript for his book La Jeune Sculpture française, the last chapter of which, “El guitare,” describes Picasso “constructing this immense guitar out of sheet metal.”9 If the artist had not yet made any works in metal but was thinking about doing so at the moment of Bell’s visit, and he had made the sheet metal construction by the time Salmon wrote “El guitare,” then the work was executed between late January and early February 1914. Identifying the precise moment when Picasso made the sheet metal Guitar is, however, less significant than considering why he chose to reiterate the guitar form in a new material. Elevated status is traditionally conferred upon sculpture in metal and stone, but given the material he selected—scarcely more valuable than cardboard—this is an unsatisfying explanation. Sturdiness is one easily invoked, if tediously practical consideration, and indeed the tremendous fragility of his constructions was noted early on. When photographs of Picasso’s constructed sculptures were displayed at the Grafton Group’s show in London in January 1914, one critic wrote, “The fact that this sculpture could not be trusted to cross the Channel without falling to pieces seems to point to a deficiency in technique. We suggest screws instead of nails and glue, as more monumental.”10 While the sheet metal Guitar is far from “monumental,” Picasso might have been memorializing, in a more fixed form, an idea first explored in the messily evolving, improvisatory cardboard Guitar. 11 While no image of the sheet metal Guitar was published until 1942 [5], the work was seen in the 1920s by the many visitors to Picasso’s home, where its transgressive framelessness was set off by ornately framed paintings [6].12 It was not publicly exhibited until 1966, when it was slumped in a vitrine for its first public



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15.4



7



8



9



10



11



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appearance, in the exhibition Hommage à Pablo Picasso at the Petit Palais, Paris [7].13 Only a few years after this modest debut, the artist’s donation of Guitar to The Museum of Modern Art in 1971 was accompanied by considerable international hoopla. Extensive news coverage in print and television [ 8–10] attests to the excitement of the moment.14 Reevaluations of the independent importance of the cardboard Guitar complicate the straightforward narrative of the sheet metal version as a “masterpiece,” so readily embraced at the time of Picasso’s generous gift to the Museum.15 Indeed, the significance ascribed to firsts in the twentieth century could prompt the displacement of the concise, resolved 1914 Guitar in favor of the 1912 cardboard version. Considered within the strategies of repetition and variation fundamental to the artist’s Cubist practice, however, this potential competition is neutralized. Picasso’s system of representation lives through, or because of, this constant return and reiteration. The sheet metal Guitar is a summation of the unseen procedures, the modes of making, that underpin this system. Its construction emphasizes the relentless focus of the artist’s labors of 1912–14, as he toiled in the studio “dressed in the blue of Parisian artisans” [11].16 When Picasso described the process of making this work, of this moment when he was scratching his hands and cursing his tools while crafting Guitar, he said simply: “I have never been so happy.”17 —Blair Hartzell



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15.5



Notes 1. Julio González, “Picasso et les cathédrales, Picasso sculpteur,” p. 6 (unpublished manuscript, c. 1932), Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, Centre Julio González, Valencia. Facsimile pages were reproduced in Marielle Trabart, ed., González/Picasso: Dialogue (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1999), pp. 115–26. A short revised version of this text was published as “Picasso sculpteur,” Cahiers d’art 11, nos. 6–7 (1936): 189–91. For more on the relationship between the two artists, see Marilyn McCully, “Julio González and Pablo Picasso: A Documentary Chronology of a Working Relationship,” in Elizabeth Cowling and John Golding, eds., Picasso: Sculptor/Painter (London: Tate Gallery, 1994), pp. 211–21. 2. My thanks to MoMA conservator Lynda Zycherman. Her knowledge of materials and process has informed the present text tremendously. 3. For an early reference to “stovepipe” as a possible origin for this component, see Werner Spies, Sculpture by Picasso (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1971), p. 45. For discussion of the sound hole and Picasso’s interest in African masks, see Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, The Sculptures of Picasso (London: Rodney Phillips, 1949), n.p.; William Rubin, Primitivism in Twentieth-Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1984), pp. 305–09; and Yve-Alain Bois, “Kahnweiler’s Lesson” (1987), in Painting as Model (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1993), pp. 65–97. Ethnographer and writer Michel Leiris recalled, “[Picasso] told me he never could have made his sheet metal Guitar if he hadn’t had that [Grebo] mask.” As reported by Edward Fry, “Picasso, Cubism, and Reflexivity,” Art Journal 47, no. 4 (Winter 1988): p. 306n24. Christine Poggi recently introduced into the Picasso literature new information suggesting that the African mask the artist acquired in 1912 was Kru, from the western coastal region of Ivory Coast—a precision from the more general term “Grebo,” long used. See Poggi’s in-depth study of Picasso’s cardboard and sheet metal Guitar constructions for a close reading of the relationship between the two objects, their materials and their spatial paradoxes, and a review of the significant literature published to date. Poggi, “Picasso’s First Constructed Sculpture: A Tale of Two Guitars,” Art Bulletin 94, no. 2 (June 2012): 274–98. 4. See Conservation Notes. With gratitude to MoMA conservator Scott Gerson for copying all the components for comparative purposes. The two works differ most below the body, where there is a projecting plane in the sheet metal Guitar. This may, in a simplified manner,



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15.6



refer to the cardboard tabletop from the still life into which Picasso inserted his cardboard Guitar in 1913 (DR 633). See the discussion of Picasso’s 1912 Guitar in Chapter 3 of this publication. 5. This cutout was first published by poet and scholar Josep Palau i Fabre in 1990. See Palau i Fabre, Picasso: Cubism 1907–1917 (New York: Rizzoli, 1990), p. 243, fig. 671. Edward Fry was among the very first to insist upon the importance of comparative measurements of the two Guitar constructions, as early as his May 31, 1979, visit to The Museum of Modern Art to study the disassembled cardboard Guitar pieces. He made this point in “Picasso’s 1912 Guitar” (lecture, 69th Annual College Art Association Conference, 1981). See University of Pennsylvania Archives, Edward F. Fry Papers, Ms. Coll. 651, Folders 909–11; and Fry, “Picasso, Cubism, and Reflexivity,” Art Journal 47, no. 4 (Winter 1988): 305n24. 6. It is possible that a single set of templates was used to generate first the cardboard and then, later, the sheet metal Guitar. Cutouts of guitarlike forms, made of paper or thin cardboard, are visible in photographs of the artist’s studio in this period. However, given the very direct way Picasso worked in paper and cardboard, especially in late 1912, it seems most likely that he cut and assembled the cardboard Guitar without following a prescriptive plan. 7. For his insightful dating of Picasso’s constructed sculptures, see Edward Fry, “Picasso, Cubism and Reflexivity,” Art Journal 47, no. 4 (Winter 1988): 305n24. 8. Vanessa Bell, letter to Duncan Grant, Wednesday [1914], in Selected Letters of Vanessa Bell, ed. Regina Marler (New York: Pantheon Books, 1993), p. 160. Based on its contents, this letter must date from a Wednesday after January 22 and before April 1914. With thanks to Allison Foster, Tate Gallery Archives, for sharing an unpublished letter by Vanessa Bell sent to Clive Bell from London, dated January 22, 1914, which describes her trip home from Paris. Biographer John Richardson was the first to connect Bell’s visit with the history of Guitar. See Richardson, A Life of Picasso: The Cubist Rebel, 1907–1916 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996), p. 256. 9. André Salmon, letter to Edmond-Marie Pouillain, February 18, 1914. My thanks to Jacqueline Gojard, executor of the Salmon Estate, for kindly sharing this information. The contents of this letter indicate that Salmon wrote the short chapter “El guitare” quickly and almost immediately after his first encounter with Guitar, but as he was in the habit of churning out newspaper articles at a very swift pace in this period this is not improbable. The outbreak of World War I stalled the publication of Salmon’s 1914 manuscript; it appeared in 1919, with what are said



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15.7



to have been minor edits. See Salmon, La Jeune Sculpture française (Paris: Albert Messein, 1919); and Beth Gersh-Nešić, André Salmon on French Modern Art (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 25. 1 0. Anon., “The Grafton Group at The Alpine Club Gallery,” The Athenaeum, no. 4498 (January 10, 1914): 70. Christopher Green has suggested that the photographs displayed were those of Picasso’s private studio arrangements, which capture the cardboard Guitar surrounded by groups of drawings and papiers collés. See Green, “The Picassos of British Criticism, c. 1910–c. 1945,” in James Beechey and Chris Stephens, eds., Picasso & Modern British Art (London: Tate, 2012), pp. 20–21. It seems much more likely that the Grafton Group exhibition presented photographs obtained from Galerie Kahnweiler, the “official” photographs of Picasso’s still life constructions, which had been published in November 1913 in Les Soirées de Paris. 1 1. Anne Umland has described the sheet metal version (especially when considered in contrast to the cardboard Guitar) as “a fixed quantity: Stable. Self-contained. Complete unto itself.” See Umland, “The Process of Imagining a Guitar,” Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2011), p. 34. 1 2. On the rue La Boétie period of the artist’s life, see John Richardson with Marilyn McCully, A Life of Pablo Picasso: The Triumphant Years, 1917– 1932 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007), pp. 104–11. 1 3. Paintings were installed in the Grand Palais; sculptures and graphic work in the Petit Palais. In the New York sculpture-only exhibition that followed the Paris retrospective, the work was hung as it had been previously in Picasso’s home at 23, rue La Boétie. (The catalogue for the London sculpture-only exhibition suggests that Guitar was installed there in this same manner.) The artist was not involved directly in the installation of any of these shows. See Exhibitions. William Rubin later noted that “Picasso enjoyed ‘sitting’ stringed instruments in chairs like personages; it was a favorite position for the sheet metal Guitar, which because of its large size took on an especially anthropomorphic appearance.” Rubin, Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, Including Remainder-Interest and Promised Gifts (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1972), p. 211. 1 4. See Provenance for more information on the acquisition. 1 5. See, for example, Christine Poggi, “Picasso’s First Constructed Sculpture: A Tale of Two Guitars,” Art Bulletin 94, no. 2 (June 2012): 274–98; and Anne Umland, Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2011).



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1 6. André Salmon described Picasso in front of his sheet metal Guitar: “Picasso, dressed in the blue of Parisian artisans, responded in his finest Andalusian voice: ‘It’s nothing! It’s el guitare!’” Salmon, La Jeune Sculpture française (Paris: Albert Messein, 1919), pp. 103–4. Picasso’s many self-portrait photographs from the 1910s indicate that he often wore a loosely cut jacket akin to an artist’s or craftperson’s smock, buttoned or unbuttoned to various degrees; whether he wore blue, as Salmon reported, can only be guessed from the black-and-white images. In fig. 11, visible works are (clockwise from bottom left): Violin, Glass, and Bottle (DR 571); Construction with Guitar Player (DR 578); Violin (DR 629b); Henri Rousseau, Portrait of a Woman, c. 1895; Violin (Z XXVIII 192); Newspaper and Violin (DR 526); and Head of a Girl (DR 590). 1 7. Julio González, “Picasso et les cathédrales, Picasso sculpteur,” p. 7 (unpublished manuscript, c. 1932), Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, Centre Julio González, Valencia. See note 1, above.



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Guitar Paris, January–February 1914. Ferrous sheet metal and wire, 30 ½ × 13 ¾ × 7 5/8" (77.5 × 35 × 19.3 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist, 94.1971. Z II (2) 773, DR 471, S 27



Conservation Notes 12



13



14



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This sculpture comprises eight pieces of sheet metal forming the body of a guitar, four strands of uncoated wire that serve as the guitar’s strings, and various other small lengths of the same wire used to hold the sculpture together [12]. X-ray fluorescence analysis reveals that all the components are ferrous-based steel, a material that was probably originally dark gray but quickly turned rusty brown from overall oxidation. Sheet metal of this gauge was readily available for use as roofing material and architectural flashing. The machined seam along the length of the cylinder that forms the guitar’s sound hole suggests that it was cut from a prefabricated pipe. The strong consistency between specific measurements of this sculpture’s components and the same components on the closely related cardboard Guitar of 1912 (see Chapter 3) suggests the use of an intervening pattern, such as a set of paper templates [13]. A paper cutout [14] that corresponds in shape and dimensions to the back planes of both Guitars may be



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15



further evidence of this process. The sheet metal could easily be cut with common metal shears, and most likely Picasso held it in his hands as he cut it, turning and forming the components to fit the templates. The irregular bends along all the edges are the result of the mechanical action of the cutting tool. The thin metal could also be bent around other objects; the artist may have used a piece of wood or the edge of a table to form the boxlike structure of the guitar body and a pipe to mold its hollow, hemitubular neck. An X-ray image [15] reveals that Picasso used a range of mechanical techniques to assemble the sculpture, without any soldering or adhesive. For example, the neck has been rudimentarily sewn to the metal pieces behind it: the artist threaded wire through two holes that he had punched with an awl, and then secured it with a simple twist. The triangular headstock slides into two short slits cut at the top of the neck. Metal tabs incorporated along the sides of the guitar face and the neck fret facilitate their attachment, also with wire. —SG



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Guitar Paris, January–February 1914. Ferrous sheet metal and wire, 30 ½ × 13 ¾ × 7 5/8" (77.5 × 35 × 19.3 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist, 94.1971. Z II (2) 773, DR 471, S 27



Provenance



16



1914–1971 The artist [16] 1 17



MARCH 9, 1971 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist [ 17–19] 2 —BH



18



19



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Notes 1. The artist kept Guitar and several other Cubist constructions in his personal collection for nearly sixty years. Guitar was first and perhaps most dramatically recorded by French critic André Salmon in La Jeune Sculpture française (published in 1919, from what is said to be a 1914 manuscript): “I have seen what no man has seen before. When Pablo Picasso, leaving aside painting for a moment, was constructing this immense guitar out of sheet metal whose plans could be dispatched to any ignoramus in the universe who could put it together as well as him, I saw Picasso’s studio, and this studio, more mind-blowing than Faust’s laboratory, this studio which, according to some, contained no works of art, in the old sense, was furnished with the newest of objects .  .  .  . Some witnesses, already shocked by the things that they saw covering the walls, and that they refused to call paintings because they were made of oilcloth, wrapping paper, and newspaper, said, pointing a haughty finger at the object of Picasso’s clever pains: ‘What is it? Does it rest on a pedestal? Does it hang on a wall? What is it, painting or sculpture?’ Picasso, dressed in the blue of Parisian artisans, responded in his finest Andalusian voice: ‘It’s nothing, it’s el guitare!’” (Salmon, La Jeune Sculpture française [Paris: Albert Messein, 1919], pp. 102–4). The work is documented hanging in the artist’s apartment at 23, rue La Boétie in Paris in the mid-1920s. It seems likely that Guitar was not continuously on view in his home through 1971, but rather that he stored it out of sight, with other sculptures, perhaps sometime after moving to Château de Boisgeloup in 1930, an arrangement that continued through successive moves. Picasso loaned Guitar and many other sculptures from his collection for their first public display, in 1966, when they were installed in the Petit Palais as part of an exhibition honoring the artist on his eighty-fifth birthday (see Exhibitions). Picasso’s long-term ownership of these works was catalogued in both Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917, vol. II (2) (Paris: Cahiers d’art, 1942), cat. no. 773, pl. 337; and Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), repr. cat. no. 471. 2. Alfred H. Barr, Jr., founding director of The Museum of Modern Art and later Director of Museum Collections, first approached Picasso’s dealer, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, about the availability of Guitar on behalf of an unnamed private collector—Nelson A. Rockefeller—in February 1967, while the work was on view in Paris (Barr, letter to Daniel-Henry



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15.13



Kahnweiler, February 6, 1967, MoMA Archives, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Papers, 18.I.A.9). It could be inferred that this effort was made with the understanding that Rockefeller ultimately would give Guitar to MoMA. Kahnweiler replied that no sculptures owned by Picasso were available, in spite of his own best efforts over many years to acquire some from the artist (Kahnweiler, letter to Barr, February 9, 1967, MoMA Archives, AHB, 18.I.A.9). While the exhibition The Sculpture of Picasso was on view at MoMA, later in 1967, the Museum made another inquiry. Director René d’Harnoncourt wrote to Kahnweiler: “I do not need to tell you that we are aware of Picasso’s reluctance to part with the many pieces he has. It is simply that the show has made so deep an impression on all of us here that we feel we would be derelict if we did not make an effort to acquire some or even one. Although I think our Museum has a more complete collection of Picasso sculpture than any other, the revelation of the exhibition has been that the seven sculptures we have do not begin to represent Picasso’s amazing range and originality in this medium” (d’Harnoncourt, letter to Kahnweiler, October 27, 1967, MoMA Archives, AHB, 12.II.L). Barr prepared the formal request to Kahnweiler, with a long inventory of sculpture the Museum was interested in, and Guitar was at the very top of the list. He explained in his cover letter: “We are unhappy on two counts: first, we regret that the greatest museum collection of Picasso’s work should suffer serious disbalance between painting and sculpture; second, it is our feeling that on this side of the ocean, in this country, in this city where Picasso’s art is so admired, there should be on view to the public an excellent representation of his sculpture” (Barr, letter to Kahnweiler, November 8, 1967, MoMA Archives, AHB, 12.II.L). While “Picasso did not say no, but that he was going to think it over,” nothing came of this second round of negotiations (Kahnweiler, letter to Barr, November 21, 1967, MoMA Archives, AHB, 12.II.L). Arrangements to acquire Still Life (1914; DR 746)—the sole Cubist construction not owned by Picasso at that time—from English collector and art historian Roland Penrose fell apart in late 1970, after which Swiss dealer Ernst Beyeler suggested to William Rubin, director of MoMA’s Department of Painting and Sculpture, a different approach to acquiring a construction: a trade with Picasso. “Picasso has nibbled on the bait of the message I sent to him through Beyeler,” Rubin wrote in a January 1971 letter to MoMA colleague William S. Lieberman (Rubin, letter to Lieberman, January 19, 1971, MoMA, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Museum Collection File, 94.1971). Beyeler and his associate Jean Planque arranged a Saturday, February 6, 1971,



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15.14



meeting with Picasso for Rubin and Walter Bareiss, chairman of the Museum’s Committee on Painting and Sculpture. Rubin and Bareiss brought with them The Rooftops of L’Estaque (1883–85) by Cézanne, from the Museum’s collection, which they offered as a trade for Guitar or another sculpture. Their visit ran late into the night, during which they learned that Picasso already owned three Cézannes, including a superior L’Estaque painting. Picasso invited them to call again at his villa on Monday, and Rubin and Bareiss returned to their rooms at the Hôtel Majestic Barrière in Cannes. On February 8, in a quite unexpected turn of events, Picasso gave Guitar to the Museum (and declined the offered Cézanne). Guitar arrived in New York on February 9 and was hung temporarily in Rubin’s office. On February 10, Rubin wrote to the artist: “Yesterday evening it was the star of the news on the four most important channels. For a people worn out by a hideous war, by racial unrest, by uncertain economic conditions, the arrival of Guitar has given a most appreciated moment of spiritual satisfaction” (Rubin, letter to Pablo and Jacqueline Picasso, February 10, 1971, MoMA, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Museum Collection File, 94.1971). The work was formally accessioned into the Museum’s collection at a meeting of the Committee on Painting and Sculpture on March 9. Picasso’s gift received an extraordinary amount of media attention, and the Museum’s Archives hold more than one hundred press clippings from February to June 1971 announcing the acquisition (MoMA Archives, Department of Public Information Records, II.A.488 and II.A.489). For detailed accounts of the acquisition, see William S. Rubin, A Curator’s Quest: Building the Collection of Painting and Sculpture of The Museum of Modern Art, 1967–1988 (New York: Overlook Duckworth, 2012), pp. 90–95; and Anne Umland, Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2011), pp. 29–30. Relevant documentation is filed in MoMA Archives, AHB, 12.II.L, and MoMA, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Museum Collection File, 94.1971.



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15.15



Guitar Paris, January–February 1914. Ferrous sheet metal and wire, 30 ½ × 13 ¾ × 7 5/8" (77.5 × 35 × 19.3 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist, 94.1971. Z II (2) 773, DR 471, S 27



20



21



22



Selected Exhibitions 1966 Paris, Petit Palais. Hommage à Pablo Picasso. November 19, 1966– February 12, 1967. Cat. no. 216 [ 20] 1967 London, Tate Gallery. Picasso: Sculpture, Ceramics, Graphic Work. June 9– August 13. Cat. no. 14. Tour venue: New York, The Museum of Modern Art. October 11, 1967–January 1, 1968. (The exhibition’s title at its New York venue was The Sculpture of Picasso.) [ 21] 1971 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Recent Acquisitions: 20th-Century Pioneers. March 13–April 26. Checklist p. 1 [ 22]



23



24



New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Ways of Looking. July 28– November 1. Checklist p. 14 [ 23] 1972 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art. February 3–April 2. Cat. p. 75 [ 24] 1979 New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The Planar Dimension: Europe 1912–1923. March 9–May 6. Cat. no. 2



25



1980 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective. May 22–September 16. Cat. p. 148 [ 25]



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15.16



26



1984 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. “Primitivism” in 20th-Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern. September 27, 1984–January 15, 1985. Cat. p. 20 [26] 1985 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Contrasts of Form: Geometric Abstract Art, 1910–1980. October 2, 1985–January 7, 1986. Cat. p. 49 1986 Paris, Centre Pompidou. Qu’est-ce que la sculpture moderne? June 24– September 29. Cat. no. 24 1988 Stockholm, Moderna Museet. Pablo Picasso. October 15, 1988– January 8, 1989. Cat. no. 107



27



28



29



1989 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. September 24, 1989–January 16, 1990. Cat. p. 269. Tour venue: Kunstmuseum Basel. February 22–June 4, 1990 [ 27] 1992 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Selections from the Collection. September /October 1992–February 1993. Checklist p. 10 [ 28] 1994 London, Tate Gallery. Picasso: Sculptor/Painter. February 16–May 8. Cat. no. 19 1997 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Objects of Desire: The Modern Still Life. May 25–August 26. Cat. no. 24 [ 29]



30



1999 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. ModernStarts: Things. November 18, 1999–March 14, 2000. Cat. p. 310 [ 30] 2000 Paris, Centre Pompidou. Picasso sculpteur. June 8–September 25. Cat. no. 27



31



2004 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Painting and Sculpture: Inaugural Installation. November 20, 2004–August 20, 2007. Checklist p. 89 [31]



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32



33



2007 Paris, Musée National Picasso. Picasso cubiste. September 19, 2007– January 7, 2008. Cat. p. 253 2008 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Focus: Picasso Sculpture. July 3–November 3. Checklist p. 1 [ 32] 2011 New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. February 13–June 6. Cat. no. 85 [ 33–36]



34



35



36



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15.18



Guitar Paris, January–February 1914. Ferrous sheet metal and wire, 30 ½ × 13 ¾ × 7 5/8" (77.5 × 35 × 19.3 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist, 94.1971. Z II (2) 773, DR 471, S 27



Selected References 1919 Salmon, André. La Jeune Sculpture française. Paris: Albert Messein. Ref. pp. 102–4 1921 Salmon, André. Peindre. Paris: Êditions de la sirène. Ref. p. 25 1923 Cocteau, Jean. Picasso. Paris: Stock. Ref. p. 15 1931 Salmon, André. “Vingt-cinq ans d’art vivant (Part II).” La Revue de France (March 1). Ref. p. 121



37



1932 Hugnet, Georges. “Picasso ou la peinture au XXe siècle.” Cahiers d’art 7, nos. 3–5. Ref. p. 121 1942 Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917. Vol. II (2). Paris: Cahiers d’art. Cat. no. 773. Pl. 337 [ 37] 1945 Salmon, André. Souvenir sans fin: L’Air de la butte. Paris: Éditions de la nouvelle France. Ref. p. 82 1949 Kahnweiler, Daniel-Henry. The Sculptures of Picasso. London: Rodney Phillips. Ref. n.p.



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1956 Salmon, André. Souvenirs sans fin: Deuxième époque. Vol. 2. Paris: Gallimard. Ref. p. 240 1967 Penrose, Roland. Picasso: Sculpture, Ceramics, Graphic Work. London: Arts Council of Great Britain. Repr. cat. no. 14 Penrose, Roland. The Sculpture of Picasso. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 20. Repr. cat. no. 14 1971 Kramer, Hilton. “Picasso Gives Work to Museum Here.” The New York Times, February 11. Ref. pp. A1, 54. Repr. p. A1 ———. “Pablo Picasso’s Audacious ‘Guitar.’” The New York Times, March 21. Ref. p. D21. Repr. p. D21 Spies, Werner. Sculpture by Picasso, with a Catalogue of Works. Trans. J. Maxwell Brownjohn. New York: Harry N. Abrams. Ref. pp. 45–47. Repr. cat. no. 27 1972 Rubin, William S. Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, Including Remainder-Interest and Promised Gifts. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 74, 207–8. Repr. p. 75 1973 Bowness, Alan. “Picasso’s Sculpture.” In Roland Penrose and John Golding, eds. Picasso 1881–1973. London: Paul Elek. Ref. p. 131. Fig. 214 González, Julio. “Picasso et les cathédrales, Picasso sculpteur” (unpublished manuscript, c. 1932). In Josephine Withers. Julio Gonzalez: Sculpture in Iron. New York: New York University Press. Ref. p. 133 Rubin, William S. “Visits with Picasso at Mougins: Interview with Milton Esterow.” ARTnews 72, no. 6 (Summer). Ref. p. 42. Repr. cover and p. 43 (with the artist and Rubin) 1976 Johnson, Ronald. The Early Sculpture of Picasso, 1901–1914. PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley. New York: Garland. Ref. pp. 116–27. Fig. 91 1979 Daix, Pierre, and Joan Rosselet. Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. Trans. Dorothy S. Blair. London: Thames & Hudson. Ref. pp. 10, 118, 123, 279. Repr. p. 9 and cat. no. 471



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Rowell, Margit. The Planar Dimension: Europe, 1912–1932. New York: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Ref. p. 11. Repr. cat. no. 2 1981 Fry, Edward. Review of Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works (1979). Art Journal 41, no. 1 (Spring). Ref. p. 95 1984 Rubin, William S. “Primitivism” in 20th-Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 18–20, 307. Repr. pp. 20, 304 1985 Dabrowski, Magdalena. Contrasts of Form: Geometric Abstract Art 1910–1980. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 18, 25. Repr. p. 49 1988 Fry, Edward. “Picasso, Cubism, and Reflexivity.” Art Journal 47, no. 4 (Winter). Ref. p. 305n24 1989 Rubin, William S. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 31, 35. Repr. p. 269 1990 Dabrowski, Magdalena. “The Russian Contribution to Modernism: ‘Construction’ as Realization of Innovative Aesthetic Concepts of the Russian Avant-Garde.” PhD diss., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, New York. Ref. pp. 46–50. Fig. 21 Palau i Fabre, Josep. Picasso: Cubism (1907–1917). Trans. Susan Branyas, Richard-Lewis Rees, and Patrick Zabalbeascoa. New York: Rizzoli. Ref. pp. 240–41. Fig. 667 1992 Buchloh, Benjamin, and William S. Rubin. “Discussion.” In Lynn Zelevansky, ed. Picasso and Braque: A Symposium. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 251–52. Repr. p. 251 Krauss, Rosalind. “The Motivation of the Sign.” In Lynn Zelevansky, ed. Picasso and Braque: A Symposium. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 264. Repr. p. 265 Miller, Simon. “Instruments of Desire: Musical Morphology in the Early Work of Picasso.” The Musical Quarterly 76, no. 4 (Winter). Ref. p. 462n15. Repr. frontispiece



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Poggi, Christine. In Defiance of Painting: Cubism, Futurism, and the Invention of Collage. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. Ref. p. 43. Fig. 42 Waldman, Diane. Collage, Assemblage, and the Found Object. New York: Harry N. Abrams. Ref. pp. 40, 42. Fig. 48 1993 Kachur, Lewis. “Picasso, Popular Music, and Collage Cubism.” The Burlington Magazine 135, no. 1081 (April). Ref. p. 257. Fig. 11 Karmel, Pepe. “Picasso’s Laboratory: The Role of His Drawings in the Development of Cubism, 1910–1914.” PhD diss., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, New York. Ref. pp. 241–47. Fig. 154 1994 Cowling, Elizabeth, and John Golding, eds. Picasso: Sculptor/Painter. London: Tate Gallery. Ref. pp. 21, 22, 258. Repr. cat. no. 19 Karmel, Pepe. “Beyond the ‘Guitar’: Painting, Drawing, and Construction, 1912–14.” In Elizabeth Cowling and John Golding, eds. Picasso: Sculptor/ Painter. London: Tate Gallery. Ref. pp. 189–97. Repr. cat. no. 19 1996 Richardson, John, with Marilyn McCully. A Life of Picasso: The Cubist Rebel, 1907–1916. Vol. 2. New York: Random House. Ref. pp. 254, 256. Repr. p. 256 Rosenblum, Robert. “The Spanishness of Picasso’s Still Lifes.” In Jonathan Brown, ed. Picasso and the Spanish Tradition. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1996. Ref. p. 79. Fig. 66 1997 Rowell, Margit. Objects of Desire: The Modern Still Life. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 49–50. Cat. no. 24 Rubin, William S. “Prologue.” In Ernst Beyeler et al. Fondation Beyeler. Riehen/Basel: Fondation Beyeler. Ref. pp. 10–12. Repr. p. 12 (with the artist, Walter Bareiss, Beyeler, and Rubin) 1999 Read, Peter. “Le Fer et le feu: González, Picasso et la sculpture monumentale.” González/Picasso: Dialogue. Paris: Centre Pompidou. Ref. p. 98. Fig. 1 Wilk, Deborah. “Nine Guitars.” In John Elderfield, ed. ModernStarts: People, Places, Things. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 309–10. Repr. pp. 308, 310 2000 Spies, Werner, and Christine Piot. Picasso: The Sculptures. Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz. Ref. pp. 67–68, 76, 82. Repr. cat. no. 27



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2001 Staller, Natasha. A Sum of Destructions: Picasso’s Cultures & the Creation of Cubism. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. Ref. p. 115. Fig. 121 2005 Green, Christopher. Architecture and Vertigo. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2005. Ref. pp. 153–63. Fig. 79 2006 Bois, Yve-Alain, Richard E. Oldenburg, Rosalind Krauss, Robert Rosenblum, Richard Serra, and Frank Stella. “A Modern Life: Remembering William Rubin.” Artforum (May). Ref. pp. 249–55. Repr. p. 256 (with the artist and Rubin) 2007 Serra, Richard. “A Conversation with Richard Serra.” In Kynaston McShine and Lynne Cooke. Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. p. 19. Fig. 1 2008 Read, Peter. Picasso & Apollinaire: The Persistence of Memory. Berkeley: University of California Press. Ref. p. 196 2009 Cowling, Elizabeth. Picasso’s Late Sculpture: Woman. The Collection in Context. Málaga: Museo Picasso. Ref. pp. 46, 52–53. Fig. 23 2010 Lubar, Robert. “Picasso’s Dark Mirror.” In Sarah Schroth, ed. Art in Spain and the Hispanic World: Essays in Honor of Jonathan Brown. London: Paul Holbertson; New York: Center for Spain in America. Ref. pp. 189– 90. Fig. 14 2011 Umland, Anne. Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Ref. pp. 26–39. Repr. cat. no. 85, fig. 7 (with Olga Ruiz-Picasso), fig. 8 (with the artist and William S. Rubin), fig. 9 (installation view) 2012 Poggi, Christine. “Picasso’s First Constructed Sculpture: A Tale of Two Guitars.” The Art Bulletin 94, no. 2 (June). Ref. pp. 274–97. Figs. 2, 18–22 Rubin, William S. A Curator’s Quest: Building the Collection of Painting and Sculpture of The Museum of Modern Art, 1967–1988. New York: Overlook Duckworth. Ref. pp. 90–95. Pl. 43 and frontispiece (with the artist and Rubin), fig. 67 (with the artist, Walter Bareiss, Ernst Beyeler, and Rubin)



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Epilogue



1



2



Picasso’s near-daily arranging and rearranging of works in his studio was an essential and persistent aspect of his long practice.1 The artist often photographed these temporary installations, underscoring the insights he gained through the physical juxtaposition of different works of art and the evaluative role photography played in his process.2 Examples of Picasso engaged in this activity abound, but two instances separated by almost thirty years capture the essence of the ritual: one photograph, taken in 1910 [1], shows a cluster of paintings in his summer studio in Cadaqués, Spain; and another, taken by the photographer Brassaï in 1939 [ 2], documents Picasso stacking canvases in his last Parisian studio, at 7, rue des Grands-Augustins.3 Among Picasso’s friends and intimates who observed this regular practice, Brassaï stands out for having articulated the significance of these installations for the artist: I have sometimes seen him circling rows of stretchers, rummaging through them, snaring a canvas, rooting



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out another, manipulating them, displaying them, grouping them, completely absorbed in the ritual of presentation . . . because the very act of “presentation” 3



is an important moment in his creative process . . . . The ceremonial of that operation has probably not changed since the Bateau-Lavoir. . . . Picasso adores these improvised arrangements where chance plays a role, the final reunion of works from the same litter, grouped together for a family portrait as it were, which their forthcoming and irremediable dispersion into the world



4



renders touching. With a single glance, and often for the last time, he embraces an entire period. 4



In this vein, photographs taken in Picasso’s studio in late 1912 or early 1913 [ 3–6] capture “family portraits” of collaged and constructed works shortly after their creation and before the works on paper were delivered to the artist’s dealer, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, in early March 1913.5 In the months that followed, these works could be viewed among the inventory of Kahnweiler’s gallery at 28, rue Vignon. This twelve-by-twelve-foot space near La Madeleine, its walls covered in burlap, had been occupied previously by a Polish tailor.6 The French artist Maurice de Vlaminck later somewhat ruefully recalled to Kahnweiler, “In rue Vignon you showed me a piece of paper with a few lines on it in charcoal and a bit of newspaper glued to it, and told me that it was beautiful!” 7 A few such works sold in 1913–14, and some were exhibited abroad. 8 After Germany declared war on France, on August 3, 1914, Kahnweiler—a German national—was classified as an enemy alien. His gallery inventory was sequestered by the French government and moved to a rather damp ground-floor apartment in rue de Rome. 9 This temporarily



5



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suspended what Brassaï so evocatively described as the artworks’ “irremediable dispersion into the world.” Ultimately, Kahnweiler’s prewar stock was sold in a series of auctions at Hôtel Drouot, in Paris, from 1921 to 1923.10 At the fourth and final auction, held on May 7 and 8, 1923, unframed works on paper, including 1912–14 drawings and papiers collés by Picasso, were sold in mass lots of a few dozen at a time. The atmosphere of the sale was described by Surrealist poet Robert Desnos: The exhibition [on May 6] was done in a scandalous fashion: the paintings were stacked without order; rolled drawings were folded in boxes; others, in rolls, were carefully sealed so that no one could see them; still others were enclosed in baskets or hidden behind the dais . . . . The sale was no less exasperating . . . [auction assistants] systematically presented paintings the wrong way, crumpled the drawings, scraped papiers collés and paintings with sand on the table, and did not spare the buyers their jeers. . . . Numbers were stuck onto the canvases themselves, some bore fresh stains, and on one of them, one could swear that there were shoe marks. 11



Works on canvas or cardboard were sold individually, each marked on its front with a blue sticker applied to the lower left corner, which indicated the lot number. A few of these stickers remain adhered to paintings today [7].12 It has, however, long been thought impossible to trace the works on paper sold in large lots—such as lot 95, described in the Hôtel Drouot auction catalogue as “Trente-quatre dessins, plume, crayon, fusain, papier collé. Sujets variés, époques diverses—(La plupart signés).”13 In fact, it is astonishingly easy to confirm precisely which 1912–14 papiers collés and drawings appeared in the fourth Kahnweiler sale, and to identify in which lots



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8



9



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these works on paper appeared, when one has access to the objects’ versos. There, numbers corresponding to lots described in the auction catalogue are written in pencil along the center of a short (usually upper) edge, in a tidily slanted hand.14 The numbers 89, 94, and 95 [8–10] were observed on the versos of many of the works examined in preparation for the 2011 exhibition Picasso: Guitars 1912– 1914 at The Museum of Modern Art.15 Presumably it was a sale administrator or stockboy who marked each work. 16 Kahnweiler, who had returned to Paris in February 1920 and opened a new business under the name Galerie Simon, was prohibited from buying work at the 1921–23 auctions. He formed a syndicate under the pseudonym “Grassat” with friends and family, including the German collector Hermann Rupf, the German art dealer Alfred Flechtheim, his brother Gustav Kahnweiler, and his stepdaughter Louise Leiris (and possibly his brother-in-law Hans Forchheimer) in order to purchase back some of his original inventory. 17 Among other purchases, we can infer that lot 95 at the fourth auction (which sold for 950 francs) went to Grassat, as a number of the works recently found to have “95” on their versos all entered the stock of Kahnweiler’s Galerie Simon. There they were each assigned and inscribed with a four-digit inventory number beginning with 76. 18 Desnos might have exaggerated the conditions of the pre-sale exhibition, but it seems likely that unframed papiers collés and drawings were not highly visible or accessible then or during the auctions that followed on the next two days. Nevertheless, spring 1923 was a significant moment, a point after which these works began to circulate and be seen.19 Kahnweiler’s economic misfortunes in this period were a sort of boon for Dadaists and Surrealists inclined to collect, especially those



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interested in early examples of the still-radical techniques of collage and papier collé.20 Tristan Tzara, André Breton, and Paul Eluard were among those who purchased 1912–14 works by Picasso from the auctions. 21 This information about the sales of sequestered Kahnweiler stock could only have come from close inspection of the works and from the collaborative efforts of curators, conservators, registrars, and framers working within and across different museums and private collections.22 The modest insights into the provenance of Picasso’s Cubist works on paper detailed here are reminders that the examination of an object may produce more than a nuanced understanding of the artist’s techniques and materials. These focused methods can illuminate the course of a work of art after it left the private realm of the studio and entered the public domain of history. —Blair Hartzell



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Notes 1. Françoise Gilot, Picasso’s partner from 1944 to 1953, described the process she observed on one of her first visits to the artist’s Paris studio: “He piled them up almost like a scaffolding. There was a painting on the easel; he stuck another on top of that; one on each side; piled others on top of those, until it seems like a highly skilled balancing act of the human-pyramid kind. As I found out later, he used to arrange them that way almost every day.” See Gilot and Carlton Lake, Life with Picasso (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964), p. 20. The persistence of this quasi-ceremonial activity suggests the possibility that it may have guided or modified the nature of Picasso’s art. On the effects of Picasso’s “stock-taking initiative” with regard to Christian Zervos’s catalogue raisonné project, see Jeffrey Weiss, “Picasso Raisonné,” in Patricia Berman and Gertje Utley, eds., A Fine Regard: Essays in Honor of Kirk Varnedoe (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2008), pp. 118–33. 2. Photographs of these presentations, as art historian Yve-Alain Bois posited, manifest Picasso’s “lifelong insistence on the serial nature of his work.” Bois, “The Semiology of Cubism,” in Lynn Zelevansky, ed., Picasso and Braque: A Symposium (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992), pp. 194–95. The artist explained in 1913, upon receipt of a new set of photographs of his work, that they “are good and please me as usual, because I am surprised. I see my paintings differently from how they are.” Picasso, letter to Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, March 21, 1913. Archives Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris. Published in Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, ed., Donation Louise et Michel Leiris (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1984), p. 170. For an illuminating discussion of Cubist decision making via photography, see T. J. Clark, Farewell to an Idea: Episodes from a History of Modernism (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1999), pp. 169– 75. For a broader study of Picasso’s use of photographic processes and images, see Anne Baldassari, Picasso and Photography: The Dark Mirror, trans. Deke Dusinberre (Paris: Flammarion, 1997). 3. For discussion of the 1910 photograph, see Yve-Alain Bois, “Pablo Picasso: The Cadaqués Experiment,” in Leah Dickerman, ed., Inventing Abstraction 1910–1925: How a Radical Idea Changed Modern Art (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2012), pp. 40–43. 4. Brassaï, Conversations with Picasso (1964), trans. Jane Marie Todd (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002), pp. 169–70. Brassaï witnessed this “operation” on April 27, 1944, and then observed on June 13 that again “Picasso does the ritual display of his canvases” (p. 193). For a detailed study of Brassaï and Picasso, see Anne Baldassari, Brassaï/Picasso: Conversations avec la lumière (Paris: Musée National Picasso, 2000).



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5. With thanks to Pepe Karmel for sharing his 1991 transcription of Kahnweiler’s stockbook and photo files, along with his insights into these materials. The incomparable chronology of the Cubist years prepared by Judith Cousins continues to be an essential resource when studying 1907–14 in modern art. See Cousins, with Pierre Daix, “Chronology,” in William Rubin, Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1989), pp. 335–445. 6. On the initial years of Kahnweiler’s Paris gallery operations, 1907–14, see Pierre Assouline, “The Kahnweiler Gallery” and “The Heroic Years,” in An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990). See also Kahnweiler with Francis Crémieux, My Galleries and Painters, trans. Helen Weaver (New York: Viking Press, 1971), pp. 34–49. 7. As recounted by Kahnweiler. See Kahnweiler with Francis Crémieux, My Galleries and Painters, trans. Helen Weaver (New York: Viking Press, 1971), p. 71. 8. For a 1914–15 exhibition at Alfred Stieglitz’s 291 gallery in New York, Marius de Zayas arranged for a loan of eighteen Picassos owned by Francis Picabia and Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia, eight of which were recent works, such as the papier collé Bottle and Wineglass on a Table (DR 548); these works were also for sale. See Pepe Karmel, “Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, 1914–15: Skeletons of Thought,” in Sarah Greenough et al., Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2001), pp. 185–201. Two late-1912 drawings (not catalogued in Zervos) were sold or gifted to Gertrude Stein; they are visible in a 1922 photograph taken by Man Ray of Stein’s atelier at 27, rue de Fleurus, and they might have been transferred prior to World War I. See Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow, eds., The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde (San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2011), p. 374, cat. nos. 377 and 378. On the early exhibition and publication of Cubist works in New York alongside African art, see Yaëlle Biro, Tribal Art: African Art, New York, and the Avant-Garde (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2013). 9. Kahnweiler was in Rome when the war broke out; he settled in Bern in December 1914 and remained in Switzerland for the duration of World War I. For discussion of the war years and his sequestered stock, see Kahnweiler with Francis Crémieux, My Galleries and Painters, trans. Helen Weaver (New York: Viking Press, 1971), pp. 50–52, 67–71. See also Pierre Assouline, “Intermission: Exile (1915–20),” in An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990).



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1 0. The auctions took place June 13–14, 1921; November 17–18, 1921; July 4, 1922; and May 7–8, 1923. Sale results were published in the Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot, which occasionally included the names of purchasers, but usually listed, by lot, only prices achieved. Kahnweiler and many artists from his pre–World War I stable had tried to prevent these auctions, although Picasso did not help his former dealer, the only one with whom he ever signed an exclusive contract; they had a falling out in late 1914 over money and took some years to reconcile. For details, see Pierre Assouline, “Forgetting Drouot,” in An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990). 11. Robert Desnos, “La Dernière Vente Kahnweiler,” Paris-Journal (May 1923). The public exhibition was held on May 6. Odd-numbered lots were sold on May 7 and even-numbered lots on May 8. Isabelle Monod-Fontaine analyzed this sale and the account from Desnos with regard to Georges Braque’s papiers collés; see Monod-Fontaine, Braque: The Papiers Collés (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1982), pp. 173–75. The previous three auctions, especially the first, were more widely reported on. See especially Gertrude Stein’s retrospective account of the fistfight between Braque and Léonce Rosenberg, in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1933), pp. 133–34. Various mentions of these auctions appeared in journals such as the Bulletin de l’effort moderne and Le Bulletin de la vie artistique in 1921–23. 1 2. Blue numbered labels also remain on DR 659 (fourth Kahnweiler sale, May 7, 1923, lot 331) and DR 702 (fourth Kahnweiler sale, May 8, 1923, lot 326), among others. Many blue sale labels, once removed, left behind faint sticker-sized areas of very minor damage. 1 3. Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Vente de biens allemands: Collection Henri Kahnweiller [sic]. Quatrième et dernière vente (May 7–8, 1923), lot 95, p. 6. In the “Conditions of Sale” for this auction, it is listed under nota bene that “Drawings and prints will be sold individually and by lots.” 14. The hunt for such inscriptions is, of course, standard protocol in provenance research. With thanks to my father, Paul Hartzell, for our discussions of provenance and “how a work of art can tell you where it has been.” See also, for example, “Documents Typically Found on the Backs of Objects,” in Nancy Yeide, Konstantin Akinsha, and Amy L. Walsh, The AAM Guide to Provenance Research (Washington, D.C.: American Association of Museums, 2001), p. 14. Research into the provenance of works on paper is regularly stymied by a lack of clear documentation. Overly generic entries in a gallery’s inventory book or in an exhibition catalogue, and an absence of useful labels applied to the back of the work—as is more common to find on sturdily framed canvases—is the norm. Previously, in sources compiled by profoundly knowledgeable authors such as Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, it was indicated that a work like



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Siphon, Glass, Newspaper, and Violin (DR 528) was “purchased at 1 of the 4 Kahnweiler sales.” See Daix and Rosselet, Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907–1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, trans. Dorothy S. Blair (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), cat. no. 528, p. 290. The number 94 is written on the back of this work’s primary support. It is likely that the lot numbers were written by someone proceeding through a stack of papers in the “portrait” orientation; on this work, the number appears along the right center edge of the verso (when the front of the work is oriented horizontally, as the composition suggests it should be). With thanks to Iris MüllerWesterman, Curator, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, for sharing images of the verso of Siphon, Glass, Newspaper, and Violin. Guitar (fig. 8; a horizontal drawing) is marked “89” along a short edge of its verso, much like Siphon, Glass, Newspaper, and Violin. 15. 89: Z XXVIII 304; 94: DR 528, DR 533, DR 534, and DR 592; 95: DR 508, DR 524, DR 538, DR 542, DR 543, DR 544, DR 549, DR 552, DR 553, Z II (1) 388, Z VI 1105, and uncatalogued (Anne Umland, Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914 [New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2011], cat. no. 21, p. 54). Lot 89 is described in the auction catalogue as “Quatorze dessins, plume, crayon, fusain, et papier collé. Sujets divers—(Signés au dos).” Lot 94: “Trente-deux dessins, plume, crayon, fusain, quelques-uns papier collé. Sujets variés, époques diverses—(La plupart signés).” Lot 89 (14 works) sold for 400 francs; lot 94 (32 works) sold for 1,400 francs; and lot 95 (34 works) sold for 950 francs. See Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot (May 15, 1923): 1. Some of these verso inscriptions are visible through the support sheet, and can be read in reverse on the recto side. Galerie Kahnweiler photo-file stamp numbers and inventory numbers are also visible on some versos, along with information relating to later owners. Papiers collés that are likely to have passed through the same sale (as we have no evidence that they were sold before World War I) and to bear similar inscriptions include: DR 512, DR 522, DR 525, DR 527, DR 529, DR 532, DR 536, DR 537, DR 539, DR 545, DR 546, DR 547, DR 550, DR 554, DR 566, DR 580, DR 588, DR 593, DR 600, DR 690, DR 610, and DR 619. Given the mention in the auction catalogue entry that lots contained works of “époques diverses,” it is likely that they included works on paper outside the Cubist scope of this publication. Similar inscriptions might be observable on the back of works made by Braque—as well as those by Derain, Vlaminck, Gris, Léger, and Manolo— that passed through these same Hôtel Drouot sales. 1 6. Perhaps it was someone in the employ of the sale expert, M. DurandRuel, or the liquidator, M. J. Zapp. Art dealer Léonce Rosenberg served as expert to the first three sales, a role for which he was much criticized (and at least once, punched in the face; see note 11, above). See Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990), pp. 163–75.



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17. Pierre Assouline mentions only Rupf, Flechtheim, Leiris, and “le petit Kahnweiler” (Gustav) in the syndicate; to these names Douglas Cooper added Forchheimer. See Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990), p. 171; and Cooper, “Early Purchasers of True Cubist Art,” in Cooper and Gary Tinterow, The Essential Cubism: Braque, Picasso & Their Friends (London: Tate Gallery, 1983), p. 28. Cooper explained: “At the end of each sale, any share-holder [in the Grassat syndicate] could either buy out the other partners at a profit and keep a specific work for himself, or else it was added to the growing stock of Galerie Simon, which later distributed the money available to the share-holders when the work had been sold.” The Grassat name appears both in published sale results (Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot [June 14, 1921]: 1) and in annotated copies of the sale catalogues (see, for example, copies held by the Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). 1 8. This is the case for twelve works discovered to have “95” on their versos, and diverges from assertions made by Douglas Cooper (“The syndicate did not, however, buy back a single work by Picasso”). See Cooper, “Early Purchasers of True Cubist Art,” in Cooper and Gary Tinterow, The Essential Cubism: Braque, Picasso & Their Friends (London: Tate Gallery, 1983), p. 28. The hammer price for lot 95 was published in Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot (May 15, 1923): 1. 1 9. The release of Picasso’s and Braque’s papiers collés in the early 1920s was an important spark for artists’ interest in the radical implications of this technique, which would reach a high-water mark with the March 1930 Exposition de collages at Galerie Goemans, Paris (accompanied by the text La Peinture au défi, by Louis Aragon). The Goemans exhibition included six papiers collés and collages by Picasso alongside works by Arp, Braque, Dalí, Duchamp, Ernst, Gris, Magritte, Man Ray, Miró, Picabia, and Tanguy. 2 0. The enormous loss of sequestered stock, combined with the sudden glut of low-priced Cubist works on the market, was challenging for Kahnweiler’s business. See Kahnweiler with Francis Crémieux, My Galleries and Painters, trans. Helen Weaver (New York: Viking Press, 1971), pp. 68–69. For a related discussion, see Neil Cox, Picasso’s ‘Toys for Adults’: Cubism as Surrealism; The Watson Gordon Lecture 2008 (Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland and University of Edinburgh, 2009), p. 34. 2 1. Kahnweiler recalled: “The people who did buy were primarily young writers and poets. André Breton, Tzara, Eluard, [Armand] Salacrou—those were the people who bought.” See Kahnweiler with Francis Crémieux, My Galleries and Painters, trans. Helen Weaver (New York: Viking Press, 1971), p. 70. Two of the works discovered to have “94” on their versos (DR 528 and DR 534) are known to have passed into the collection of



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Dadaist Tristan Tzara. It is possible that other works associated with Tzara, including DR 525, DR 532, DR 536, DR 537, and DR 539, also have a “94” on their versos; if so, this would suggest that Tzara purchased the lot directly from the May 1923 auction or bought the bulk of it from an intermediary following the sale. According to Pierre Assouline, “Tzara intended to buy much more than he did, but he consoled himself with bidding on Picasso’s collages, which he considered one of the great inventions of modern times.” See Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D.-H. Kahnweiler, 1884–1979, trans. Charles Ruas (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990), p. 170. See also Tzara, “Le Papier collé ou le proverbe en peinture,” Cahiers d’art 6, no. 2 (1931): 61–73. An annotated copy of the catalogue for the fourth Kahnweiler sale, Vente de biens allemands: Collection Henri Kahnweiller [sic]. Quatrième et dernière vente (May 7–8, 1923), on deposit at the Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Centre Pompidou, Paris, lists some prices and names for sold lots. It does not, however, include information on the purchasers of the Picasso works on paper that are the focus of this publication. For an overview of collectors, such as André Lefèvre and Alphonse Kann, who enriched their collections through the series of Kahnweiler auctions, see Maurice Jardot, “Les Premiers Collectionneurs d’oeuvres de Picasso,” in Picasso: Peintures 1900–1955 (Paris: Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 1955), p. 53; and Douglas Cooper, “Early Purchasers of True Cubist Art,” in Cooper and Gary Tinterow, The Essential Cubism: Braque, Picasso & Their Friends (London: Tate Gallery, 1983), pp. 15–31. 2 2. My thanks to several colleagues who have been exceptionally gracious in seeking out and sharing such detailed information: Jonas Storsve, Didier Schulmann, Anne Lemonnier, Anne-Catherine Prud’hom, and Gilles Pezzana, Centre Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris; Sophie Lévy and Alexandre Pandazopoulos, LaM Lille Métropole Musée d’Art Moderne, d’Art Contemporain, et d’Art Brut; Markus Gross and Friederike Bühler-Steckling, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel; Iris MüllerWestermann, Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Corinna Höper and Susanne Ruf, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart; Erica Persak, Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth; Bernice Rose, Jan Burandt, and Judy Kwon, The Menil Collection, Houston; Judith Brodie and Kimberly Schenk, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Diana Howard; Emily Braun; Luise Mahler; and Ania Jozefacka. At MoMA, the inimitable Scott Gerson, Kathy Curry, David Moreno, Jennifer Wolfe, Kerry McGinnity, and Peter Perez supported this project with their time and expertise. Anne Umland has been a steadfast supporter of this research.



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Glossary



Artist’s paper Artist’s paper, or fine art paper, typically is a high-grade product sold by purveyors of artist’s materials for pencil and charcoal drawing or watercolor painting, among other uses. Certain paper characteristics are more suited to each medium. For example, charcoal paper is typically soft with a moderately rough grain that takes and holds the friable charcoal particles well, whereas most drawing paper has a highly finished and smooth surface so that it may be erased without destroying its appearance. Artist’s papers often incorporate high-rag-content pulp, which makes them more durable and resistant to the effects of aging. There are handmade and machine-made artist’s papers; handmade papers often have an integral striated laid finish and/or watermarks resulting from the papermaking mold. By the late nineteenth century, cylinder mold machines were used in a semi-mechanized process to fabricate papers that retained these physical characteristics.



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Canvas Canvas is a heavy, strong, plain-weave fabric made from cotton, hemp, or linen. Stretched on a rigid wooden frame, it is the traditional fabric support for oil paintings. The surface of a stretched canvas is often prepared for painting by priming with a ground layer to reduce the texture of the weave.



Cardboard See Paperboard and cardboard.



Charcoal Artist’s charcoal is black carbonaceous material made by slowly firing twigs under controlled conditions. Charcoal sticks have been used by artists of all periods as drawing tools, especially, since the Renaissance, for quick sketches and preparatory drawings on oil-painting grounds. The lightweight, porous sticks are used to mark directly on a substrate. The richest blacks result from even-grained woods like willow, bass, beech, or maple, while charcoal made from vine produces lighter, gray marks; brown tones can result if the charcoal is soaked in oil before it is used. By shifting the position of the charcoal stick in his or her hand while drawing, an artist can produce narrow lines or broad swaths. A charcoal mark is composed of tiny, glistening, splinterlike particles, which are loosely bound and easily susceptible to physical disruption. Some artists exploit this quality by manipulating and smudging the charcoal mark with their fingers or other implements, such as rolled-paper stumps or erasers, to create gradated tonal effects. Finished drawings are often sprayed with a fixative to prevent Epilogue 



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unwanted smudging. Fabricated charcoal crayons, developed in the nineteenth century, consist of charcoal powder compressed into sticks; these produce a denser, darker mark than natural charcoal sticks.



Faux bois Literally “false wood,” faux bois (or graining) is the imitation of the characteristic markings of attractive and popular hardwoods by the skillful application of colors with special brushes, sponges, or combs. Woods commonly imitated include satinwood, rosewood, kingwood, air wood, mahogany, wainscot, and oak. The most convincing examples of faux bois rely on a multistep process of layering and manipulating thin glazes to mimic the depth of real wood. As a first step, a smooth ground of oil or distemper (a heavily pigmented water-based matte paint) is typically prepared to match the lightest color of the timber to be imitated. An oil or water glaze of almost transparent darker color is laid onto this and manipulated with specialized tools. Metal combs of different widths and with a range of tooth sizes and number are dragged through the paint, exposing the lighter ground layer in a pattern imitating the grain of the timber. Darker veins are added once the glaze is dry. As a final step, a protective coat of varnish is applied, mimicking the finish associated with fine woods. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, mass-produced faux bois wallpapers were printed as cheap alternatives.



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Faux marble Literally “false marble,” faux marble (or marbling) is the imitation of the natural patterns of marble, granite, and other types of stone. It has uses ranging from bookmaking to interior decoration. In the latter, techniques vary according to the marble that is imitated and the base to which the finish is applied. The surface preparation—rubbing and polishing to obtain an even surface—is crucial to achieving the smoothness sufficient to represent polished marble. The most convincing examples involve multiple layers of thin glazes of paint interspersed with imitations of the characteristic veins found in marble, painted to capture the density and random order inherent to natural stone. Paint splattering and splashing techniques are used to mimic localized variation.



Gesso Gesso, most broadly, is any aqueous white priming or ground material that is used to prepare wooden panels or other supports for painting or gilding. The word is Italian for gypsum, and gesso may be made of this material or any other inert white substance, including chalk (whiting) and zinc oxide, mixed with a glue binder. Gesso provides a smooth, uniform, and nonporous surface with the proper absorbency for paint.



Glue Glue is a liquid adhesive used to join surfaces. An organic substance, it can have varying appearances, chemical constitutions, and physical properties. Depending on its constitution, a glue’s color can fall anywhere on a Epilogue 



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range through all shades of white, yellow, and brown, and it may be transparent, translucent, or opaque. From ancient times, animal glue has been made by boiling animal hides, tendons, bones, and hooves in water. The proteinaceous collagen in these materials is hydrolyzed to form a semi-transparent gelatin. Animal glues are applied hot, and they bind on cooling to form a strong and flexible join. Top-quality animal glues are made from rabbit skin, sturgeon bladders, and parchment clippings. Less refined glues, such as hide glues or bone glues, are often used in wood joinery, bookbinding, and box making.



Gouache Gouache, or opaque watercolor, is a water-based matte paint composed of many of the same materials used for translucent watercolors: ground pigments and plantbased binders such as gum arabic. The dense opacity of gouache derives from the addition of white clay, chalk, or pigment and/or a greater ratio of pigment to binder. Because the amount of binder in the paint is small, the paint layer is lean and brittle. Gouache is ordinarily applied, like translucent watercolor, with a brush on a paper support, but unlike watercolor it cannot be layered in thin washes without becoming muddied. Although gouache is a distinct material, the term is often used in a general way to describe comparable matte and opaque water-based paints, such as casein colors and inexpensive poster paints.



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Grit and sand In its broadest usage, “grit” refers to small, hard particles, including materials like sand or stone, that are often used as abrasives for polishing and grinding. The term can also apply to any small-scale undesirable impurity in another medium, whether paint or food. Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles. The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand is silica (silicon dioxide), usually in the form of quartz. Sand has many uses. It is a major component in construction materials such as mortar, brick, concrete, and glass, and it can be added to paint to create a textured finish for walls or ceilings.



Ground See Gesso.



Ink Traditional black drawing ink, which originated in Asia and is therefore often referred to as India ink or Chinese ink, consists of very fine particles of carbon pigment, usually lampblack (soot), dispersed in an aqueous solution with a glue or gum binder. This material was made into a paste and then formed into sticks or cakes for transport and sale. Modern liquid India ink has resinous shellac as a binder and in addition may feature dye-based colorants. Distributed in bottles, it can be applied precisely to a paper substrate using a fine nib pen, for drafting, or in sweeping washes using a brush. When dry, India ink is opaque and indelible. Traditionally, brown inks such as bister and sepia were made from wood tar and cuttlefish ink, respectively. Epilogue 



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Newspaper A newspaper is a set of large sheets of paper printed with news stories, advertisements, and other information and folded together, usually sold daily or weekly. Most newspapers feature a dense layout with bold headlines, multiple columns of black type in fixed widths, and images and advertisements in varying sizes. By the early twentieth century, most widely distributed newspapers were printed on sheets of paper cut from rolls of inexpensive, machine-made paper stock known as newsprint. Newsprint is made from mechanical groundwood pulp that has been minimally processed with chemicals and bleaches and therefore retains a high concentration of lignin, an organic compound that naturally occurs in the cellular structure of wood. Lignin is the component that is most responsible for the rapid discoloration and severe embrittlement of newsprint, and hence newspaper, when it is exposed to air and sunlight. These material qualities make newsprint an appropriate support only for the most impermanent uses, like sketching and printing the news.



Oil paint Artists’ oil paint is made by dispersing pigments in linseed oil or another vegetable drying oil to create a smooth paste. Historically, artists made their own oil paint, but since the late 1800s it has been commercially available in tubes. Oil paint is typically applied with a brush or a palette knife, most frequently onto a stretched canvas support, although the earliest oil paintings were generally executed on wooden panels. The viscosity of the paint may be modified by the addition of a solvent, such as turpentine. In traditional oil painting techniques, the artist Epilogue 



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sketches the subject on the prepared canvas with charcoal or thinned paint. Oil paint is then applied either very methodically in thin glazes, slowly building up the image through layering, or more rapidly and thickly, blending the wet paint on the canvas. Because it dries slowly, by oxidation, oil paint can remain wet for a long time, which enables an artist to make changes to the composition. Once it has dried, a varnish layer may be added to protect and increase the glossiness of the paint film.



Paperboard and cardboard “Paperboard” and “cardboard” are general terms that refer to one of the two basic categories of paper; the other is simply called paper. Although they are made of the same essential materials, paperboard and cardboard are generally denser, thicker, and more rigid than paper. For the purposes of this publication, “paperboard” designates boards that feature finishing steps. Typically they are laminated, often with an internal core consisting of a very poor-quality material, such as wood pulp, that is faced in a finishing step on one or both sides with a higher-grade material, whether paper, cloth, or a ground layer such as gesso. Paperboard made this way is sometimes used as a support for drawing and painting. “Cardboard” is used to designate solid boards without finishing layers, made from thick paper-pulp castings pressed into a hard, stiff sheet.



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Pastel A pastel is a soft drawing stick composed of finely ground pigment mixed with a small amount of a weak waterbased binder, most often gum tragacanth. Pigment and binder are mixed into a paste, rolled or extruded into sticks, and dried. Pastels containing pure pigments produce intense, deep colors. Lighter-colored sticks are made by diluting pigment with white inert fillers, such as chalk, gypsum, talc, or kaolin. Pastel sticks are normally used directly on a textured paper support. The loosely deposited powdery pigment has a velvety surface, which can be seamlessly blended using brushes, fingers, chamois, or a rolled-paper stump. Effects that mimic oil painting may be created by blending, and pastels have been popularly used in this style for portraiture. Pastel drawings are easily smudged, a danger that can be minimized by spraying them with a thin layer of adhesive, called a fixative. By the early twentieth century, a wide palette of pastels was commercially available, as were specially prepared papers and canvases with highly textured surfaces.



Pencil A pencil is a hard, pigmented stick or rod in a case or holder, typically used for writing or drawing on paper. Until the late eighteenth century, most pencils consisted of a small lump of naturally occurring graphite—a soft and greasy mineral form of carbon—secured in a wood or bone holder. Pure graphite lines range in color from light to dark gray and have a metallic sheen that reflects light. A substitute for natural graphite was invented by the late eighteenth century and remains in use today. This alternate material is made from a slurry of powdered Epilogue 



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graphite and clay, which is formed into thin rods and fired until hard; the finished rods, known as leads, are glued into shaped pieces of wood. The ratio of the ingredient materials determines the hardness of the lead: pencils with the most clay are hardest and produce the lightest marks, while those with the least clay are softest and produce the darkest marks. Most pencils can be brought to a fine point to produce highly finished drawings and precisely executed line work. The flat side of a pencil lead can be used for broad areas of shading.



Sand See Grit and sand.



Sheet metal and steel Sheet metal is metal that has been cast, pressed, or rolled into a sheet thicker than metal foil but thinner than a metal plate, measuring only a few millimeters thick. Thin-gauge metal sheets, one of the fundamental materials in metalworking, can be cut, punched, and bent into a variety of shapes using hand tools such as shears and awls. Metals available in sheets for industrial purposes include brass, lead, tin, aluminum, and steel (ferrous sheet metal). Steel is a high-strength iron alloy containing no more than two percent carbon. Good-quality steel is strong, resilient, and hard, yet formable; by the end of the nineteenth century it was widely available for use in constructing ships, bridges, and buildings. Ferrous sheet metal is still regularly used to make architectural components such as roofing, gutters, and brackets. When left uncoated, the gray or black steel oxidizes in the presence of ambient humidity, rusting the surface.



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Sheet music Sheet music is musical notation typically handwritten or printed on paper. Nineteenth-century Parisian salon culture, including the performance of music at home, created a huge demand for sheet music of the popular songs of music halls and cabarets. At that time, sheet music was usually printed using engraving techniques (on metal plates) to ensure high-quality mechanical reproduction over large editions.



Steel See Sheet metal and steel.



Straight pin A straight pin, or dressmaking pin, is usually formed by drawing out a thin wire of steel, sharpening the tip, and adding a head. For dressmaking, straight pins are used to hold pieces of fabric together temporarily while a garment is being sewn. Until the late nineteenth century, straight pins were also commonly used to secure multipage paper documents. Steel is typically used to make straight pins because it is very strong, but uncoated steel rusts from exposure to ambient humidity. Straight pins that have rusted often transfer rust to materials they contact. When a straight pin is removed from fabric or paper, a pair of closely spaced holes is left, marking the path of the pin as it pierced the material twice to secure it. The pin head and/or its shaft may also leave an impression in the material.



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Thread, string, and twine Thread is a fine cord of two or more filaments, often cotton, flax, or silk, twisted together in a continuous length. It is wound on spools when it is used in sewing and other needlework. String is a cord of twisted fiber, typically used to tie, bind, or suspend objects; it is thicker than thread but thinner than twine. Twine is composed of two or more coarse strands—typically a natural cellulose fiber, such as cotton, jute, hemp, abaca, or sisal—plied together. It is thicker than string but used for many of the same purposes.



Varnish Varnish is a liquid that dries to create a hard, glossy, and usually transparent film that may serve as a protective coating on wood and other materials, including oil paintings. The earliest varnishes consisted of a natural resin, such as rosin or copal, dissolved in hot linseed oil. These oil varnishes formed dark, strong, insoluble films. Spirit, or simple solution, varnishes contain a natural resin, often mastic or dammar, dissolved in alcohol or turpentine or another evaporating solvent. Since the nineteenth century, spirit varnishes have been commonly used as picture varnishes for oil paintings. Picture varnishes are typically applied directly to the paint film as a final step, to provide protection and, when applied overall, to give a uniform surface to the artwork.



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Wallpaper Wallpaper is decorative paper used to cover interior walls and ceilings. Prior to the nineteenth century, artisans painted individual sheets of handmade paper with rarefied genre scenes or landscapes, typically using highquality materials in conjunction with block printing and stenciling techniques. By the mid-nineteenth century, with advances in printing and papermaking technology, long rolls of machine-made paper could be printed for use as wallpaper, and a new range of low-grade wallpaper became widely available. This cheap wallpaper was printed, using unrefined inks, with very simple repeating designs in one or two colors, often incorporating the coarse paper support. Slightly more expensive machinemade wallpaper utilized multiple colored inks, specialized finishing techniques, or metal foil embellishments.



Wire Wire is a usually cylindrical flexible strand or rod of metal, such as copper, typically formed by drawing the metal through a hole in a die or draw plate. It is commonly used to carry electricity and telecommunications signals and bear mechanical loads. Electrical wire is usually covered with an insulating material, such as plastic, a rubberlike polymer, or varnish. The earliest materials used for insulation included treated cloth or paper and various oilbased products. —SG



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Acknowledgments



Many individuals have made essential contributions to Picasso: The Making of Cubism 1912–1914 since it first was conceived as a complement to The Museum of Modern Art’s catalogue of the exhibition Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914. We offer thanks to the public and private lenders without whose support that 2011 exhibition, and the opportunities for study it provided, could not have been realized. Our gratitude is extended to the Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, and to a number of private collectors, who lent to the exhibition and supported this publication, generously agreeing to have their works featured here. We are proud to be joined in this project by Elizabeth Cowling, Jeremy Melius, and Jeffrey Weiss, who each contributed deeply insightful essays. We offer them our sincere gratitude for their time and inspired scholarship. They shared our excitement about the new possibilities a digital publication could offer and about working with conservators to expand our understanding of Picasso’s



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Cubism. Emily Braun read early drafts of the essays, and her extensive knowledge and critical skills shaped this project in profound ways. She has our warm thanks for her scholarly support throughout the preparation of this manuscript. Numerous institutions and individuals have assisted with the research that is the backbone of this publication. They are thanked in the notes that accompany the essays and provenance entries, but a few should be mentioned here for their much-appreciated support: Tatyana Franck, Archives Claude Picasso, Paris; Cécile Godefroy, Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte, Madrid; and Christine Pinault, Picasso Administration, Paris. Pepe Karmel generously shared his transcriptions of dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler’s stockbook and photo files, significantly enriching the provenance research incorporated into each entry. We are grateful to him for this collegial gesture and for his encouragement throughout the preparation of this volume. Libraries and archives, near and far, have provided crucial assistance with research. In particular, we thank Columbia University Libraries, New York; Frick Art Reference Library, New York; New York Public Library; Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Princeton University Library, Princeton, New Jersey; Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow, New York; Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris; Bilbliothèque Kandinsky, Centre Pompidou, Paris; and Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris.



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Visitors to the exhibition who shared their knowledge of and enthusiasm for Picasso’s work have enriched this publication in countless ways. Notably, a scholars’ day session held in the galleries in April 2011 was important to the development of this project. Among the many special guests and colleagues to whom we are grateful for spending time with us in the exhibition, we thank: Dore Ashton, George Baker, George Condo, Catherine Craft, Susan Grace Galassi, Phyllis Hattis, Ann Hoenigswald, Diana Howard, Lewis Kachur, Richard Kendall, Elizabeth Kujawski, Juan José Lahuerta, Carolyn Lanchner, Leonard A. Lauder, Brigitte Léal, Robert Lubar, Megan Luke, Marilyn McCully, Diana Widmaier Picasso, Christine Poggi, Rebecca Rabinow, Michael Raeburn, Bernice Rose, Margit Rowell, Angelica Zander Rudenstine, Didier Schulmann, Richard Shiff, Jessica Stockholder, Adrian Sudhalter, Vérane Tasseau, T. Barton Thurber, Gary Tinterow, Richard Tuttle, Gertje Utley, Lawrence Weiner, and Sebastian Zeidler. This publication and its editors are indebted to the exceptional work of Pierre Daix, without whose revelatory catalogue raisonné (co-authored with Joan Rosselet) any scholar of Picasso’s Cubist years would be adrift. Scholars of Cubism are many and prominent, as recorded in the references and notes in this text. We do, however, wish to highlight that throughout this project we were ever mindful that The Museum of Modern Art’s commitment to exhibiting, publishing, and documenting the work of Picasso was initiated by Alfred H. Barr, Jr., and strengthened by the work of William S. Rubin and Judith Cousins. We remain happily in their debt. Our colleagues at MoMA have been unfailingly gracious in their support of our research, expertly handling requests to unframe and consult the verso of one last work, to trace one more source, to image one final document. This project has



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been sustained by the professionalism they brought to every task and the innumerable acts of kindness they undertook, and for these we are grateful. We would like to thank the Trustees of The Museum of Modern Art and the Museum’s director, Glenn D. Lowry, for their steadfast support. Among the senior management staff, Peter Reed, Ramona Bannayan, Patty Lipshutz, Nancy Adelson, and Trish Jeffers have been exceptional advocates and advisors, and we appreciate their guidance and unwavering good judgment.



A publication of this kind, which highlights works in MoMA’s collection and is enriched by the internal records and scholarly resources of the institution, would not be possible without the essential support of the Museum’s Library and Archives, under the leadership of Milan Hughston. We would like to thank Michelle Elligott, Thomas Grischkowsky, Michelle Harvey, Jonathan Lill, Lori Salmon, David Senior, and Jennifer Tobias. The Department of Imaging and Digital Resources, directed by Erik Landsberg, has been an exceptional



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partner in preparing the rare visual materials published here for the first time. We are grateful to Paul Abbey, Robert Kastler, Rosa Laster, Jonathan Muzikar, Roberto Rivera, and John Wronn, who devoted significant time and consideration to this project. We appreciate their especially thoughtful approach to imaging Picasso’s constructions in the round. In the Department of Drawings and Prints, under the direction of Christophe Cherix (and formerly in the Department of Drawings, led by Connie Butler), we are grateful for the assistance of Esther Adler, Kathleen Curry, Samantha Friedman, Jodi Hauptman, David Moreno, and John Prochilo. They are colleagues of the first order, providing key support at every stage of the development of Picasso: The Making of Cubism 1912–1914. We offer our colleagues in the Department of Painting and Sculpture our heartfelt appreciation. The support of chief curator Ann Temkin has been important to the realization of this project. We have relied upon Leah Dickerman, Lily Goldberg, Laura Hoptman, Danielle King, Cara Manes, Paulina Pobocha, Cora Rosevear, and Lilian Tone for help with queries great and small. MaryKate Cleary and Iris Schmeisser have been especially supportive, giving freely of their time and expertise. Masha Chlenova and Janet Yoon have contributed essential assistance through the final months of production. We thank interns Nicole Benson, Vanessa Fusco, Kirsty Griffiths, Roxanne Matiz, Caroline Stawell, and Jessica Womack for their excellent efforts. The Department of Publications, led by Christopher Hudson, has been a valued partner in the development of this project. David Frankel, Chul R. Kim, and Marc Sapir supported its realization, many years in the making. Charles Nix, of Scott & Nix, Inc., created an intuitive



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design for this digital publication, one blessed with an elegance and clarity that admirably supports the book’s contents. We thank Hannah Kim for her skillful production work and Elizabeth Smith for expert editorial assistance. Our heartfelt thanks go to our editor, Rebecca Roberts, who deftly shaped and improved this project with superior skill and grace. —Anne Umland and Blair Hartzell Editors —Scott Gerson Conservation Editor



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Contributors



Elizabeth Cowling is Professor Emeritus and Honorary Fellow, History of Art, The University of Edinburgh. Scott Gerson is Associate Conservator, Department of Conservation, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Blair Hartzell is an independent art historian and former Curatorial Assistant, Department of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Jeremy Melius is Assistant Professor, Department of Art and Art History, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts. Anne Umland is The Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Curator of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Jeffrey Weiss is Adjunct Professor, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and Senior Curator, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.



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Credits Photograph Credits Picasso: The Making of Cubism 1912–1914 is the tenth volume of Studies in Modern Art, The Museum of Modern Art’s publication series devoted to scholarship on its collection. Support for this publication is provided by The Museum of Modern Art’s Research and Scholarly Publications endowment established through the generosity of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Edward John Noble Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Perry R. Bass, and the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Challenge Grant Program. Produced by the Department of Publications, The Museum of Modern Art, New York



In reproducing the images contained in this publication, the Museum obtained the permission of the rights holders whenever possible. If the Museum could not locate the rights holders, notwithstanding goodfaith efforts, it requests that any contact information concerning such rights holders be forwarded so that they may be contacted for future editions. All works by Pablo Picasso: © 2014 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo Acorn Photo Agency, Perth: 2.3, fig. 4. © 2014 Giovanni Anselmo: 3.33, fig. 53. Courtesy AP Archive: 15.5, fig. 10. Courtesy AP WirePhoto: 15.5, fig. 9; 15.12, fig. 19.



Edited by Rebecca Roberts with Elizabeth Smith Designed by Charles Nix, of Scott & Nix, Inc. Project management by Hannah Kim This publication is typeset in ITC Franklin Thin and Clarendon Light. Published by The Museum of Modern Art 11 West 53 Street New York, New York 10019 www.moma.org © 2014 The Museum of Modern Art, New York Certain illustrations are covered by claims to copyright noted in the Photograph Credits. All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-87070-804-6 Cover: Picasso in his studio at 242, boulevard Raspail (detail). Paris, 1913. See p. F.8 Frontispiece: Picasso with an installation of works in his studio at 242, boulevard Raspail. Paris, mid-December 1912 or February 1913. See p. F.5



© 2014 Art Resource, New York. Courtesy McNay Art Museum, San Antonio: 12.7, fig. 13. © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris: 2.10, fig. 22; 3.33, figs. 50–52; 4.3, fig. 4; 4.5, fig. 7; 6.20, figs. 17, 19; 7.4, fig. 5; 8.18, fig. 35; 9.19, fig. 25; 9.20, fig. 28; 11.16, fig. 16; 12.13; 12.22, fig. 24; 12.23, fig. 28; 13.3, fig. 9; 13.16, fig. 18; 13.17, fig. 21; 14.2, fig. 2; 14.11, fig. 27; 14.15, fig. 30; 14.16, fig. 31; 15.16, fig. 23; 15.17, figs. 29, 31. © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris/Wladimir Baranoff-Rossiné: 1.5, fig. 10. © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris/Estate of Marcel Duchamp: 3.33, fig. 54; 12.6; 12.23, fig. 29; 13.17, fig. 22; 15.17, fig. 28. © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris/FLC: 6.20, fig. 17; 15.16, fig. 23. © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris/Man Ray Trust: 2.10, fig. 22; 3.33, fig. 54; 12.23, fig. 29; 13.17, fig. 22; 14.2, fig. 2; 14.11, fig. 27. © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP/ Successió Miró, Paris: 5.19, fig. 20. © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris/Gino Severini: 3.33, fig. 54; 12.23, fig. 29; 13.17, fig. 22; 14.16, fig. 32. © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ Richard Artschwager: 3.33, fig. 53. © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ Succession H. Matisse, Paris: 5.19, fig. 20.



Epilogue 



| Glossary | Acknowledgments | Contributors |  Credits  | Trustees



B.32



© 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark: 3.33, fig. 53. © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ SIAE, Rome: 15.17, fig. 28. © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn: 5.19, fig. 20; 15.17, fig. 28. © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG BildKunst, Bonn/U. Streifeneder, Munich: 15.17, fig. 30. © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts: 3.33, fig. 51. © 2014 John Baldessari: 3.33, fig. 53. Courtesy Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.: 12.7, fig. 14. © BHVP/Roger-Viollet: 3.8, figs. 17–21. © 2014 Ashley Bickerton: 15.17, fig. 28.



Patrick Goetelen: 1.4, fig. 6. Courtesy The Granger Collection, New York: 2.9, fig. 18; 2.10, fig. 20; 4.11, fig. 16; 14.2, fig. 1; 14.11, fig. 26. © President and Fellows of Harvard College. Photo Imaging Department: 8.4, fig. 13. Photo Béatrice Hatala: 6.6. © 2014 Holtzman Trust, c/o HCR International, USA: 3.33, fig. 51; 15.17, fig. 29. Courtesy Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company: 2.5, fig. 11; 2.17, fig. 29. Courtesy Carroll Janis: 12.12, fig. 19; 12.22, fig. 23. © 2014 Jasper Johns/Licensed by VAGA, New York: 15.17, fig. 28. © Estate of André Kertész/Higher Pictures: 6.10, fig. 14. Photo Bob Kolbrener: B.3.



Bildarchiv Preussicher Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, New York. Photo Roman Beniaminson: 4.5, fig. 10.



Courtesy Galerie Krugier & Cie, Geneva: 14.4, fig. 13.



© 2014 Estate of Bill Brandt: 3.33, fig. 53.



© Cliché Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris: 3.6, fig. 12.



© Estate of Brassaï: B.1, fig. 2.



© Clichés Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris/RMN-Grand Palais/ Art Resource, New York: 3.5; 3.24, fig. 38; 7.5.



Bridgeman-Giraudon/Art Resource, New York: 4.5, fig. 11. © The Trustees of The British Museum: 5.4, fig. 8; 12.2, fig. 1. Archives Charmet/The Bridgeman Art Library: 3.4, fig. 6. © Christie’s Images/The Bridgeman Art Library: 4.2, fig. 2. © 2014 Christo: 15.17, fig. 28. © 2014 CNAC/MNAM/Dist. RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, New York: 2.10, fig. 22; 14.2, fig. 2; 14.11, fig. 27. Photos Jean-Claude Planchet: 10.5, fig. 6; 12.2, fig. 2; 13.4, fig. 12. Photo Adam Rzepka: 6.5, fig. 5. Courtesy Archives Dalsace: 5.11, fig. 18. Courtesy Dartmouth College Library, Hanover, N.H.: 11.3, fig. 8; 11.10, fig. 15. Photos Edward F. Fry: 3.9, figs. 23–24; 3.25, figs. 39–40. Courtesy Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte: frontis.; F.5; F.10, fig. 2; 3.4, fig. 7; 3.10, fig. 29; 3.28, fig. 45; 4.3, fig. 5; 5.4, fig. 11; 7.4, figs. 6, 8; 15.5, fig. 11; B.2, fig. 3. © 2014 Robert Gober: 3.33, fig. 51.



Epilogue 



Photos Erich Lessing /Art Resource, New York: 4.5, fig. 9; 10.5, fig. 7; 11.3, fig. 5. © Estate of Jacques Lipchitz. Courtesy Marlborough Gallery, New York: 15.16, fig. 23. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York/Art Resource, New York. Photo Marc Varon: 8.4, fig. 11. Photo Moderna Museet, Stockholm: 9.3, fig. 8. Courtesy Museo del Novecento, Milan: 4.3, fig. 4; 7.4, fig. 5. Courtesy Museu Picasso, Barcelona. Gasull Photography: 3.2, fig. 1; 14.4, fig. 10; 14.6. Photo Maurice Poplin: 12.10, fig. 16. The Museum of Modern Art, Department of Conservation: 1.3, fig. 4; 1.8, figs. 12–13; 2.1; 2.2, fig. 1; 2.3, figs. 2–3, 5–6; 2.4, figs. 7–10; 2.8, fig. 14; 2.9, figs. 15, 17, 19; 2.10, figs. 24–25; 4.1; 4.2, fig. 3; 4.4; 4.5, fig. 8; 4.6; 4.9, fig. 13; 4.10, fig. 15; 5.1; 5.3, fig. 3; 5.10; 5.11, fig. 19; 6.1; 6.8, figs. 8–9; 6.9, figs. 11–12; 6.10, fig. 13; 7.1; 7.3, fig. 3; 7.9, figs. 10–11; 7.11, fig. 14; 8.1; 9.1; 9.3, fig. 9; 10.1; 10.10, fig. 13; 11.1; 11.3, fig. 6; 12.1; 13.1; 13.22, fig. 16; 14.1; 14.3, fig. 6; 14.8, figs. 16–17, 19; 14.11, fig. 25; 15.1; 15.2, fig. 2; 15.11; B.4, figs. 8, 10.



| Glossary | Acknowledgments | Contributors |  Credits  | Trustees



B.33



The Museum of Modern Art, Department of Imaging and Digital Resources: 1.5, fig. 10; 3.3, fig. 2; 3.6, fig. 14; 3.7, fig. 15; 3.9, figs. 25–26; 3.23, fig. 34; 3.24, figs. 35, 37; 3.26, figs. 41, 44; 9.5; 9.12, fig. 21; 9.18, fig. 23; 10.4, figs. 3, 5; 10.6, figs. 10–11; 10.9, fig. 12; 12.6, fig. 8; 13.2, fig.1; 13.4, fig. 11; 13.9, fig. 14; 13.10, fig. 15; 14.9, fig. 23; 15.2, fig. 1; 15.5, fig. 9; 15.10, figs. 12–13; 15.12, figs. 17, 19. Photos David Allison: 8.18, fig. 32; 13.17, fig. 19. Photo George Cserna: 15.16, fig. 21. Photo Alexandre Georges: 14.15, fig. 30. Photos Thomas Griesel: 1.1; 1.2, figs. 2–3; 1.13, fig 15; 1.15; 2.15, fig. 28; 3.7, fig. 16; 3.11, fig. 32; 3.26, fig. 43; 3.33, figs. 50, 53, 55–56; 3.35; 4.2, fig. 1; 4.19, fig. 18; 4.20, fig. 19; 5.4, fig. 12; 5.20; 6.20, figs. 17–18, 20; 7.19, figs. 15–16; 8.18, figs. 34, 36; 9.20, figs. 29–30; 10.22, figs. 20–21; 11.16, fig. 17; 12.23, figs. 28, 30; 13.18, fig. 23; 14.16, figs. 32–33; 15.17, figs. 29, 31; 15.18, figs. 33–36. Photos Katherine Keller: 1.5, fig. 9; 2.5, fig. 13; 8.1; 15.17, figs. 26, 30. Photos Rosa Laster: 1.2, fig. 1; 1.9; 2.9, fig. 16; 3.6, fig. 13; 3.10, fig. 30; 5.3, fig. 5; 7.11, fig. 13; 8.1; 8.3, figs. 3–10; 8.10, fig. 19; 8.12, fig. 26; 9.4, figs. 11, 14; 9.10, fig. 18; 9.11, fig. 20; 9.21, fig. 31; 14.3, figs. 5, 9; 14.4, fig. 13; 14.8, fig. 18; 14.9, fig. 22; 14.10, fig. 24; 14.15, fig. 29; B.4, fig. 9. Photos James Mathews: 2.15, fig. 26; 8.18, fig. 31; 9.19, fig. 26; 12.13, fig. 20; 12.22, figs. 24–25; 15.16, figs. 22–24. Photos Jonathan Muzikar: 1.13, fig. 16; 3.1; 3.33, figs. 51–52, 54; 4.10, fig. 14; 6.20, fig. 19; 6.21, fig. 21; 7.20, fig. 17; 8.18, fig. 35; 10.1; 10.4, fig. 4; 10.10, fig. 14; 10.23, fig. 22; 12.3, fig. 9; 12.9, fig. 15; 12.23, fig. 29; 12.24, fig. 31; 13.1; 13.17, figs. 21–22; 13.19, fig. 24; 15.1; 15.4, fig. 5; 15.18, fig. 32; 15.19, fig. 37. Photo Jonathan Muzikar, reproduced by permission of The Art Institute of Chicago: 5.21, fig. 22. Photo Beaumont Newhall: 9.19, fig. 25. Photos Mali Olatunji: 2.15, fig. 27; 3.9, fig. 27; 3.26, fig. 42; 3.32, fig. 47; 3.33, figs. 48–49; 4.19, fig. 17; 6.20, figs. 15–16; 8.18, fig. 33; 9.20, figs. 27–28; 10.22, figs. 18–19; 11.16, fig. 16; 12.22, figs. 26–27; 13.17, fig. 20; 14.16, fig. 31; 15.16, fig. 25; 15.17, fig. 27. Photos Soichi Sunami: 8.18, fig. 30; 9.18, fig. 24; 12.10, fig. 17; 12.21, fig. 21; 12.22, fig. 22; 13.16, fig. 17. Photos John Wronn: 1.4, fig. 7; 3.11, fig. 33; 6.2, fig. 2; 9.1; 9.13, fig. 22; 10.1; 10.11; 10.12, fig. 17; 11.2, figs. 1–3; 11.3, figs. 4, 7; 11.8, fig. 11; 11.9, figs. 12–13; 12.2, fig. 3; 13.2, fig. 3; 14.1; 14.3, figs. 7–8; 14.9, figs. 20–21; 15.3, fig. 3.



© 2014 The New York Times, 1971: 15.5, fig. 8. Photos Beaumont Newhall: 13.3, fig. 9; 13.16, fig. 18. Photos Objectif 31: F.10, figs. 3–4; 3.4, figs. 8–9; 5.4, fig. 13; 6.2, fig. 1; 6.8, fig. 10; 7.3, fig. 4; 10.5, figs. 8–9; B.2, figs. 4–5. Archives Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris. Photo Bulloz: 3.10, fig. 31; 15.5, fig. 7; 15.16, fig. 20. Courtesy Archives Succession Picasso, Paris: 1.3, fig. 5; 3.24, fig. 36; 6.4; 13.3, fig. 4; 15.3, fig. 4; 15.10, fig. 14. Photo Franck Raux: B.1, fig. 2. © 2014 Gerhard Richter: 3.33, fig. 51. © RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, New York: Cover; F.8; F.10, fig. 5; 3.4, fig. 10; 3.8, fig. 22; 3.28, fig. 46; 5.4, fig. 10; 11.4, fig. 9; 12.2, fig. 6; B.1, figs. 1–2; B.2, fig. 6; Photo Michèle Bellot: 3.3, fig. 3. Photo J. G. Berizzi: 3.3, fig. 5. Photo Agence Bulloz: 10.3. Photo Madeline Coursaget: 11.4, fig. 10. Photos Béatrice Hatala: 1.6; 13.3, fig. 7. Photo C. Jean: 13.3, fig. 6. Photos Hervé Lewandowski: 5.3, fig. 6; 14.3, fig. 4. Photo R. G. Ojeda: 2.5, fig. 12. Photo Pablo Picasso: 12.3, fig. 7. © 2014 A. Rodchenko and V. Stepanova Archive, Moscow: 3.33, fig. 50. Photo Peter Schibli, Basel: 5.3, fig. 7. Photo John D. Schiff: 5.19, fig. 20. Photos Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh: 9.4, fig. 12; 13.4, figs. 10, 13; 14.4, fig. 11. © Staatsgalerie Stuttgart: 3.10, fig. 28; 5.3, fig. 4; 7.4, fig. 7. Stinehour Photography: 14.4, fig. 12. Triton Foundation: 1.5, fig. 8. © Victoria & Albert Museum, London: 10.2, fig. 1; 10.12, fig. 16. Wide World Photos, Inc.: 2.10, fig. 21. Photo Peter Willi/The Bridgeman Art Library: 12.2, fig. 5. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery: 3.33, fig. 53.



Courtesy The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.: 9.4, fig. 13; 12.2, fig. 4.



Epilogue 



| Glossary | Acknowledgments | Contributors |  Credits  | Trustees



B.34



Trustees of The Museum of Modern Art David Rockefeller* Honorary Chairman



Wallis Annenberg



Michael Lynne



Lin Arison**



Donald B. Marron*



Ronald S. Lauder Honorary Chairman



Sid R. Bass



Wynton Marsalis**



Lawrence B. Benenson



Robert B. Menschel*



Robert B. Menschel* Chairman Emeritus



Leon D. Black



Philip S. Niarchos



Eli Broad*



James G. Niven



Clarissa Alcock Bronfman



Peter Norton



Patricia Phelps de Cisneros



Daniel S. Och



Mrs. Jan Cowles**



Richard E. Oldenburg**



Douglas S. Cramer*



Jerry I. Speyer Chairman



Michael S. Ovitz



Paula Crown



Richard D. Parsons



Lewis B. Cullman**



Ronald O. Perelman



Marie-Josée Kravis President



David Dechman



Peter G. Peterson*



Glenn Dubin



Mrs. Milton Petrie**



Sid R. Bass Leon D. Black Mimi Haas Richard E. Salomon Vice Chairmen



Joel S. Ehrenkranz*



Emily Rauh Pulitzer*



John Elkann



David Rockefeller*



Laurence D. Fink



David Rockefeller, Jr.



H.R.H. Duke Franz of Bavaria**



Sharon Percy Rockefeller



Glenn D. Lowry Director



Glenn Fuhrman



Lord Rogers of Riverside**



Kathleen Fuld



Richard E. Salomon Treasurer



Richard E. Salomon



Gianluigi Gabetti*



Marcus Samuelsson



Howard Gardner



Ted Sann**



James Gara Assistant Treasurer



Maurice R. Greenberg**



Anna Marie Shapiro*



Anne Dias Griffin



Gilbert Silverman**



Patty Lipshutz Secretary



Agnes Gund



Anna Deavere Smith



Mimi Haas



Jerry I. Speyer



Ronnie Heyman



Ricardo Steinbruch



Alexandra A. Herzan



Yoshio Taniguchi**



Marlene Hess



David Teiger**



AC Hudgins



Eugene V. Thaw**



Barbara Jakobson*



Jeanne C. Thayer*



Werner H. Kramarsky*



Alice M. Tisch



Jill Kraus



Joan Tisch*



Marie-Josée Kravis



Edgar Wachenheim III*



June Noble Larkin*



Gary Winnick



Agnes Gund President Emerita Donald B. Marron President Emeritus



Epilogue 



Maja Oeri



Ex Officio Glenn D. Lowry Director Agnes Gund Chairman of the Board of MoMA PS1 Sharon Percy Rockefeller President of The International Council Christopher Lee Apgar and Ann Schaffer Co-Chairmen of The Contemporary Arts Council Bill de Blasio Mayor of the City of New York Scott M. Stringer Comptroller of the City of New York Melissa Mark-Viverito Speaker of the Council of the City of New York



Ronald S. Lauder



*Life Trustee



Thomas H. Lee



**Honorary Trustee



| Glossary | Acknowledgments | Contributors | Credits |  Trustees



B.35