In 1917, Pablo Picasso traveled to Italy for the first time and began to paint in a neoclassical style. He was thus a pioneer of the »Return to Order«, an art movement of the 1920s that rejected the developments of modernism under the impression of World War I and once again oriented itself to classical ideals. The year 1921 is considered the turning point of Picasso's reorientation. He spent the summer in Fontainebleau with his wife Olga and his son, who was only a few months old, and painted in a makeshift garage that had been converted into a studio. The Museum of Modern Art in New York now takes a closer look at this decisive phase in Picasso's creative work. With large-format paintings, archival photographs and documents, Picasso in Fontainebleau offers exciting insights into the work of the famous artist. The exhibition runs from October 8, 2023 to February 17, 2024.
The two most important paintings of 1921, which illustrate his change in style, are now reunited: Three Musicians, a work of synthetic Cubism, stands next to the neoclassical Three Women at the Spring, which was painted in parallel. Both works are about two meters high. Picasso sold the first to the art dealer Paul Rosenberg in the fall of 1921, and it has been in the Museum of Modern Art since 1949. The second came to the art collector John Quinn in New York in 1922. After it had various owners, including Paul Rosenberg, it was donated to the museum in 1952.
