In September 1912, Picasso followed the example of his friend Georges Braque by pasting colored or printed pieces of paper onto his compositions. These works, called papiers collés (meaning "pasted papers"), initiated Synthetic Cubism, a style characterized by large superimposed planes and clear geometric structure. Here, clippings from the newspaper Le Journal are arranged onto a schematic sketch of a man wearing a hat and holding a violin. The clippings refer to various topics, among them the Balkan Wars, unrest in French mines, serial novels, advertisements, and the tragic story of a young man driven to suicide by unrequited love.
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Inscription: Signed (verso, upper left): Picasso [in frame]
the artist, Paris (1912–ca. 1913; ca. 1913 to Kahnweiler); [Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris, ca. 1913; stock no. 1288]; René Gaffé, Brussels (by 1932–37; sold in June or July 1937, for £135, to Penrose); Roland Penrose, London (1937–ca. 1952; stored at the Museum of Modern Art, New York during World War II); [Curt Valentin Gallery, New York, by 1953–55; sold in May 1955 for $5,500 to Thompson]; G. David Thompson, Pittsburgh (1955–ca. 1962; sold ca. 1962 to Diamond); Harold and Hester Diamond, New York (ca. 1962–82; sold on February 26, 1982 to Gelman); Jacques and Natasha Gelman, Mexico City and New York (1982–his d. 1986); Natasha Gelman, Mexico City and New York (1986–d. 1998; her bequest to MMA)
Paris. Galerie Georges Petit. "Exposition Picasso," June 16–July 30, 1932, no. 74.
Kunsthaus Zürich. "Picasso Retrospective, 1901–1931," September 11–October 30, 1932, extended to November 13, 1932, no. 71.
London. Zwemmer Gallery. "Chirico, Picasso," June 1–30, 1937, no. 26.
London Gallery Ltd. "Picasso in English Collections," May 16–June 3, 1939, no. 22.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Picasso: Forty Years of His Art," November 15, 1939–January 7, 1940, no. 106.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Picasso: Forty Years of His Art," February 1–March 5, 1940, no. 106.
City Art Museum of Saint Louis. "Picasso: Forty Years of His Art," March 16–April 14, 1940, no. 106.
Boston. Museum of Fine Arts. "Picasso: Forty Years of His Art," April 26–May 25, 1940, no. 106.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "Picasso: Forty Years of His Art," June 25–July 22, 1940, no. 106.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Masterpieces of Picasso," July 16–September 7, 1941, no catalogue.
London Gallery Ltd. "The Cubist Spirit in Its Time," March 18–May 3, 1947, no. 22.
Venice. Biennale. "XXV Biennale di Venezia," June 8–October 15, 1950, no. 36.
London. Institute of Contemporary Arts. "Drawings and Watercolors since 1893: Homage to Picasso on His 70th Birthday," October 11–November 24, 1951, no. 20.
São Paolo. 2a Bienal do Museu de Arte Moderna. "IIa Bienal: Exposiçáo Picasso," December 13, 1953–February 20, 1954, no. 5.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Picasso: 75th Anniversary Exhibition," May 22–September 8, 1957, unnumbered cat. (p. 42).
Art Institute of Chicago. "Picasso: 75th Anniversary Exhibition," October 29–December 8, 1957, unnumbered cat.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Picasso: A Loan Exhibition of His Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture, Ceramics, Prints and Illustrated Books," January 8–February 23, 1958, no. 66.
Norfolk, Va. Chrysler Museum. "Picasso Retrospective," June 17–July 21, 1973, no catalogue (checklist).
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective," May 22–September 16, 1980, unnumbered cat. (p.166).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Twentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection," December 12, 1989–April 1, 1990, unnumbered cat. (p. 116).
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Twentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection," April 19–July 15, 1990, unnumbered cat.
Martigny. Fondation Pierre Gianadda. "De Matisse à Picasso: Collection Jacques et Natasha Gelman," June 18–November 1, 1994, unnumbered cat. (p. 141).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Picasso the Engraver: Selections from the Musée Picasso, Paris," September 18–December 21, 1997, not in catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 27–August 1, 2010, no. 59.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Picasso: Guitars, 1912–1914," February 13–June 6, 2011, no. 42.
Genaro Estrada. Genio y figura de Picasso. Mexico, 1936, p. 56, no. 74 (Exh. Paris 1932 checklist).
London Bulletin 2 (May 15, 1939), no. 22, ill.
Christian Zervos. Pablo Picasso. Vol. 2b, Works from 1912 to 1917. Paris, 1942, p. 190, no. 399, ill.
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. The Rise of Cubism. New York, 1949, pp. viii, 30, ill.
Sam Hunter. Picasso (Born 1881): Cubism to the Present. New York, 1957, unpaginated ill.
René Gaffé. À la Verticale: Réflexions d'un collectionneur. Brussels, 1963, p. 74, ill.
Robert Rosenblum. "Picasso and the Coronation of Alexander III: A Note on the Dating of Some Papiers Collés." Burlington Magazine 113 (October 1971), p. 606 n. 23.
Franco Russoli and Fiorella Minervino. L'opera completa di Picasso cubista. Milan, 1972, p. 114, no. 562, ill.
"Picasso Retrospective." Chrysler Museum Bulletin 2 (July 1973), p. 2.
Cornelia Justice. "Picasso's Art Sheds Life." Ledger Star (June 16, 1973), p. A7.
Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet. Picasso, The Cubist Years, 1907–1916: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. 2nd ed. [1st ed., 1979, French]. Boston, 1979, pp. 116, 289, 291–92, no. 535, ill.
Jacques Perry. Yo Picasso. Paris, 1982, p. 188.
Patricia Dee Leighten. "Picasso: Anarchism and Art, 1897–1914." PhD diss., Rutgers, State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, 1983, pp. 229, 247–48, fig. 106.
Patricia Leighten. "Picasso's Collages and the Threat of War, 1912–13." Art Bulletin 67 (1985), pp. 665, 667, fig. 11.
Reinhold Hohl inPicasso im Sprengel Museum Hannover: Druckgraphik, illustrierte Bücher, Zeichnungen, Collagen und Gemälde. Ed. Magdalena M. Moeller. Exh. cat., Sprengel Museum Hannover. Hannover, 1986, p. 26, ill.
Edward F. Fry. "Picasso, Cubism, and Reflexivity." Art Journal 47 (winter 1988), p. 310.
Patricia Leighten. Re-Ordering the Universe: Picasso and Anarchism, 1897–1914. Princeton, 1989, pp. xiii, 127, 140, fig. 84.
Josep Palau i Fabre. Picasso: Cubism, 1907–1917. New York, 1990, pp. 307, 511, no. 871, ill.
Pierre Daix. Dictionnaire Picasso. Paris, 1995, p. 449.
Julia May Boddewyn in Michael FitzGerald. Picasso and American Art. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 2006, pp. 351, 356, 375.
Elizabeth Cowling. Visiting Picasso: The Notebooks and Letters of Roland Penrose. London, 2006, pp. 30–32, 350 nn. 45, 46.
Gary Tinterow inPicasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, p. 13.
Sabine Rewald inPicasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, pp. 167–69, no. 59, ill. (color, overall and detail).
Rachel Mustalish inPicasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, p. 168.
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
1922
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