Wishful Thinking

They'll come around eventually. 

Picasso in Philadelphia

Come to the Philadelphia Museum, but don’t forget your comfy shoes.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is one of several museums in America that has decided Avant-Garde is in again. Along with the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale, and the Frick, the Philadelphia Museum is exhibiting Picasso in their show Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris.

When you hop to Philadelphia, don’t forgot to keep your elbows out and bring a pair of comfy shoes because you’ll be wading through crowds and waiting patiently (or not) to see the featured Picasso works.

While it is impressive that Michael Taylor, the curator of the show, was able to pull mostly from the Museum’s collection, the 56 works of Picasso are muddled with about 150 works by complementary artists. The show is large, the rooms winding, and some of the artists even I chose to walk by with a mere glance in their direction (i.e. Lasarte’s The Hunters). I enjoyed the first few rooms which were almost exclusively Picasso and Braque. The artists were practically inseparable when painting in Paris, seeing each other daily (Picasso was said to refer to Braque as “my wife”).

Some things I didn’t like:

The following rooms were a tragically slow dénouement. Each room was packed with everything and anything that was remotely related to Picasso and the Parisian avant-garde. There were some Leger and Gris works, and Picasso’s works on paper (papier collees, collages, prints, and drawings), and Picasso’s Three Musicians, but some pieces were so insignificant or out of place, that I couldn’t help but feel disappointed. Furthermore, the last room in the show, referenced the Eastern European artists like Chagall, as well as mentioned “Death and Sacrifice” to lead into the World War I. It was a poor ending to the show, and I almost ran out of there exasperated and grasping for fresh air.

Some things I liked:

Picasso and Braque’s dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler would only let them show at his gallery. While the Salon des Indépendants showed works by all the leading artists like Matisse and Kandinsky, Kahnweiler was able to get an agreement that the two Cubists would only show with him. Taylor chose to reconstruct a Salon d’Automne in one of the rooms to show what other artists were exhibiting. Piled high on the walls and closer together were Delaunays (showing a few pieces from his various series like Saint Severin and The Eiffel Tower) and Duchamps (Nude Desceninding a Staircase No. 2), as well as works by other critical influences like Metzinger, Gleizes, Leger, and Gris.

Robert Delaunay, Saint Severin Cathedral, 1909-10

Also, some rarely-seen minotaur drawings and prints were displayed. Picasso was an excellect draughtsman and printmaker, and these works really illustrate his awe-inspiring range of talent.

Pablo Picasso, Minotaur Caressing a Sleeping Woman, 1933

I theorize that the name of the show was poorly titled, or halfway through picking the 200-something works, the curating team lost track of what they were doing. With so many Picasso shows in the future, the Philadelphia Museum chose to flood it’s galleries with anything close to the Parisian avant-garde.

Should you see it? Sure, just don't feel bad racing past the end of the show.

If you've seen it (or are thinking about it) comment below and let me know what you think!