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MUSEO NACIONAL REVISTA DE ARTEREINA SOFÍA

LOS ‘PICASSOS’ PREFERIDOS DE PICASSO LLEGAN AL REINA SOFÍA

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COLECCIÓN MNCARSMujer en Azul, Pablo Picasso

JOAN MIRó: PAINtING AND ANtI-PAINtING 1927–1937en el MoMA

tyPOGRAPhy & ARt,Christopher Burke

MUSEO NACIONAL revista de arte REINA SOFÍA

EDICIÓN Y COORDINACIÓN | José Capa Eiriz

DIsEñO Y DIRECCIÓN DE ARtE | Nicolás García

REDACCIÓN Y DOCumENtACIÓN | Javier Maderuelo Raso

mAquEtACIÓN | Nicolás García

fOtOgRAfíA | Ricky Dávila

ImPREsIÓN | Brizzolis

PublICIDAD | José Luis Rico

IsbN | 1888-352X

D.l. | M-5777-1985

Real PatRonato del Museo nacional centRo de aRte Reina sofía

PREsIDENtE | Dña. Pilar Citoler Carilla

VICEPREsIDENtE | D. Carlos Solchaga Catalán

VOCAlEs | D. Plácido Arango AriasDña. Carmen Arias Aparicio D. Manuel Borja-Villel D. José Capa Eiriz D. Eugenio Carmona Mato Dña. María Dolores Carrión Martín D. Fernando Castro Borrego D. Fernando Castro Flórez Dña. María de Corral López-Dóriga D. Miguel Ángel Cortés Martín Dña. María Garcia Yelo D. José Jiménez D. Javier Maderuelo Raso D. Carlos Ocaña y Pérez de Tudela D. Claude Ruiz Picasso D. Francisco Serrano Martínez D. José Joaquín de Ysasi-Ysasmendi Adaro

MUSEO NACIONAL revista de arte REINA SOFÍA índice

PRóxIMAS ExPOSICIONESLos ‘picassos’ preferidos de Picasso lleganal Reina Sofía

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ENtREVIStAtypography & ArtChristopher Burke

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ExPOSICIóN ItINERANtEJoan Miró: Painting and Anti-Painting 1927–1937en el MoMA

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EDICIONES MNCARShopper, Bacon, Stieglitz, Picasso

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COLECCIóN MNCARSMujer en azulPablo Picasso

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LA CRítiCA | Picasso en el Reina sofía diciembre | enero 08102


diciembre | enero 08 103


pRóximAs exposiCiones | Picasso en el Reina sofía

P icasso es alguien que te tienes que sacar de la sangre. El artista estadouni-dense Ellsworth Kelly definió así el lastre que para él, como para muchos artistas, había supuesto la herencia del malagueño. Hasta tal punto que

muchos se cuestionaron si era posible pintar después de Picasso. Así lo recordó ayer el director del Museo Reina Sofía, Manuel Borja-Villel, durante la presentación de la exposición que, a partir de hoy y hasta el 5 de mayo, reúne más de 400 obras seleccionadas del Museo Picasso de París.

Son pinturas, esculturas, cerámicas, dibujos, grabados, cuadernos de apuntes y una veintena de fotografías procedentes de la colección personal del pintor mala-gueño. Aquéllas de las que no quiso desprenderse nunca. Según Borja-Villel, son el “gran manifiesto pictórico” del artista y recogen “la idea de lo que Picasso conside-raba que tenía que ser la pintura”.

El Museo Picasso de París nació en 1985 con obras procedentes de la dación en pago de impuestos realizada por los herederos. Con motivo de las obras de reforma de su sede, el Hôtel Salé, parte de la colección del museo inicia en España un periplo que continuará en Emiratos Árabes, Japón, Canadá, EE UU, Finlandia, Rusia y Aus-tralia. Las conversaciones para llevar la colección al Reina Sofía, señaló la comisa-ria de la exposición, Anne Baldassari, comenzaron hace dos años con su entonces directora, Ana Martínez de Aguilar, el director del Museo del Prado, Miguel Zugaza y Claude Picasso, hijo del pintor. El préstamo de las obras tendrá un coste para el erario público de 3,5 millones de euros. Baldassari no entró a valorar el precio de la transacción, pero insistió en que es la primera vez que sale de París tal cantidad de obras: “Probablemente no se volverá a repetir hasta dentro de varias décadas”, aseguró. La exposición, organizada cronológicamente, permite recorrer la obra de Picasso de principio a fin, algo que, recuerda Baldassari, “sólo el Museo Picasso de París” puede hacer. El museo ha habilitado cuatro salas. La primera abarca el perio-do 1895 a 1924, la génesis de la obra picassiana, con obras emblemáticas como La muerte de Casagemas, La Celestina o La flauta de Pan. El periodo surrealista (1924-1935) cuenta con obras como El beso, El pintor y su modelo o El acróbata.

En la sala del Guernica se exponen obras realizadas entre 1933 y 1951 (los retratos de Dora Maar, La mujer que llora y La suplicante). La última sala muestra el periodo de 1947 a 1972, según Baldassari, “una versión totalmente picassiana de la pop cul-ture”.Según Manuel Borja-Villel, es el “gran manifiesto pictórico” del artista.

En la sala del Guernica se exponen obras realizadas entre 1933 y 1951 (los retratos de Dora Maar, La mujer que llora y La suplicante).

LOS ‘PICASSOS’ PREFERIDOS DE PICASSO LLEGAN AL REINA SOFÍA

son pinturas, esculturas, cerámicas, dibujos, grabados, cuadernos de apuntes y una veintena de fotografías procedentes de la colección personal del pintor malagueño. Aquéllas de las que no quiso desprenderse nunca. según borja-Villel, son el “gran manifiesto pictórico” del artista y recogen “la idea de lo que Picasso consideraba que tenía que ser la pintura”.

1. “Picasso es alguien que te tienes que sacar de la sangre”. El artista estadounidense Ellsworth Kelly definió así el lastre que para él, como para muchos artistas, había supuesto la herencia del malagueño. Hasta tal punto que muchos se cuestionaron si era posible pintar después de Picasso. Así lo recordó ayer el director del museo Reina sofía, manuel borja-Villel, durante la presentación de la exposición que, a partir de hoy y hasta el 5 de mayo, reúne más de 400 obras seleccionadas del museo Picasso de París.2. son pinturas, esculturas, cerámicas, dibujos, grabados, cuadernos de apuntes y una veintena de fotografías procedentes de la colección personal del pintor malagueño. Aquéllas de las que no quiso desprenderse nunca. según borja-Villel, son el “gran manifiesto pictórico” del artista y recogen “la idea de lo que Picasso consideraba que tenía que ser la pintura”.

Joaquín Gallego

diciembre | enero 08104



“Picasso es alguien que te tienes que sacar de la sangre”. El artista estadounidense Ellsworth Kelly definió así el lastre que para él, como para muchos artistas, había supuesto la herencia del malagueño. Hasta tal punto que muchos se cuestionaron si era posible pintar después de Picasso. Así lo recordó ayer el director del Museo Reina Sofía, Manuel Borja-Villel, durante la presentación de la exposición que, a partir de hoy y hasta el 5 de mayo, reúne más de 400 obras seleccionadas del Museo Picasso de París.

La coLección _________________________________________________________

Son pinturas, esculturas, cerámicas, dibujos, grabados, cuadernos de apuntes y una veintena de fotografías procedentes de la colección personal del pintor ma-lagueño. Aquéllas de las que no quiso desprenderse nunca. Según Borja-Villel, son el “gran manifiesto pic-tórico” del artista y recogen “la idea de lo que Picasso consideraba que tenía que ser la pintura”.

El Museo Picasso de París nació en 1985 con obras procedentes de la dación en pago de impuestos rea-lizada por los herederos. Con motivo de las obras de reforma de su sede, el Hôtel Salé, parte de la colección

El Museo Picasso de París nació en 1985 con obras procedentes de la dación en pago de impuestos rea-lizada por los herederos. Con motivo de las obras de reforma de su sede, el Hôtel Salé, parte de la colección del museo inicia en España un periplo que continuará en Emiratos Árabes, Japón, Canadá, EE UU, Finlandia, Rusia y Australia. Las conversaciones para llevar la colección al Reina Sofía, señaló la comisaria de la ex-posición, Anne Baldassari, comenzaron hace dos años con su entonces directora, Ana Martínez de Aguilar, el director del Museo del Prado, Miguel Zugaza y Clau-de Picasso, hijo del pintor. El préstamo de las obras tendrá un coste para el erario público de 3,5 millones de euros. Baldassari no entró a valorar el precio de la transacción, pero insistió en que es la primera vez que sale de París tal cantidad de obras: “Probablemente no se volverá a repetir hasta dentro de varias décadas”, aseguró. La exposición, organizada cronológicamente, permite recorrer la obra de Picasso de principio a fin, algo que, recuerda Baldassari, “sólo el Museo Picasso de París” puede hacer. El museo ha habilitado cuatro salas. La primera abarca el periodo 1895 a 1924, la gé-nesis de la obra picassiana, con obras emblemáticas como La muerte de Casagemas, La Celestina.

Tres músicos, Pablo Picasso.

la exposición, organizada cronológicamente, permite recorrer la obra de Picasso de principio a fin, algo que, recuerda Baldassari, “sólo el Museo Picasso de París” puede hacer.

3. El museo Picasso de París nació en 1985 con obras procedentes de la dación en pago de impuestos realizada por los herederos. Con motivo de las obras de reforma de su sede, el Hôtel salé, parte de la colección del museo inicia en España un periplo que continuará en Emiratos Árabes, Japón, Canadá, EE uu, finlandia, Rusia y Australia.




“Picasso es alguien que te tienes que sacar de la sangre”. El artista estadounidense Ellsworth Kelly definió así el lastre que para él, como para muchos artistas, había supuesto la herencia del malagueño. Hasta tal punto que muchos se cuestionaron si era posible pintar después de Picasso. Así lo recordó ayer el director del Museo Reina Sofía, Manuel Borja-Villel, durante la presentación de la exposición que, a partir de hoy y hasta el 5 de mayo, reúne más de 400 obras seleccionadas del Museo Picasso de París.

Las obras _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Son pinturas, esculturas, cerámicas, dibujos, grabados, cuadernos de apuntes y una veintena de fotografías procedentes de la colección personal del pintor malagueño. Aquéllas de las que no quiso desprenderse nunca. Según Borja-Villel, son el “gran ma-nifiesto pictórico” del artista y recogen “la idea de lo que Picasso consideraba que tenía que ser la pintura”.

El Museo Picasso de París nació en 1985 con obras procedentes de la dación en pago de impuestos realizada por los herederos. Con motivo de las obras de reforma de su sede, el Hôtel Salé, parte de la colección del museo inicia en España un periplo que continuará en Emiratos Árabes, Japón, Canadá, EE UU, Finlandia, Rusia y Australia. Las conversaciones para llevar la colección al Reina Sofía, señaló la comisaria de la exposición, Anne Baldassari, comenzaron hace dos años con su entonces directora, Ana Martínez de Aguilar, el director del Museo del Prado, Miguel Zugaza y Claude Picasso, hijo del pintor. El préstamo de las obras tendrá un coste para el erario público de 3,5 millones de euros. Baldassari no entró a valorar el precio de la transac-ción, pero insistió en que es la primera vez que sale de París tal cantidad de obras: “Probablemente no se volverá a repetir hasta dentro de varias décadas”, aseguró. La exposición, organizada cronológicamente, permite recorrer la obra de Picasso de principio a fin, algo que, recuerda Baldassari, “sólo el Museo Picasso de París” puede.

Señoritas de Avignon, Pablo Picasso.

son pinturas, esculturas, cerámicas, dibujos, grabados, cuadernos de apuntes y una veintena de fotografías procedentes de la colección personal del pintor malagueño. aquéllas de las que no quiso desprenderse nunca.



entRevistA | chRistoPheR BuRke & andReu Ballus

A.B.: So where do think primarily that your interest in lettering comes from?C.B.: it’s difficult to say. i’ve always been interested in drawing, and perhaps more in what you might call tech-nical drawing than artistic drawing. i am not very good at figurative art but i always used to draw things with straight lines, which naturally led me on to letters. so, before i did any training as a typographer, i had drawn quite a few letters without really knowing what i was doing; i always used to have a drawing pad on my lap drawing something. And parallel to that i have always had an interest in making language itself, in writing - what language means as well as how it looks. i suppose that is kind of an ideal combination for becoming a type designer: you’re interested in the form of the letters and also how they compose to form words.

i like writing as well as designing; they often seem to me to be two quite similar activities, in that writing is a kind of designing language, if you do it right. so i have continued both interests in the writing i have done about typography as well as in the type designs i’ve done.

A.B.: So you’re driven by a kind of desire to give sha-pe to your own words...C.B.: it’s not just my own words, but as someone who has ambitions in writing myself, likes to do it and cares about language - that it should well treated in its vis-ual form - that’s the kind of feeling i have about type design and this is basically why i design typefaces for text, which is where my specialism is, i guess. my main interest is in designing type that is very legible for text, because i like printed language.

A.B.: When did you realize that you were to become professionally engaged with typography, and what contributed to this realization?C.B.: Well, i finally ended up doing a BA degree in ty-pography and Graphic Communication which naturally leads you on to become a professional in that area, although i didn’t feel that i was entirely limited to go in that direction. that’s where the basis of my professional capabilities are i guess, in the education i had in typog-raphy at Reading University. so yes, i have practised as a typographer, but in terms of work in my professional career i have always kind of mixed the three - writing about design and typography, practising typography and designing type; they are in reality difficult to sepa-rate for me. Becoming a type designer was something that i developed on my own initiative alongside be-ing trained as a typographer. i didn’t have any specific education in typeface design while training to be a ty-pographer, but i think an education in typography is a very good basis for being a type designer, because, apart from the basics you learn about type - how it has worked historically and should work - you develop a visual awareness of typefaces. When you look very hard and in detail at what’s available to you, not only does it make you a good typographer but it can make you a

Christopher burke is a typographer, typeface designer, and a writer on modern typographic history. After graduating in typography & graphic Communication from the university of Reading he worked at monotype typography in the uK. leaving monotype, he undertook research at Reading for a PhD on Paul Renner, which he completed in 1995. this provided the basis for his book Paul Renner. from 1996 to 2001 he taught at the university of Reading, where he planned and conceived the mA in typeface design. His Celeste and Parable typefaces are available from fontshop, and Pragma from Neufville Digital. His book on Jan tschichold, Active literature, was published in 2007.

andreu Balius

tyPOGRAPhy & ARt



type designer as well because you know what there is and where you can contribute something different.

A.B.: So formally, you have had no tutor in type design?C.B.: no.

A.B.: Who has had the strongest formative influence on your work?C.B.: in terms of typeface design?

Los comienzos ______________________________________________________________________________

A.B.: Well, I mean sometimes you come upon a teacher who may direct you towards a particular attitude or lead you into certain fields of practice...C.B.: Well i think the education in typography and Graphic Commu-nication in the department of that name at Reading University was a formative period for me, and that there’s a specific kind of philosophy there, which at times i have thought of it as a traditional-modernist philosophy about functional design, and which now i find that in some points i disagree with, but it was a very influential way of approaching design for me at that time. What i learned there has been fundamental in the way that i’ve approached design. i learned a lot about typogra-phy there; i can’t point to a specific teacher but the whole education i received was very stimulating. the man who originated that depart-ment, and was kind of the guiding light of the place was michael twyman. He’s written a lot about several aspects of typography and printing history, and is a man of many talents and strong opinions. it was quite unique for a number of years...

A.B.: He actually developed the curriculum?C.B.: Yes, and the founding philosophy and lectures were all mainly down to him. it grew out of the sixties when the profession of modern typographic design was really maturing; you could see that there were people who were typographers who weren’t also printers and weren’t artists. i think probably that moment has already passed and that the whole scene has changed again, and now a lot of typography is done by office workers because they have the same equipment as profes-sional designers.

A.B.: Obviously it is an interesting place, from what I have seen and heard. I think it would be interesting to know, which was your first attempt to design letters for typographic use and what made you start designing type?C.B.: i think it was in my third year of this four-year course in typogra-phy when i had a large, self-directed project to define and achieve for the final assessment, and i chose to do a typeface design, which wasn’t a very common thing to do. i was the only one doing it at the time...

A.B.: What year was that?C.B.: 1990 or ‘91 - and that project is eventually what became Celeste. so the beginnings of that project was the first attempt i had made at designing a typeface: i was really starting from zero because i had no formal tutelage in how to do it, so i just started drawing and my first attempts were as bad as anybody else’s - trying to invent some completely new form of letter which had never been dreamed of be-fore, which i think is almost impossible now - and they didn’t work obviously...




A.B.: That was the attitude with which you started - some sort of desire to invent?C.B.: Yes, i guess it’s the idea that a lot of people have when they come to type design in the first place - perhaps not you coming from a calligraphy background where you know an awful lot about the history of letters. But let’s say someone, a graphic designer in general, who has some drawings for a new typeface: it’s is often a really strange and wacky thing, based on their own handwriting or something, because they think that the idea of type design is to do something really different. they know normal typefaces, they’ve used them and see nothing special about them, so they think they need to make something new. i was trying to work within variations of the tradition in letterform style, so it was always a legible letterform from the beginning, but i had some strange ideas which meant that it didn’t work.

A.B.: Like what for instance?C.B.: oh, i wouldn’t want to go into details. At that time we had an old ikarus system with a digitizing tablet and i made some first proofs of a few letters then made some text proofs and it was immediately apparent that i wasn’t doing the right kind of thing; so then i carried on and just started to relax a bit, drew letters without any big plans of inventing the ultimate typeface, but just something that was a bit different. And that eventually turned into what is Celeste, which has some subtle differences and originalities within the tradition of text types - elements and combinations that had never been done in that particular way before.

A.B.: Like for instance...?C.B.: For instance... i suppose the idea of Celeste is that it’s a certain kind of modern type - i mean modern in a sense of type classification - it has a vertical stress; it is not based on callig-raphy, but it has a notion of certain calligraphic terminals and - to use the terms of swiss type theorists - it has the combination of the static and dynamic principles; and also that particular form of serif - i’ve never seen it used on that particular category of type.

A.B.: Which features in particular do think are calligraphic in Celeste?C.B.: there are certain terminals in which are kind of reminiscent of a broad-edged pen, cal-ligraphic terminations - let’s say on the top curve of the lowercase ‘a’, and also in letters like the lowercase ‘e’ where the termination at the bottom doesn’t curl right around and close in a circle like it does in a Bodoni type, for instance, but shoots out a bit towards the right: it creates a left to right direction - that was the idea. At that time i was, and still am, quite an admirer of Bask-erville types - i always thought that they are very solid text types, and i like them from a visual point of view as a good historical example of a solid British type, and i suppose i was trying to make a solid new British type, although not consciously, simply because i happen to be British. Consequently i have recently described Celeste as being on the way back to where Baskerville is: a retrospective transitional type, if that is possible. Who knows what Baskerville was thinking when he was making those letters, we now call them ‘transitional’, but in his time he was not transitional because he didn’t know what was coming after him. so he was kind of working - or his punchcutter, i don’t think it was he who cut the types himself - on the basis of the old-face tradition of types. You can see elements of Garamond in Baskerville - but it has a different kind of principle and aesthetic to it. We hear that Baskerville was a writing master in the pointed nib mode, and there’s that kind of logic to his construction, and there are certain elements of that kind of principle which you can probably see in Celeste - it is not particularly conscious...

A.B.: Yes Celeste struck me as well as having a kind of Baskerville type flavour - but re-turning to the question of calligraphy and calligraphic principles - I always tend to think of calligraphic principle as more related to the modulation of stroke rather than actual terminals of letters...C.B.: Yes, that’s because you’re a proper calligrapher and i am not. When i say calligraphy, i am talking from a very inexpert point of view because i have never been a calligrapher - i don’t really know how to do it. Well i know how one should probably do it, but i can’t do it because i’m lazy and don’t really have the skill. so perhaps when i sometimes say calligraphy, i simply mean hand-written movement, and i am talking about a dynamic in the letters. in the same way one might say that there’s a certain calligraphic dynamic in a typeface like syntax because of the structure - basic structure instead of stroke contrast. in terms of stroke contrast, i wanted Celeste to have a noticeable difference between thick and thin parts, but i also wanted the thin parts not to be too thin. that’s the thing about Baskerville, perhaps; i think the monotype digital

“Garamond, Bembo... they become too thin because there wasn’t a proper process of adaptation. Whether it was entirely intentional with lead type, i don’t know, but there’s this thickening up of the type image which makes it kind of sturdy and i’m sure adds to legibility in certain cases, and this was missed out in a lot of the adaptation to digital technology. But there have been some intelligent adaptations since and i think that after, let’s say, fifteen or twenty years of digital type there have been some quite decent basic text types designed now”.




version is not too bad, but there isn’t really a very good digital version of Baskerville, and that was part of my intention: to make a type in that category of, let’s say, transitional/modern, which was entirely suited to current technologies, which didn’t have parts that were too thin and didn’t dazzle the eye.

A.B.: I actually had a question here which relates to that: speaking of contemporary text type and technology, there is great variety of books in my house of which a great part is set in lead type and then another part with type from the digital era - and my point is that with the supposed improvements in printing technology, I don’t really see a general improvement in the quality of book production. Do you think that we have gotten our priorities a bit mixed up in these first years of digital type?C.B.: i don’t know, i mean the priority of the type manufacturers ini-tially - the big type manufacturers like monotype and Linotype who were still powerful in those first years of the digital (type) revolution - was to make available in digital form the classical lead type faces, which they did, and it wasn’t always done too intelligently or too well; some of them got ruined in fact - i find them unusable in digital form, some of the classical lead types.

A.B.: Some versions of Garamond for instance...?C.B.: Garamond, Bembo... they become too thin because there wasn’t a proper process of adaptation. Whether it was entirely intentional with lead type, i don’t know, but there’s this thickening up of the type image which makes it kind of sturdy and i’m sure adds to legibility in certain cases, and this was missed out in a lot of the adaptation to dig-ital technology. But there have been some intelligent adaptations since and i think that after, let’s say, fifteen or twenty years of digital type there have been some quite decent basic text types designed now.

A.B.: This makes me think of the fact that you designed first Ce-leste, as far as I know, and then afterwards Celeste Small Text. Was it the experience of having used your own type that contribute to the necessity for developing another perhaps sturdier version of Celeste?C.B.: Yes. When i was designing Celeste, as i said, i was kind of making it up as i went along and, because i was learning in the process, i made many mistakes, and it took me quite a number of years, but i think it came out okay in the end. i think i was intending it always from the beginning for ordinary, normal text sizes for books, say 10-11 point and it’s really optimized for that kind of size. it is a relatively light and open text face and when i came to design the book that i wrote about paul Renner, i was obviously wanting to use my typeface, and as someone who has always been sensitive to optical scale in typefaces, i instinc-tively knew that Celeste, if i scaled it down to 6 or 7 point for footnotes, wouldn’t work too well - that it wouldn’t be too legible - and so i imme-diately started to make an optically compensated version of the typeface for the footnotes in that book. there’s a very good article about optical scale in type design by the great scholar Harry Carter, with some useful illustrations, where he sets out the principles of how it used to be done during five hundred years of typefounding - that type designers would make things a bit bolder for smaller sizes and perhaps the proportions of the letters a bit wider, and the x-height would proportionally be a bit bigger - something that they probably wouldn’t even articulate; it’s just that working literally in those sizes, carving physically on small pieces of metal and having to proof them to be functional in those sizes.

the work and life of this german type and book-designer are, for the first time, presented at length and with full historical documentation. Renner lived through the first half of the twentieth century, and this book is, in effect, a history of typography in germany in those years. It also speaks to present concerns in design, and especially to the search for a rationality deeper than one of easy rules of style.german culture in the twentieth century moved quickly and intensely, bound up with the politics of the country. Paul Renner (1878–1956) lived and worked through constituent episodes of this history, both embodying the patterns of his times and providing a critical commentary on them. In this book Christopher burke provides the first extended account of an essential and still underrated figure.beginning his career in the thick of the munich cultural renaissance, Paul Renner worked as a ‘book artist’, applying values he had learnt as a painter to this everyday item of multiple production. An early and prominent member of the Deutscher Werkbund, he was committed to the values of quality in design, always tempered by a certain sobriety of attitude and style. In the

1920s Renner engaged with the radical modernism of that time, briefly in frankfurt, and then in a more extended phase at the printing school at munich. under Renner’s leadership, and with teachers such as georg trump and Jan tschichold, the school produced work of quiet significance. In those years Renner undertook the design of the now ubiquitous typeface futura. Christopher burke’s analysis of the design process reveals the characteristic Renner approach: he took up with current tendencies, but through an extended process of finely judged development, helped to deliver a product that has long-lasting quality. In the Nazi seizure of power of 1933, Renner was dismissed from his teaching post – in days recounted here in dramatic detail – and entered a state of ‘inner emigration’. burke’s account of the Nazi years shows Renner negotiating events with dignity. After 1945, Renner lived in retirement, but entered public discussion of design issues as a voice of experience and sanity.Paul Renner is a work of discovery. As part of its fresh narrative and analysis, it includes much new illustrative material and the first full bibliography of Renner’s writings.

Paul Renner: the art of typography ______

christopher Burke, Hyphen press, 224 pp.



MoM

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LA CRítiCA | Picasso en el Reina sofíadiciembre | enero 08 111


founded in 1929 as an educational institution, the museum of modern Art is dedicated to being the foremost museum of modern art in the world. the museum of modern Art seeks to create a dialogue between the established and the experimental, the past and the present, in an environment that is responsive to the issues of modern and contemporary art.

T hroughout its history, The Museum of Modern Art has used architecture as a vehicle for self-renewal and regeneration. The recently completed building project represents MoMA’s

most extensive redefinition since its founding seventy-five years ago. The Museum combines new spaces with MoMA’s original ar-chitecture to dramatically enhance its dynamic collection of modern and contemporary art.

MoMA conducted an extensive worldwide search for an architect who would not simply add on to the Museum’s existing architectu-re, but would be able to transform MoMA’s various buildings and additions into a unified whole. Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi won the commission with a design that would, in his own words, “transform MoMA into a bold new museum while maintaining its historical, cultural, and social context.”

The 630,000-square-foot Museum has nearly twice the capacity of the former facility. The new six-story David and Peggy Rockefe-ller Building houses the main collection and temporary exhibition galleries. Taniguchi worked closely with curators to refine his con-cept into a design that would expertly accommodate the type and scale of works displayed. Spacious galleries for contemporary art are located on the second floor, with more intimately scaled galleries for the collection on the levels above. Expansive, skylit galleries for temporary exhibitions are located on the top floor. MoMA’s Film and Media program resumes in the two refurbished Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters, located below the lobby level.

In the expanded Museum lobby, Taniguchi takes inspiration from the unique vitality of the streets of midtown Manhattan. This bust-ling interior promenade connects Fifty-third and Fifty-fourth Streets and offers spectacular views of both The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden and the light-filled Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium, which soars 110 feet above street level. The lobby also serves as the Museum’s “information center,” with multiple ticket counters; information about membership, exhibitions, and programs; and access to the Museum’s theaters, restaurant, stores, and garden.

Masterworks of modern sculpture, seasonal plantings, and reflec-ting pools once again welcome visitors to the beloved Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, which Taniguchi identified as “per-haps the most distinctive single element of the Museum today.” The

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architect preserved Philip Johnson’s original 1953 design and re-es-tablished the garden’s southern terrace to create an elegant outdoor patio for The Modern, the Museum’s new fine-dining restaurant.

The opening of the eight-story Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Edu-cation and Research Building in November 2006 marked the com-pletion of the Museum’s expansion project. Offering five times more space for educational and research activities, the Cullman Building houses the expanded Library and Archives;the Edward John Noble Education Center, featuring state-of-the art classrooms; three thea-ters, including the 121-seat Celeste Bartos Theater; curatorial study centers for the departments of Architecture and Design, Painting and Sculpture, Film, and Media; an entrance for school groups; and a lobby with magnificent views of the Sculpture Garden.

With his design for The Museum of Modern Art, Taniguchi has demonstrated that architectural expression and the proper environ-ment for looking at art can be brilliantly intertwined. The result, in the architect’s own words, is “an ideal environment for art and people [created] through the imaginative and disciplined use of lig-ht, materials, and space.”

archiTecTuraL chronoLogy ______________________

In the late 1920s, three progressive and influential patrons of the arts, Miss Lillie P. Bliss, Mrs. Cornelius J. Sullivan, and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., perceived a need to challenge the conservative poli-cies of traditional museums and to establish an institution devoted exclusively to modern art. When The Museum of Modern Art was founded in 1929, its founding Director, Alfred H. Barr, Jr., intended the Museum to be dedicated to helping people understand and en-

joy the visual arts of our time, and that it might provide New York with “the greatest museum of modern art in the world.”

The public’s response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic, and over the course of the next ten years, the Museum moved three times into progressively larger temporary quarters, and in 1939 fi-nally opened the doors of the building it still occupies in midtown Manhattan. Upon his appointment as the first Director, Barr sub-mitted a plan for the conception and organization of the Museum that would result in the Museum’s multi-departmental structure with departments devoted for the first time to Architecture and Design, Film and Video, and Photography, in addition to Painting and Sculpture, Drawings, and Prints and Illustrated Books. Subse-quent expansions took place during the 1950s and 1960s planned by the architect Philip Johnson, who also designed The Abby Al-drich Rockefeller Garden. In 1984, a major renovation designed by Cesar Pelli doubled the Museum’s gallery space and enhanced vi-sitor facilities.

The rich and varied collection of The Museum of Modern Art constitutes one of the most comprehensive and panoramic views into modern art. From an initial gift of eight prints and one drawing, The Museum of Modern Art’s collection has grown to include over 150,000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, archi-tectural models and drawings, and design objects. MoMA also owns approximately 22,000 films and four million film stills, and MoMA’s Library and Archives, the premier research facilities of their kind in the world, hold over 300,000 books, artist books, and periodicals, and extensive individual files on more than 70,000 artists. The Museum Archives contains primary source material related to the history of MoMA and modern and contemporary art.

LA CRítiCA | Picasso en el Reina sofíadiciembre | enero 08 113


The Museum maintains an active schedule of exhibitions addres-sing a wide range of subject matter, mediums, and time periods, highlighting significant recent developments in the visual arts and new interpretations of major artists and art historical movements. Works of art from its collection are displayed in rotating installa-tions so that the public may regularly expect to find new works on display. Ongoing programs of classic and contemporary films ran-ge from retrospectives and historical surveys to introductions of the work of independent and experimental film- and videomakers. Visitors also enjoy access to a bookstore offering an assortment of publications and reproductions, and a design store offering objects related to modern and contemporary art and design.

The Museum is dedicated to its role as an educational institution and provides a complete program of activities intended to assist both the general public and special segments of the community in approaching and understanding the world of modern art. In addi-tion to gallery talks, lectures, and symposia, the Museum offers spe-cial activities for parents, teachers, families, students, preschoolers, bilingual visitors, and people with special needs. The Museum’s Li-brary and Archives contain the leading concentration of research

material on modern art in the world, and each of the curatorial de-partments maintains a study center available to students, scholars and researchers. In addition, the Museum has one of the most active publishing programs of any art museum and has published more than 1,200 editions appearing in twenty languages.

In January 2000, the Museum and P.S.1 exercised a Memorandum of Understanding formalizing their affiliation. The final arrange-ment results in an affiliation in which the Museum becomes the sole corporate member of P.S.1 and P.S.1 maintains its artistic and cor-porate independence. This innovative partnership expands outre-ach for both institutions, and offers a broad range of collaborative opportunities in collections, exhibitions, educational programs, and administration.

MoMA has just completed the largest and most ambitious buil-ding project in its history. This project nearly doubled the space for MoMA’s exhibitions and programs. Designed by Yoshio Taniguchi, the new MoMA features 630,000 square feet of new and redesig-ned space. The Peggy and David Rockefeller Building on the wes-tern portion of the site houses the main exhibition galleries, and The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building—the Museum’s first building devoted solely to these activities—on the eastern portion of the site provides over five times more space for classrooms, auditoriums, teacher training workshops, and the Museum’s expanded Library and Archives. These two buildings fra-me the enlarged Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. The new Museum opened to the public on November 20, 2004, and the Cullman Building opened in November 2006.

To make way for its renovation and rebuilding, MoMA closed on Fifty-third Street in Manhattan on May 21, 2002, and opened MoMA

the rich and varied collection of the Museum of Modern art

constitutes one of the most comprehensive and panoramic views

into modern art.



pUBLiCACiones mnCARs

NuEStROS LIBROSsilent theater: the Art of Edward Hopper

francis bacon in the 1950s

Alfred stieglitz: the Key set - Volume I & II: the Alfred stieglitz Collection of Photographs

A life of Picasso: the triumphant Years, 1917-1932

silent theater: the art of edward hopper _________________________

Walter Wells; phaidon press, 2007;264 pages.

Silent Theater: The Art of Edward Hopper illuminates the life and work of one of America’s most celebrated yet enigmaticar-tists.Through a close study of the themes, emotions, and imagery thatpreoccupied Hopper (1882-1967) throughout his life, Walter Wells presentsmany new insights, especially into the haunting silence and loneliness atthe heart of the artist’s vision.Hopper’s paintings are often described as belonging to a school of Americanrealism, and were in part inspired by the works of European realists suchas Gustave Courbet and Edouard Manet; however, the under-lying themes ofloneliness, melancholy, and silence that pervade his works also recall thesurrealist, dreamlike images of Giorgio de Chirico.These elements of thedream world and the subconscious - psycholo-gical states that are intrinsicto all people, however little we understand them - may be what makeHopper’s work so universa-lly compelling.The paintings embody apar-ticularly American sensibility; Hopper’s evocative depictions of bothurban and rural settings - including theatre interiors, railways,restaurants, gas stations, hotels, street scenes, and coastal landscapes -have become iconic images of early twentieth-century American culture. Particular atten-tion is paid to the literary works from whi-ch Hopper took inspiration, as well as the ways in which the artist’s ownpsychology.

francis Bacon in the 1950s ________________________

Michael Peppiatt; Yale University press, 2007; 224 pages.

From the screaming heads and snarling chimpanzees of the late 1940s to the anon-ymous figures trapped in tortured isolation some ten years later, during one crucial de-cade British artist Francis Bacon created many of the most central and memorable images of his entire career. The artist enters the decade of the 1950s in search of himself and his true subject; he finishes ten years later having completed some of his great masterpieces and having acquired techni-cal mastery over one of the most disturbing and revealing visions of the 20th century.

This book brings both Bacon the man and Bacon the painter vividly to life, focusing for the first time on this key period in his development. Michael Peppiatt, the leading authority on Bacon and a close friend of the artist for thirty years, reveals essential keys to understanding Bacon’s mysterious and subversive art. The book presents and as-sesses a wide range of paintings (many of them rarely seen before) representing all of Bacon’s major themes during the 1950s.

About the AuthorFormerly editor and publisher of Art Inter-national, Michael Peppiatt is an indepen-dent art historian and exhibition curator living between London and Paris. His pre-vious books include Alberto Giacometti in Postwar Paris, published by Yale University Press. His 1996 biography of Francis Bacon, Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma, is considered the definitive account of Bacon’s life and work and was chosen as a New York Times Book of the Year.



pUBLiCACiones mnCARs

Few individuals have exerted as profound an influence on 20th-century American art and culture as Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946). This luxurious two-volume boxed set is the definitive catalogue of the Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the most com-plete Stieglitz holding in existence, donated to the gallery by his widow, artist Georgia O’Keeffe.

Numbering 1,642 photographs, the collec-tion represents the full range of the master photographer’s work-from early studies made in Europe, to views of the majestic New York skyline, to incomparable intimate portraits of O’Keeffe. Coinciding with a ma-jor traveling exhibition and providing com-plete scholarly apparatus and a chronology, this sumptuous volume demonstrates how Stieglitz absorbed the most advanced artis-tic concepts of his time into photography and transformed the medium forever.

This is a major contribution to the field of artistic photography and art history, and frankly, I am not sure what the previous re-viewer was looking at or for when giving this award-winning set one out of five stars (it was rated “outstanding art publication of the year” by the Art Libraries Society of Nor-th America in 2002).

Greenough’s 2-volume set is a stando-ut in numerous ways. For starters, it is the first retrospective work that has attempted to establish some kind of chronological

order to Stieglitz’s photographs (many of his major works were never dated previo-usly). Why is this important? Stieglitz was extremely influential not only as an artist but as a technician, introducing new photo cropping and printing methods at a time when photography was just starting out as a field of study. Without dates for his photo-graphs, it had previously been impossible to determine for certain whether Stieglitz was employing (or improving upon) techniques that were already out there, or if he was for-ging ahead into unknown territory.

The scholarship undertaken here is im-pressive: in addition to the dating of all the material, Greenough provides copious notes about the images, including invaluable in-formation about the reproduction process. There is a detalied appendix, bibliography, index, and concordances, as well as infor-mation of other Stieglitz photographs in other collections.

Apart from the scholarship, however, what makes this set standout is the quality and quantity of the images. There are over 1600 photographs in this set, and only about a third of them had ever been reproduced before. Many of the images here are print variants that Stieglitz produced from the same negative, showing how he experimen-ted with printing (using carbon, platinum, gelatin silver, and palladium among other materials) as well as cropping/orientating/mounting of his prints.

alfred stieglitz: the key set - Volume i & ii: the alfred stieglitz collection of Photographs _________________________

sarah et al. Greenough; Harry n. Abrams, 2002, 1100 pages.

a life of Picasso: the triumphant Years, 1917-1932 ___________________________

John Richardson, Knopf, 608 pages.

This third volume in Richardson’s magis-terial biography takes us through Picasso’s middle years, as he establishes his mastery over craft, other artists and the women in his life. The story begins the year Picasso falls in love with Olga Kokhlova, a Russian dancer he met while working on the avant-garde ballet Parade for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. By the end of the volume, Olga—his first wife—becomes the victim of some of Picasso’s most harrowing images. The book elaborates on the details of Picasso’s inspirations, with Richardson providing a balance of fact, salacious detail and art-his-torical critique. He is particularly skilled at evoking the humor and sexuality that im-bues Picasso’s portraits of Marie-Thérèse, who became his mistress when he was 45 and she 17: As for the figure’s amazing legs: the secret of their monumentality had esca-ped me until Courbet’s great view of Etretat gave him a clue: Picasso has used the rock arches of Etretat... to magnify the scale of

the bather’s legs and breasts.... The artist’s entire circle is also here, from Georges Bra-que to Henri Matisse, from André Breton to Ernest Hemingway. They are jealous colla-borators, competitive geniuses, excessive bohemians, dear friends, frustrated homo-sexuals—while a handful of women come across as essential yet entirely replaceable.

“My work is like a diary,” Picasso often said, and Richardson demonstrates the tru-th of this in the third installment of his bio-graphy. He rejoins Picasso after his Cubist stage, when Picasso is designing costumes for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and entering a primarily neoclassical period. The volu-me covers the years of his marriage to the Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova, the mo-ther of his only legitimate child, Paulo, and describes their lavishly bourgeois life style in Paris and their summers in the South of France. The most striking aspect of this su-refooted account is the link that Richardson shows between the women in Picasso’s life



CiCLo de músiCA | a RitMo de Jazz

NuEVA ORLEANS EN MADRID

24 de febrero 2007 __

BoB sands QuaRtetBob sands, saxo.dan Rochlis, guitarra.Francisco López “Loque”, contrabajo.Guillermo mcGill, batería.

10 de marzo 2007 ___

aRuÁn oRtiz tRíoAruán ortiz, piano.masa Kamaguchi, contrabajo.mariano steimberg, batería.

24 de marzo 2007 ___

fedeRico lechneR tanGo & Jazz tRíoFederico Lechner, piano.Jorge Cerrato “Jato”, bajo eléctrico.marcelo Gueblón, batería.

febrero de 2007 es la fecha de inauguración del Jazz Club mNCARs, un club de jazz que tendrá su sede en el museo Reina sofía, y que nace con la voluntad de fomentar todos los estilos del género. la programación acogerá la actuación de bandas de gran prestigio y trayectoria en los circuitos internacionales de música jazz. se pretende la creación de un espacio de entretenimiento y difusión de este género, que vaya más allá de los festivales que con carácter esporádico se realizan en madrid, y que supere, además, las limitaciones de aforo y espacio al que tienen acceso las pequeñas formaciones. Cada quince días, la sala de Columnas del mNCARs se adaptará a la estética y entidad de los clubes de jazz tradicionales para recrear el ambiente adecuado a este género, incorporando, para ello, incluso un servicio de catering y bebidas.

14 de abril 2007 _____

antonio seRRano cuaRtetoAntonio serrano, armónica.Joshua edelman, piano.Lucho Aguilar, contrabajo.Jimmy Castro, batería.

28 de abril 2007 _____

caRlos caRli cuaRtetosergio Ruzafa, guitarra.Carlos Barreto, contrabajo.Carlos Carli, batería.marcelo peralta, saxofonista



CiCLos de músiCA | nueVa oRleans en MadRid

bob sands QuarTeT ____________

Bob Sands ha participado en giras internacionales con The Glenn Miller Orchestra y la orquesta de Lionel Hampton. Ha tocado junto a músicos de la talla de Dizzy Gillespie, Paquito D’Rivera, Gerry Mulligan, Mel Lewis, Gary Smulyan, Clark Terry, Mark Murphy, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ron McClure, George Mraz, Kurt Weiss y J.J. Johnson, entre muchos otros.

Actualmente, Bob Sands trabaja como músico freelance y profesor en Musikene, San Sebastián, dirige su trío, su cuarteto y The Bob Sands Big Bang cuando sus obligaciones como músico de grabaciones y solista lo permiten, además, es músico habitual en grabaciones y giras de artistas pop nacionales como Joaquín Sabina, Miquel Ríos, Marta Sanchez, Lolita, Antonio Flores, Martirio, Víctor Manuel, Ana Belén y Joan Manuel Serrat entre muchos otros.

aruán orTiz Trío _______________

En su proceso creativo se hunde en la com-posición de frases melódicas influenciadas por los ritmos de sus antecedentes afrocu-banos entrelazadas con marcadas referen-

cias que recuerdan claramente los estilos de Andrew Hill, Herbie Hancock y Phineas Newborn. Incorpora elementos rítmicos del Medioeste y Asia, además de África, y Cuba, lo que resulta más que evidente en el álbum debut de su trío, Aruán Ortiz Trío Vol. 1.

Su habilidad de incorporar elementos del world music en el sonido del jazz avant-garde ha llevado a Aruán a colaborar con numerosos artistas emergentes en álbumes como Junjo, de Esperanza Spalding, Notes on Canvas, de Arturo Stable o Change for the Better, de Chie Imaizumi Big Band, entre otros.

Federico Lechner Tango & Jazz Trío _______________________

Federico Lechner nació en 1974 en Buenos Aires. Hijo del pianista y director de orquesta Jorge Lechner, y de Lolita Lechner, pedagoga musical especializada en niños, empieza a estudiar piano a la edad de tres años. A partir de los seis años comienza a dar recitales de piano y a trabajar como cantante y locutor infantil en anuncios publicitarios. Amplía su formación musical con Elizabeth Westerkampf, Eduardo Egüez, Alejandra Krislawim.

En septiembre de 2006 sale a la luz su disco Estela, con su Federico Lechner Tango & Jazz trío –presente aquí en el CBA- fruto de la experimentación entre el Tango y el Jazz que el trío ha ido haciendo a lo largo de dos años de actuaciones en directo. El disco está siendo muy bien acogido tanto por el público como por la crítica y el trío ha sido elegido para protagonizar, junto a otros cinco destacados grupos de jazz de España, el ciclo Fusión Sonora de la cadena de televisión Tele 5.

anTonio serrano cuarTeTo __

Antonio Serrano nace en Madrid en 1974. Comienza sus estudios musicales a los siete años de la mano de su padre, quien le enseña a tocar la armónica y a leer música. Ésta enseñanza se complementa con algunos estudios en los conservatorios de Madrid y Alicante.

Ha tocado con Larry Adler, Lou Bennett, Luis Salinas, Chano Domínguez, Jorge Pardo, Perico Sambeat, Javier Colina, Horacio Fumero y Albert Sanz entre otros.

Su discografía en “solitario” cuenta con cuatro discos. Uno a dúo con el acordeonista Mario Torres, Más que Dos. El segundo grabado con el trío de Joshua Edelman, En el Central. Otro grabado con José Reinoso, Horacio Fumero y Oscar Giunta, Southamerican Jazz Project, y el último con Federico Lechner, en el que interpretan música de películas, Sesión Continua.

carLos carLi cuarTeTo ________

En 1982 funda y dirige la Libra Collagge Big Band, junto al fallecido pianista Jean Luc Vallet.

Dentro y fuera de España ha tocado con figuras de renombre del circuito internacional del jazz, como Paquito D’Rivera, Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, Claudio Roditi, Dave Schniter, Woody Shaw, Sal Nestico, Chuck Loeb, Lou Bennet, Dave Thomas, Frank Leacy, Jimmy Ponder, Sony Fortune, Bill Saxton, Charlie MacPherson, Lalo Schifrin, Jim Kelly, Geg Badolato, Greg Hopkins, Steve Turre, Philip Catherine, Joe Beck, Lou Marini, Jerry Gonzalez, Phil Markowitz y Paula Oliveira.

Ha participado en numerosos festivales, el Belgrade Jazz Festival (1982), el Estambul Jazz Festival (1985), el Guinness Jazz Festival (1985) y el Gexto (1989) junto a Jorge Pardo y Carlos Benavent. También antonio serrano



CoLeCCión mnCARs | mujer en azul, PaBlo Picasso

COLECCIóN MNCARS

Mujer en azul, 1901Pablo Picasso

El 29de abril de 1901se inaugura la Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes en Madrid. Picasso participa con el pre-sente lienzo, que figura en el catálogo con el número 963como Una figu-ra.Picasso deja abandonada su obra, des-pués de haber obtenido solo una mención honorí-fica, hasta que Enrique Lafuente Ferrari la rescata de su olvido.

Mujer en azul,como es conocida desde entonces, es la obra más significativa realizada durante la estancia de Picas-so en Madrid, ciudad donde permanece entre enero y abril de 1901ydonde funda, junto con Francisco de AsísSoler, la revista Arte Joven.En los cinco nú-meros editados, participan también Miguel de Unamuno y Pío Baro-ja, que relata en sus memorias el tipo de retratos pintados por Picasso en aquel momento: «Pablo Picasso, cuando estuvo en Madrid, había tomado un estudio hacia la calle de Zurbano, y se dedicaba a pintar de memoria figu-ras de mujeres de aireparisiense, con la boca redonda y roja como una oblea». Enla ciudad gala admiró la obrade Toulouse-Lautrec, cuya huella se manifiesta aún en esta espectacular dama ataviada con gran tocado, y en elmanejo del pincel. Las pinceladas al óleo, en zonas de la falda muy empastadas, revelan, no obstante, por lo gene-ral calidades de pastel, técnica utilizada por Picasso con frecuencia durante esa época en asuntos parecidos. Lamujer aparece ante un fondo neutro, de intenso verde y azul, vestida con una enorme falda de miriñaque blancacon cenefas, parecidas a las que visten las modelos de un Velázquez. Su atuendo, sin embargo, está al último gritode fin de siglo, con la faja verde que cae de su cintura, la chaquetilla ceñida al cuerpo y el enorme lazo en formade mariposa que deja a la vista un broche en el cuello. Su rostro triangular, pintado llamativamente con coloreteen mejillas y labios, atrae la mirada del espectador a pesar del enorme sombrero que corona su altiva cabeza, acti-tud que queda correspondida con su pose imperiosa con la sombrilla. Fría y distante, es la imagen de una de esasdamas elegantes —algunos sospechan en ella una cortesana— que posaban entonces para Picasso. La mujer sinnombre, recuerda, según Ricardo Baroja, colega en la exposición de 1901,al menos a una «vampiresa, una, se diríaahora mujer fatal».

Óleo sobre lienzo, 133,5 x 101cmfirmado en el ángulo superior derecho: «-P Ruiz Picasso-»

procedencia: 1901,abandonado por el artista en las salas de la Exposición general de bellas Artes, madrid; 1954, encontrado y depositado en el museo Nacional de Arte moderno, madrid; 1974,museo Español de ArteContemporáneo, madrid; 1988,museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina sofía, madrid.

bibliografía esencial: Zervos, 1932-1978, vol. XXI, p. 211; baroja, 1952a, pp. 39-40; baroja, 1952b, p. 206; Daix-boudaille, 1967,III-5; Palau i fabre, 1981, 539; berna, 1984, p. 205, n.º 110; Daix, 1987, p. 35; fráncfort, 1991, n.º 130; Richardson, 1995, p. 182; Esteban leal-galán martín-fernández Aparicio, 2002, pp. 64-65; madrid, 2004-2005, n.º 76.



CoLeCCión mnCARs | mujer en azul, PaBlo Picasso



CoLeCCión mnCARs

Como español, Gris no combatió en la Primera Guerra Mundial. No obstante, lo pasó muy mal durante la contienda. Se miraba constan-temente con sospecha a los extranjeros en el frente civil, y a veces faltaba comida y combustible para calefacción. En los primeros años, sufrió verdadera pobreza al perder repentinamente los ingresos pro-venientes de su marchante Kahnweiler, pero en 1915 Léonce Rosen-berg, que había coleccionado obras cubistas antes de la guerra, decidió ocupar el hueco que produjo en el mercado el exilio de Kahnweiler, y empezó a interesarse por la obra de Gris. En abril 1916, Gris firmó un contrato con Rosenberg, y entre 1916 y 1920 iba a convertirse en uno de los del grupo de cubistas respaldados por la galería del marchante, l’Effort Moderne; entre ellos se encontraban Léger, Metzinger, Severi-ni, Herbin, Lipchitz y Laurens. Gris sobre todo había de considerarse una figura prominente en la denominada «vuelta al orden» de los últimos años de la guerra y la media década que la siguió.

Gris data Mujer sentada «5-17», fecha confirmada por los libros de existencias de la galería l’Effort Moderne de Léonce Rosenberg. El 5 de mayo de 1917 Gris escribía a Rosenberg desde París: «Picasso vol-vió anteayer, y vino a verme. Pasamos la tarde juntos. Le dije lo que tú me escribiste sobre las dos pinturas que hizo en Roma [.]. Le ense-ñé mi material más reciente y parece que le gusta bastante. Yo esta-ba muy contento porque, como tú bien sabes, siempre tiendo a creer que todo lo que hago es espantoso». Picasso había estado en Roma con los Ballets Russes de Sergei Diaghilev, diseñando los decorados y el vestuario para la producción de Parade, un ballet ideado por Jean Cocteau con música de Erik Satie. Parade se estrenó en el Théâtre du Châtelet de París en mayo de 1917, y Gris fue un miembro entusias-ta del público. También había asistido a los ensayos, invitado por Picasso6. Mujer sentada fue pintada, entonces, en un momento de relación especialmente estrecha entre Gris y Picasso.

Una de las dos pinturas pintadas por Picasso en Roma a las que Gris se refiere en su carta de 5 de mayo es L’Italienne. La relación en-tre este cuadro y Mujer sentada es significativa. La figura disfrazada de la pintura de Picasso se basa en postales turísticas, a su vez es-trechamente relacionadas con el género de pinturas de campesinos con trajes pintorescos asociados más obviamente con Corot. Como veremos, es probable que la pintura de Gris fuese hecha con una modelo, que bien podría ser su compañera Josette, pero la postura de la figura y el énfasis que pone en el complicado traje también nos recuerda de forma general las pinturas de campesinas de Corot. Esto queda subrayado por el hecho de que pintó Mujer sentada después de su Retrato de Madame Josette Gris al estilo de Corot, realizado en octubre de 1916, y después de su adaptación cubista de la Mujer con mandolina de Corot, ejecutada un mes antes. De hecho, representa, como L’Italienne de Picasso, el punto culminante de una campaña (respaldada por Léonce Rosenberg) para vincular el Cubismo a una noción de tradición francesa.

Mujer sentada, 1917Juan GrisÓleo sobre tabla, 116 x 73 cm



CoLeCCión mnCARs

Manzanas de arena, 1929Benjamín PalenciaÓleo sobre tabla, 116 x 73 cm

Érase una vez París, 2003Alberto García-AlixGelatinobromuro de plata sobre papel baritado sobre aluminio, 126,8 x 127,3 cm

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