From Paris with Love: Calder-Picasso Exhibition

The Musée Picasso

The Musée Picasso is an art gallery located in the Hôtel Salé, which was previously a private mansion in the Marais district of Paris. It is dedicated to the work of the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), who lived in France from 1905 to 1973.

The permanent collection of the museum includes more than 5,000 works of art (paintings, sculptures, drawings, ceramics, prints, engravings and notebooks); besides Picasso’s art work, the museum also exhibits items from Picasso’s personal collection of works by other artists, including Paul Cezanne, Henri Rousseau and Henri Matisse.

When he died, Picasso had an inheritance tax of several million francs on his property. Since French law allows “death duties” to be paid in art work, 3,800 Picasso works became state property. Many of these pieces are now hanging in the Picasso Museum in Paris, the world's largest museum dedicated to the artist.

The Calder-Picasso Exhibition - Masters of Modernity

Entrance to the Musée Picasso

Picasso sculpture Sabot (1963, sheet metal, bolts and paint) installed in the courtyard of the Musée Picasso during the Calder-Picasso exhibition. (A sabot is a wooden shoe worn by peasants.)

The Calder-Picasso Exhibition, from February 19 to August 25, 2019, at the Picasso Museum focuses on two figures of twentieth century art: American artist, Alexander Calder and Spanish artist, Pablo Picasso. Both Calder and Picasso were born in the late 19th century and left their home countries to work in France. They met a few times during their lifetime, most notably in July 1937, in the Spanish Pavilion at the Exposition Internationale in Paris, where Calder’s Mercury Fountain (a modernistic fountain through which mercury flowed) was installed opposite Picasso’s Guernica (a mural-sized painting inspired by the bombing of a small Basque town). Calder was the only non-Spanish artist to be included in this pavilion.

The Void and Non-Space

The exhibition was created by the artists’ grandsons, who wanted to show how both artists explored the idea of the void, and how their work relates to this absence of space. Each artist had a great deal of respect for the other’s work, and although Calder’s and Picasso’s works have many things in common, the museum chose to focus on both men’s exploration of the void, or the absence of space.

My Shop - Calder (1955, oil on canvas)

The Shop at Californie - Picasso (1956, oil on canvas)

Woman in the Garden - Picasso (1930, welded iron painted white)

Hercules and the Lion - Calder (1928, wire)

Art critic Edouard Ramon referred to a wire sculpture by Calder as “the metal portrayal of a drawing in space.”

Figure - Picasso (1927, oil on plywood)

Ball Player - Calder (1927, wire and wood)

Woman in an Armchair - Picasso (1947, oil on canvas)

Aztec Josephine Baker - Calder (1930, wire)

Josephine Baker (III) - Calder (1927, brass wire)

The Bull - Picasso (1945 and 46, artist’s proofs; there are 11 renderings, but I couldn‘t get them all in one pic. The next pic shows the last proof.)

The Bull - Picasso (1945 and 46, artist’s proof.)

Constellattion - Calder (1943, wood, wire and paint)

Untitled - Calder (1942, sheet metal, wire and paint)

Dancer (L) Calder (1944, bronze); On one Knee (C) Calder (1944, aluminum); Little Girl Jumping Rope (R) Picasso (1950-54, found objects - the little girl’s torso is a basket and her face is a chocolate box, the sculpture held together by iron tubing)

Tightrope Worker (Woman on Cord) - Calder (1944, bronze and nylon)

Acrobat - Picasso

Head of stairway - Big Red - Calder signature mobile; Seven Black, Red and Blue - Calder, (1947, oil on canvas)

Top of other stairway - Couple - Picasso (1970-71, oil on canvas) and Calder mobile

Four Leaves and Three Petals - Calder (1939, sheet metal, wire and paint)

Portrait of a Young Girl - Picasso (1936, oil on canvas)

Pregnant Woman - Picasso (1949, bronze)

Figure (with rake hands) - Picasso (1935)

Untitled (L) - Calder (1933, wood); Woman and Red Armchair (C) - Picasso, (1932, oil on canvas); Requin et Balein (biggest fish in the world) - Calder (1933, painted exotic wood)

Morning Cobweb (Mockup) Calder (1969, sheet metal, bolts and paint); Head of a Woman - Picasso (1962, cut sheet metal, folded and painted wire); Soufflets coniques - Calder; Chair - Picasso (1961, painted sheet metal. Picasso began with a drawing on paper, which he cut out and folded, like origami. A craftsman then transferred the design into sheet metal); Untitled - Calder (Oil on canvas)

Wooden Bottle with Hairs - Calder (1943, wood and wire)

Woman with Pillow - Picasso (1969, oil on canvas)

Vase with Flower - Picasso (1951, bronze)

Impartial Forms - Calder (1946, oil on canvas) and The Bathers - Picasso, (1956, bronze) Woman Diver (C); Child (L); Woman with Outstretched arms (R)