Go See – Los Angeles: Picasso, de Chirico, Léger, and Picabia ‘Modern Antiquity’ at the J. Paul Getty Museum through January 16, 2012
Monday, December 19th, 2011
Pablo Picasso, Studio with Plaster Head (1925). © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY.
Modern Antiquity at the J. Paul Getty Museum displays the works of four iconic Modern Art masters who combined ancient objects with 20th-century aesthetics to create what are now seminal artworks. From Picasso’s post-cubist womanly forms to Picabia’s “transparencies,” one can experience the relation of these modern works to their classic counterparts in the setting of the Getty Museum, famous for its antiquities collection. Picasso, de Chirico, Léger, and Picabia each uniquely found inspiration in the antique classical objects in museums that they frequented. Despite the fact these ancient objects belonged to other times and cultures, these artists felt a contemporary affinity towards them as they made up part of their everyday life. This major exhibition focuses on the works these four artists made between 1905-1935.