New Rooms for Old Friends

Fernand Leger's 1927 Composition in Blue and Pablo Picasso's 1921 Mother and Child are among several old friends which now have new rooms. Perhaps the best part of the exhibit rooms, to me, were seeing these old friends in their fresh, bright new digs. It was almost a housewarming party for these and other paintings looking young and, well, modern.

Leger has always seemed to me to be an under-appreciated cubist. His work is at times as intriguing and creative as Picasso's. On the other hand, it seems to me that the cubist Picasso is seen by some as the only Picasso; I have always loved the warm color and soft round shapes in Mother and Child.

By the way, in about 1968 Picasso visited the Art Institute and remarked that he had a fragment of this work that he had removed during the composition. He had cut the left hand edge of the painting and narrowed the work, and he had saved a portion of the image. The artist graciously offered it to the Art Institute and it is now in their files (but not on display). It was the apparent father, sitting to the left and making the composition a "cup" shape. Not all the male image is on the remnant, as the canvas was restretched; X-ray examinations have shown part of him still there, under the image and under the frame.

While the remnant is not shown here, and should not be generally shown, it was on display for a period of time in a Picasso display.