Cubist art exhibit, valued at more than $1 billion, to open in NY

[October 15, 2014]  By Andrea Burzynski

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cosmetics heir and art collector Leonard A. Lauder said on Tuesday the collection of 81 Cubist masterpieces he has donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art will update the museum's collection and cement its reputation as "the greatest museum in the world."

The works of art, valued at more than $1 billion and considered one of the foremost collections of Cubism in the world, will be unveiled in an exhibition that opens on Oct. 20 and runs through Feb. 16.

The collection, which spans from 1906 to 1924, contains works by artists including Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris and Fernand Léger and traces the development of Cubism.

“Cubism is the entrance to the 20th century and everything that followed in art,” Lauder told a press conference to announce the exhibition.

"Everyone says the Met is one of the greatest museums in the world. To me, it is the greatest museum in the world," he added.

The 81-year-old heir to the Estee Lauder cosmetics fortune announced the gift to the museum in April last year. He said he decided to donate the collection because he felt it essential that Cubism, and the art that followed it, be seen and studied within the museum.
 

Since the announcement he has added three additional works, including Juan Gris’ painting “Still Life with Checked Tablecloth” (1915).

The Met museum is also establishing a new research center for modern art which will be supported by a $22 million endowment funded by museum trustees and supporters, including Lauder.

He said he discovered Cubism in 1976 and began collecting works from the movement, considered the most influential in 20th century art.

"I was drawn to it because it was interesting and complicated. I found that every painting has a clue," he said.

Cubism broke with previous traditions of perspective and illusionism in art, paving the way for more extreme forms of abstraction in movements that followed.

Picasso’s “The Scallop Shell" (Notre Avenir est dans l’air’”) (1912), which shows a pamphlet promoting the French government’s aviation program, is among the highlights, along with his “Woman in a Chemise in an Armchair” (1913-14), one of his most radical paintings.

The collection also includes Braque’s “Violin" (Mozart Kubelick) (1912), Léger’s “Composition (The Typographer)” and several images related to Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.”

Although the works come from around the world, Lauder, a native New Yorker, views the collection as a gift to his home city.

“It welcomed us. It educated us. It helped us make a living,” he said of New York.

(Editing by Patricia Reaney)

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