In the unending and unmeasurable and, probably, unjustifiable race to have the most absurdly expensive collection of coloured canvas hanging in the same place the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) has taken a sudden and substantial lead in the form of a billion dollar gift of representative cubist art from the billionaire philanthropist and cosmetics tycoon Leonard Lauder.
And it’s spectacular. Whether or not 78 paintings from the previous century can actually be “worth” a billion dollars is a debate for lawyers and insurance brokers and no doubt the internal revenue service who may be a little vexed at Lauder’s charitable deductions for fiscal year 2013. But for those of us for whom cubism is at its root simply nice to look at (among whom the estimable Mr. Lauder is apparently counted) this is a significant wrinkle in the process of deciding where to go next — Paris and the Pompidou, Chicago and the Art Institute, St Petersburg and the Hermitage or, in 2014 when the full collection goes on display, New York and the Met.
The inventory is 33 works by Picasso, 17 by Georges Braque, 14 by Juan Gris, and 14 by Fernand Léger and in addition to being worth an obscene amount of money they’re highly representative of a watershed period in modern art. I’d be particularly anxious to see that many Juan Gris in one place — he died young and left relatively few cubist examples compared to the prolific Picasso and that which exists is spread thin, but even more so than his contemporaries when you’re looking at cubist ephemera like posters or the credits at the beginning of Poirot or a Dubonnet ad, you’re looking at something derivative of Gris and it would be an unrivaled pleasure to see 14 essential pieces in one place.
Among them is Portrait of the Artist’s Mother which convincingly demonstrates Gris’ partiality to the geometry that became inseparable from the populist manifestations of the movement.
Also in the collection which was assembled over forty years of disciplined concentration on a few select artists and Cubism is Picasso’s portrait of his mistress, Eva Gouel, regarded as his most radical and erotic work.
The Cubist movement incorporated non-traditional materials which, at the time, meant anything that wasn’t paint and canvas, and Braque’s Fruit Dish and Glass apparently was the first of papier collé and so it’s very very important and, obviously, expensive. I just think it’s beautiful and I really want to see it in real life.
Lauder has said that he knew that this unprecedented gift would be transformative and he chose the Met carefully, although he lives in New York and it seems the obvious choice. In any case it absolutely is transformative and has taken the Metropolitan Museum of Art from being the single most important art museum in the United States to the possibly the single most important in the world.