.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Anne Varichon has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Albert Gleizes played a pivotal role within the French avant-garde. He first exhibited in the Salon d’Automnes in 1903, and by 1910 his early Cubist works were shown at the Salon des Indépendants. He is widely considered one of the great champions of Cubism, co-authoring with Jean Metzinger the first major text on the movement, the theoretical treatise Du cubisme, in 1912. Gleizes exhibited in the famed Armory Show in New York in 1913, and moved to America following the First World War. He was respected and admired by Peggy Guggenheim, who bought a great deal of his work for her collection.
The present work belongs to the artist’s Meditation series begun in the late 1930s, in which Gleizes subordinated iconography to plastic activity, creating large-scale canvases which were largely devoid of figurative references. Works from this series are characterized by an exuberant freedom of application in the brushwork, while still maintaining a sense of structure and control. Infused with lyrical movement, the constant turning of the forms creates rhythmic thrusts and depth within the picture plane. The work is not wholly abstract; however it does not allow the viewer to create a specific frame of reference to the material world when lost within the composition. Composition pour la contemplation certainly does demand prolonged looking, the swirling forms and harmony of colors inducing the meditative state which the artist so valued. A similar composition, painted in the same year, is in the collection of The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (fig. 1). As Daniel Robbins wrote in the introduction to the artist's 1964 retrospective at the Guggenheim, "Gleizes' individual development, his unique struggle to reconcile forces made him one of the few painters to come out of Cubism with a wholly individual style, undeflected by later artistic movements. Although he occasionally returned to earlier subjects... these later works were treated anew, on the basis of fresh insights. He never repeated his earlier styles, never remained stationary, but always grew more intense, more passionate” (Albert Gleizes, A Retrospective Exhibition, exh. cat., The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1964, p. 25).
(fig. 1) Albert Gleizes, Toile pour la contemplation, 1942. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
(fig. 2) The artist in his studio, 1939.
Albert Gleizes played a pivotal role within the French avant-garde. He first exhibited in the Salon d’Automnes in 1903, and by 1910 his early Cubist works were shown at the Salon des Indépendants. He is widely considered one of the great champions of Cubism, co-authoring with Jean Metzinger the first major text on the movement, the theoretical treatise Du cubisme, in 1912. Gleizes exhibited in the famed Armory Show in New York in 1913, and moved to America following the First World War. He was respected and admired by Peggy Guggenheim, who bought a great deal of his work for her collection.
The present work belongs to the artist’s Meditation series begun in the late 1930s, in which Gleizes subordinated iconography to plastic activity, creating large-scale canvases which were largely devoid of figurative references. Works from this series are characterized by an exuberant freedom of application in the brushwork, while still maintaining a sense of structure and control. Infused with lyrical movement, the constant turning of the forms creates rhythmic thrusts and depth within the picture plane. The work is not wholly abstract; however it does not allow the viewer to create a specific frame of reference to the material world when lost within the composition. Composition pour la contemplation certainly does demand prolonged looking, the swirling forms and harmony of colors inducing the meditative state which the artist so valued. A similar composition, painted in the same year, is in the collection of The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (fig. 1). As Daniel Robbins wrote in the introduction to the artist's 1964 retrospective at the Guggenheim, "Gleizes' individual development, his unique struggle to reconcile forces made him one of the few painters to come out of Cubism with a wholly individual style, undeflected by later artistic movements. Although he occasionally returned to earlier subjects... these later works were treated anew, on the basis of fresh insights. He never repeated his earlier styles, never remained stationary, but always grew more intense, more passionate” (Albert Gleizes, A Retrospective Exhibition, exh. cat., The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1964, p. 25).
(fig. 1) Albert Gleizes, Toile pour la contemplation, 1942. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
(fig. 2) The artist in his studio, 1939.