Two Nudes

Deux Nus (Two Nudes)
ArtistJean Metzinger
Year1910–11
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions92 cm × 66 cm (36 in × 26 in)
LocationGothenburg Museum of Art, Gothenburg

Two Nudes (French: Deux Nus; also known as Two Women and Dones en un paisatge) is an early Cubist painting by the French artist and theorist Jean Metzinger. The work was exhibited at the first Cubist manifestation, in Room 41 of the 1911 Salon des Indépendants, Paris. At this exhibition the Cubist movement was effectively launched before the general public by five artists: Metzinger, Gleizes, Le Fauconnier, Delaunay and Léger.[1][2] This was the first exhibition during which artists, writers, critics and the public at large encountered and spoke about Cubism.[3] The result of the group show is a succès de scandale.

The following year Metzinger's Deux Nus, titled Dones en un paisatge, was exhibited at Galeries Dalmau, Exposició d'Art Cubista, in Barcelona, 20 April through 10 May 1912 (cat. 45). This was the first avant-garde art exhibition in Spain.[4][5]

Judging from stylistic similarities with works such as Nu à la cheminée—exhibited in Paris at the Salon d'Automne of 1910—and the fact that Two Nudes was exhibited in the spring of 1911 (18 March - 1 May) at the Salon des Indépendants, the painting is believed to have been painted during the latter half of 1910 or the outset of 1911.[3] Metzinger's Deux Nus (Two Women) is in the permanent collection of the Gothenburg Museum of Art (Göteborgs konstmuseum), Sweden.[6]

  1. ^ Steve Edwards, Paul Wood, Art of the Avant-gardes, Yale University Press, 2004 ISBN 9780300102307
  2. ^ Christopher Green, 2009, Cubism, MoMA, Grove Art Online, Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Daniel Robbins, 1985, Jean Metzinger in Retrospect, Jean Metzinger: At the Center of Cubism, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, J. Paul Getty Trust, University of Washington Press
  4. ^ Mercè Vidal i Jansà, 1912, l'Exposició d'art cubista de les Galeries Dalmau, Volume 6 of Les Arts i els artistes: Breviari, Edicions Universitat Barcelona, 1996 ISBN 8447513831
  5. ^ Peter Brooker, Sascha Bru, Andrew Thacker, Christian Weikop, The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines: Europe 1880 - 1940, Oxford University Press, May 19, 2013 ISBN 0199659583
  6. ^ Gothenburg Museum of Art, Jean Metzinger, Two Women (Två kvinnor) (purchased in 1930)