1917

Metz

Centre Pompidou-Metz currently presents 1917, a multidisciplinary exhibition that investigates the fundamental question of artistic creation in wartime. Originating with Picasso’s creation of his largest work, the stage curtain for the ballet Parade, in 1917, the exhibition examines artistic production of that crucial year in light of historical facts and their impacts on the lives of the artists.

1917 offers an instant view of every field of creativity during this year of the First World War. It asks what such a narrow, precise context as a single year might mean for creative activity, while avoiding the pitfalls of expectations and assumptions as to the nature of wartime art. By focusing on one year in the 20th century, 1917 also explores a rarely attempted, original exhibition format.

Alongside masters such as Brancusi, Dix, Duchamp, Kandinsky, Matisse, Monet, or Nevinson, were amateur artists who felt the need to respond to the trials of war through creative expression such as Trench art, examples of which are a high point of the exhibition. Equally important are the war artists who were sent to the front to record its events, and the many individuals who, as eyewitnesses, expressed their memory of the conflict for posterity.

From physical and psychological destruction and rebuilding through self-portraiture, to the confusion between gender, and the transformation associated with camouflage, two major figures arise: the Harlequin and the stage curtain for the ballet Parade, whose monumental format and remarkable presentation constitute the climax of the exhibition. This masterpiece by Picasso was last shown in 2004 in Hong Kong and is shown in France for the first time in over twenty years.

Centre Pompidou-Metz


May 26th – September 24th, 2012
1, parvis des Droits-de-l’Homme
57020 Metz Cedex 1
France

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