Picasso, Miró, Léger and the Many Voices of Modernism

The French industrialist Roger Dutilleul was one of the great patrons of modernist art: he collected paintings by Picasso, Miró and Léger as well as work by less recognised, often self-taught artists, and was immortalised in a portrait by Modigliani in 1919. His collection, which was added to by his nephew, formed the basis of Lille Métropole Musée d’art moderne, d’art contemporain et d’art brut (LaM) – and it is this collection that is the focus of an exhibition at ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum in Denmark (5 April–28 September). It presents modernism not simply as the domain of great men but also as a wider movement in which paintings by lesser-known artists such as André Bauchant and Louis Vivin deserve to rub shoulders with works by Braque and Klee. The paintings from LaM are complemented by pieces such as Léger’s The Mechanic (1918), from the Centre Pompidou, and Picasso’s Ram’s Head on a Table (1925), from the Musée Picasso.

Find out more from ARoS’s website.
Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary

Three Characters on a Black Background (1934), Joan Miró. Lille Métropole musée d’art moderne, d’art contemporain et d’art brut (LaM). Photo: Philip Bernard; © Successió Miró / VISDA

César (1948), Aloïse Corbaz. Lille Métropole musée d’art moderne, d’art contemporain et d’art brut (LaM). Photo: Nicolas Dewitte, LaM; © Aloïse Corbaz

Woman with Hat (c. 1942), Pablo Picasso. Lille Métropole musée d’art moderne, d’art contemporain et d’art brut (LaM). Photo: Studio Lourmel; © Succession Picasso / VISDA