Martin Lawrence Galleries La Jolla presentation of 20th Century Modern Masters

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Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Joan Miró, and Salvador Dalí hardly need an introduction. These world-renowned iconic artists captured the public's imagination, and to this day, each remains a touchstone of 20th-century art, a symbol of the best of the best.

Today, Martin Lawrence Galleries (MLG) La Jolla is proud to announce that it will be offering breathtaking works by these artists in its La Jolla by the Sea location, beginning November 1st and running until November 30th, 2019. Masterpieces to be presented for acquisition include Marc Chagall, The Bay of Angels, hand-signed lithograph, Salvador Dalí, Melting Space-Time (Imaginations and Objects of the Future), Pablo Picasso, Carnaval (Carnival)  (B.1242), hand-signed linocut, Miró, Untitled (La Mélodie Acide, M.1217), lithograph

“My hands were too soft. I had to find some special occupation, some kind of work that would not force me to turn away from the sky and the stars, that would allow me to discover the meaning of life”. -Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall, poet-painter, was a Russian-French artist. An early modernist, he drew from several major artistic styles and created works in virtually every format, from paintings to book illustrations to fine art prints. Chagall lived through and helped create modernism's "golden age in Paris," synthesizing the art forms of Cubism, Symbolism, and Fauvism-which gave rise to Surrealism-and combining that expression with Russian icon painting and folk art. Chagall's works reflect love, joy, beauty, and sadness, and he believed that color must integrate with drawing.  Pablo Picasso once remarked, "Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour really is." MLG is proud to exhibit originals, suites, and individual prints by Marc Chagall. 

No place inspired Chagall more than Nice, and this delightful partnership of love and admiration is perfectly encapsulated in his magical work [Bay of Angels]. A stunning blue siren floats above the beautifully detailed city, wistfully reaching for an enchanting bouquet. A sense of longing and desire fill the page, as the siren refuses to make contact with the viewer and instead appears to delight in her dreamlike world. The scene is quintessentially Chagall: romantic, whimsical, and surreal, like a dream, inviting you in and invoking all of your emotions and senses and memories.

Created in 1962, this color lithograph was designed for the French Tourist Commissariat to attract tourists to the town of Nice and the Cote d'Azur outside France. 

The fact that I myself, at the moment of painting, do not understand my own pictures, does not mean that these pictures have no meaning; on the contrary, their meaning is so profound, complex, coherent, and involuntary that it escapes the most simple analysis of logical intuition." Salvador Dalí 

Salvador Dalí is one of the greatest Surrealist artists in history. A skilled draftsman born into a prominent Spanish family in Catalonia Spain, Dali is best known for the striking and bizarre images of extraordinary landscapes of his inner world. Dalí painted his first picture in 1910 at the age of six. At ten he discovered Impressionist art, and at fourteen the Pompiers (a 19th-century group of academic genre painters). By 1927 he was Dalí-a recognized genius. MLG's collection of 'The Great Dali' includes wood engravings, lithographs, watercolors, and etchings. The largest Dalí painting ever created can be seen at MLG Las Vegas. Located in the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace.

Another of Dalí’s best-loved images – the melting clock – makes Melting Space-Time a fantastic addition to a Dalí collection. This whimsical and visually appealing image shows how time will evolve into the future. The Dallas Museum of Art interpreted it as follows:

A person will no longer wear a watch on the wrist. The roads upon which we travel will be full of such information. Computerized movable roads on which not only time but space will be summarized. Space and time will become a single continuum. They will blend into a soft, flexible new reality. 

"Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth." Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso is considered the most celebrated and influential painter and the most innovative sculptor of the twentieth century. Picasso was also a master printmaker, and his graphic oeuvre spans more than seven decades. His published prints total 2,000 different images, pulled from metal, stone, wood, linoleum, and even celluloid. Picasso's graphic work intermittently followed his preoccupations and style as a painter. MLG's collection of hand-signed linocuts reveals the full breadth of his visual genius and invention of on-block technique, which enabled him to achieve brilliantly colored and richly textured works on paper. 

In contrast with his cubist aesthetic, Pablo Picasso linocut Carnaval (Carnival),1967 features a vibrant, playful assortment of carnival characters dancing and laughing. Picasso uses a rich brown in the background as characters emerge out of what once just seemed like beige flowing lines. In the form of the beige lines are dancing figures holding hands as exaggerated faces peer in from the bottom. In the upper register of the composition, whimsical stars fill the negative space. The lines seem almost to vibrate and undulate drawing the viewer in with frenzied energy, and yet each one purposefully describes an element of the scene.

 “WHEN I STAND IN FRONT OF A CANVAS, I NEVER KNOW WHAT I’M GOING TO DO – AND NOBODY IS MORE SURPRISED THAN I AT WHAT COMES OUT.” JOAN MIRO

Joan Miró is regarded as one of the most original artists of the 20th century, who often worked with a limited palette, yet the colors he used were bold and expressive. His mature style evolved from the tension between his fanciful, poetic impulse, and his vision of the harshness of modern life. Miró worked extensively in lithography and produced many murals, tapestries, and sculptures for public spaces. Despite his fame, he continued to devote himself exclusively to looking and creating.

Joan Miró was born in Barcelona, Spain, on April 20th, 1893. His father was an artisan watchmaker and goldsmith. Based on his parents' wishes, Miró attended a commercial college, then found work as a clerk in an office for a short period of time. Unfulfilled by his profession, Miró asked for his parent's permission to allow him to attend art school in Barcelona in 1912. There, he gained significant experience learning under Francisco Galí.

Miró worked in Spain from 1915 to 1919, painting landscapes, portraits, and more. He experimented with different styles, including Fauvist style and Cubism. In 1920, Miró traveled to Paris, where he met Pablo Picasso. The two artists, struct and ideologically influential friendship in which they would often discuss artistic styles, muses, and inspiration. It was also during this time Miró split much of his time between Paris, France, and Montroig, Spain. José Dalmau organized Miró's first solo exhibition at the Galerie la Licorne in 1921. Miró eventually joined the Surrealist group, and he was included in the first Surrealist exhibition at the Galerie Pierre. In 1929, Miró started working in lithography. In 1941, Miró printed his Constellation series, a collection characterized by stars, birds, women, and use of primary colors. This series contained one of his most famous works, "The Morning Star," and increased his status within the Surrealistic art movement.

Miró was included in the Cubism and Abstract Art and Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 1942 he was commissioned to create a monumental work for the Paris World’s Fair. Miró’s first major museum retrospective was held in 1941 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 1944, he finalized his Barcelona Series, a compilation dedicated to the political strife and Civil War that saturated his home city.

In 1980, in conjunction with his being awarded Spain's Gold Medal of Fine Arts, a plaza in Madrid was named in Miró's honor. Joan Miró died on December 25th, 1983. Martin Lawrence Galleries is honored to have select Joan Miró's artworks, which can be found here.

Martin Lawrence Galleries

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La Jolla by the Sea

La Jolla, CA 92037

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About Martin Lawrence Galleries

Since 1978, Martin Lawrence Galleries, headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut with nine gallery locations nationwide including New York, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, New Orleans, San Francisco, Costa Mesa, La Jolla, Maui has been assisting and advising collectors as they acquire fine art.  MLG is the publisher of fine art prints and sculpture and is also the home to modern and contemporary masters like Picasso, Chagall, Warhol, Calder, Magritte, Basquiat, and Murakami. We are incredibly proud to have lent and exhibited over 200 masterworks, created by more than 30 different artists, to 30+ world-class museums around the globe including the Louvre, the Pompidou, the Metropolitan, the Whitney, the National Gallery, the Tate and the Hermitage-where we are the sole sponsor of the first ever exhibition of the work of Erté, the father of art deco and we proudly publish works by artists including Kondakova, Hallam, Bertho, Fressinier, Lalonde, and Deyber. For more information visit martinlawrence.com

For further information and images contact:

Katia Graytok – PR & Media Relations

kgraytok@martinlawrence.com