MARIE LAURENCIN

7 Feb-9 Apr 2021

Overview

Nahmad Projects is pleased to announce an exhibition of paintings by Marie Laurencin, the first solo presentation of her work in London since 1947. This selection of works demonstrates the genius in Laurencin’s vision of a self-sufficient world of female affection and creativity. This exhibition seeks to celebrate Marie Laurencin’s qualities as a great modernist painter, her instrumental role in defining the Art Deco style, and her influence on a generation of the Parisian intellectual elite. As a young artist, Laurencin rose quickly as a prominent figure within the Cubists. She sold her first painting to Gertrude Stein and exhibited with Cubist group the Section d’Or in 1911. Yet her friendship with male artists and romance with Guillaume Apollinaire occluded historians’ ability to recognise her contribution to modernism. Many, including those closest to her, celebrated her feminine touch but balked at the notion of equal standing with her fellow male artists. Some, however, did notice her. Henri Matisse said of Laurencin in relation to her earlier connection with the Fauvist group: “She, at least, is no mere Fauvette.”