Obsession: Nudes by Klimt, Schiele, and Picasso from the Scofield Thayer Collection
July 3rd – October 7th, 2018
The Met Breuer: 945 Madison Avenue, New York
This summer, the Met Breuer will present a collection of watercolors, drawings and prints (the majority nudes) by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Pablo Picasso from The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Scofield Thayer Collection. “Obsession” will provide a focused look at the Scofield Thayer Collection, and marks the first time this group of works are being shown together.
Scofield Thayer was ahead of his time when it came to advocating for the work of now-iconic creatives. He served as co-publisher and editor of the literary magazine Dial from 1919 to 1926. During his time there, l he introduced Americans to the writings of T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, D.H. Lawrence, Arthur Schnitzler, Thomas Mann and Marcel Proust, among others. While he was a patient of Sigmund Freud in Vienna, he acquired a large group of watercolors and drawings by Schiele and Klimt, artists who at that time were unknown in America. When the works were exhibited for the first time in the United States, they were not received favorably. Incensed, Thayer draw up his will in 1925 and left his collection to The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
