About This Artwork

Pablo Picasso
Spanish, worked in France, 1881–1973

Abstraction: Background with Blue Cloudy Sky, January 4, 1930

Oil on panel
26 x 19 3/8 in. (66 x 49.2 cm)
Signed and dated, l.r.: "Picasso/4-I-xxx"
Gift of Florene May Schoenborn and Samuel A. Marx; Wilson L. Mead Fund, 1955.748

© Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

New York, Valentine Gallery, Abstractions of Picasso, January 1931, either cats. 17, 20, or 23, as Abstract Forms, Background with Blue Sky.

London, Alex, Reid and Lefevre, Thirty Years of Pablo Picasso, June 1931, cat. 33 (ill.).

Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, Exposition Picasso, June 16–July 30, 1932, p. 63, cat. 192, as Métamorphose.

Kunsthaus Zurich, Picasso, September 11–October 30, 1932, p. 14, cat. 191, as Abstraktion.

London, New Burlington Galleries, The International Surrealist Exhibition, June 11–July 4, 1936, p. 26, cat. 300, as Abstraction, Time and Eternity.

London, Lefevre Gallery, Picasso, May–June 1953, p. 4, cat. 12 (ill.), as Abstraction Fond de Ciel Bleu Nuageux.

The Art Institute of Chicago, Gallery of Art Interpretation: Presenting the Art Institute's Picassos, September–December1955, no cat..

The Art Institute of Chicago, Picasso in Chicago, February 3–March 31, 1968, pp. 33 and 114, cat. 34 (ill.), as Abstraction: Background with Blue Cloudy Sky.

Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Dada and Surrealism in Chicago Collections, December 1 1984–January 27, 1985, p. 208 (ill.).

Publication History

Michel Leiris, “Toiles Récentes de Picasso,” Documents 2, 2 (1930), p. 63 (ill.).Carl Einstein, Die Kunst des 20 Jahrhunderts, 3rd Edition (Berlin: Im Propyläen, 1931), p. 638, pl. IX.

Valentine Gallery, Abstractions of Picasso, exh. cat. (New York: Valentine Gallery, 1931), either cats. 17, 20, or 23.

Lloyd Goodrich, “Exhibitions: Picasso’s Latest,” The Arts 17:6 (Mar. 1931), p. 414 (ill.), as Abstract Forms.

Alex, Reid and Lefevre, Thirty Years of Pablo Picasso (London: Alex, Reid and Lefevre, 1931), cat. 33 (ill.).

Herbert Furst, “The Picasso Exhibition at the Lefevre Galleries,” Apollo 13:78 (June 1931), pp. 395 and 397 (ill.).

“Art Exhibitions: Pablo Picasso,” The Times (London, June 1931).

Raymond Mortimer, “Picasso,” The Architectural Review 70 (July 1931), p. 21 (ill.).

Galerie Georges Petit, Exposition Picasso, exh. cat. (Paris: Galerie Georges Petit, 1932), p. 63, cat. 192.

Kunsthaus Zurich, Picasso, exh. cat. (Zurich: Kunsthaus Zurich, 1932), p. 14, cat. 191.

New Burlington Galleries, The International Surrealist Exhibition, exh. cat. (London: New Burlington Galleries, 1936), p. 26, cat. 300.

Frank H. Knight, “Interpreting History,” Saturday Review of Literature XVI:5 (May 29, 1937), p. 5 (ill.), Abstract Forms.

Per-Olav Zennström, Pablo Picasso (Stockholm: P. A. Norstedt and Söners Förlag, 1948), fig. 37, as Metamorfos.

Lefevre Gallery, Picasso, exh. cat. (London: Lefevre Gallery, 1953), p. 4, cat. 12 (ill.).Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso VII (Paris: Cahiers d’Art, 1955), p. 124, no. 304 (ill.), as Figure.

Frank Elgar and Robert Maillard, Picasso (Paris: Fernand Hazan, 1955), n.p. (ill.), as Figure.

Ownership History

Paul Rosenberg (1881–1959), Paris. Valentine Gallery, New York, by Jan. 1931 [New York 1931]. Lefevre Gallery, London, by June 1931 [London 1931]. Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1932 [Paris 1932]. W. Rees Jeffreys, Wivelsfield Green, Sussex, England, by 1936 [London 1936]. Lefevre Gallery, London, 1953 [London 1953]. Sold by Zwemmer Gallery, London, to the Art Institute, 1955.