Our collections: One day, one work of art

Edith’s gaze is lost in an indistinct landscape, and turns back inside itself in a single fleeting moment of communion. Photographer Emmet Gowin shares a biographical moment in which the protagonist is once again Edith, his wife and the leitmotiv of his work and his life.

Inspired by the incarcerated women he observed on his visits to the women’s prison and mental hospital of Saint-Lazare, Picasso painted a woman holding her baby, taken out of all context, evoking all the tenderness and care of a mother.

This work by Alberto Sánchez represents a return from exile to his land and his roots. As a member of the Vallecas School, the sculptor developed a genuinely new form of art that sought to transform society and improve people’s lives.

Paul Strand never resorted to technical tricks. His work was brutally direct. The photograph Blind Woman reflects spontaneity and honesty, the candid expression of an instant. It documents an anonymous life in Manhattan in 1916.

An enigmatic dialogue between a bird and a woman becomes the “painter and model” theme in the studio. A space for reflecting on the conflict that can be aroused by artistic creation and, consequently, the work itself.

One of Rodin’s objectives was to capture beauty in all its glory in drawings too, which became works of art in themselves and not just preliminary sketches; the movement that the sculptor gave his figures imbued them with an unprecedented sensuality.