Explore the History of this artwork, Groupe de femmes.
This works was likely realized at Csaky's studio in La Ruche; the artist enclave of Montparnasse, among many members of the Parisian avant-garde. From the outset of the 20th-century Paris was the art center of the world, where artists came to live and work from all parts of Europe and beyond: Joseph Csaky from Constantin Brâncuși from Hobitza, Amedeo Modigliani from Livorno, Gino Severini from Rome, Alexander Archipenko from Kiev, Ossip Zadkine from Smolensk, Marc Chagall from St. Petersburg, Jacques Lipchitz from Vilna, Piet Mondrian from Amsterdam, Moïse Kisling from Kraków, Pablo Picasso from Barcelona, Louis Marcoussis from Kraków, Chaïm Soutine from Vilnius.
During his proto-Cubist phase Csaky had already separated himself from the past. By 1911-12 Csaky participation in the avant-garde milieu was complete. His acquaintances included Gustave Miklos, Archipenko, Braque, Chagall, Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Le Fauconnier, Laurens, Léger, Lipchitz, Metzinger, Picasso and Henri Rousseau, in addition to Pierre Reverdy, Maurice Raynal, Max Jacob, Blaise Cendrars, Guillaume Apollinaire and Ricciotto Canudo.After exhibiting Groupe de femmes with the Cubists at the 1912 Salon d'Automne, Grand Palais des Champs Elysées—an exhibition that provoked a succès de scandal, and resulted in a xenophobe and anti-modernist quarrel in the French National Assembly—Csaky exhibited his Cubist works at the Salon de la Section d'Or, Galerie La Boétie, Paris, October 1912; considered one of the high points of the Cubist movement. Csaky was one of the first artists to apply Cubist principles to sculpture; principles that he would never abandon or disavow. Michel Seuphor has written:Csaky, after Archipenko, was the first sculptor to join the cubists, with whom he exhibited from 1911 on. They were followed by Duchamp-Villon, brother of Marcel Duchamp and of Jacques Villon, and then in 1914 by Lipchitz, Laurens and Zadkine.
In Groupe de femmes Csaky already showed a new way of representing nature, and the unwillingness to revert to classical, academic or traditional methods of representation. The complex syntax observed in Groupe de femmes was born out of an increasing sense of contemporary dynamism, out of the rhythm, balance, harmony and powerful geometric qualities of Egyptian art, of African art, early Cycladic art, Gothic art, and of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Auguste Rodin, Gustave Courbet, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat and Paul Cézanne.
Csaky wrote of the direction his art had taken during the crucial years:There was no question which was my way. True, I was not alone, but in the company of several artists who came from Eastern Europe. I joined the cubists in the Académie de La Palette, which became the sanctuary of the new direction in art. On my part I did not want to imitate anyone or anything. This is why I joined the cubists movement. (Joseph Csaky)
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes Georges Seurat Jacques Villon Louis Marcoussis Amedeo Modigliani Maurice Raynal Gustave Courbet sculptor Gino Severini Guillaume Apollinaire avant-garde Paul Cézanne Alexander Archipenko Blaise Cendrars Cubist Gustave Miklos Sonia Delaunay Constantin Brâncuși Montparnasse Salon d'Automne Marcel Duchamp Pierre Reverdy Ossip Zadkine Grand Palais Pablo Picasso Piet Mondrian National Assembly La Ruche Jacques Lipchitz Paul Gauguin Auguste Rodin Henri Rousseau Paris Joseph Csaky Marc Chagall Section d'Or Cycladic art Académie de La Palette sculpture Ricciotto Canudo Chaïm Soutine Max Jacob proto-Cubist Moïse Kisling