A study in contrasts.(Brief Article)

When Paris was the hotbed of artistic revolution at the beginning of the twentieth century, it spawned cubism between about 1908 and 1914. The innovators were Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, followed by others, including Fernand Leger, Juan Gris, Marcel Duchamp, and Natalia Goncharova. In 1912 the cubists exhibited not only at the official Salon but at their own collective exhibition, which they called La Section d'or. Nearly fifty artists were represented in the latter exhibition, in which the centerpiece was Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase which caused quite a stir the following year at the Armory Show in New York City. Subsequent Section d'or exhibitions were held in 1920 and 1925. To commemorate these exhibitions the Pavilion du Musee Fabre in Montpellier, France, has mounted an exhibition appropriately entitled La Section d'or, which is on view until March 18. The Curators are Michel Hilaire and Sylvain Amic. The accompanying catalogue, in French only, ...