The museum’s latest “In Dialogue” exhibition opened recently and is up through February 11. “Power Couple: Pierre and Louise Daura in Paris” is the most recent in a series of installations in which the museum’s curators create focused, innovative conversations around works of art from the permanent collection. The series brings these familiar works to life by placing them in dialogue with objects by influential peers, related sketches, and studies or even objects from other periods.
In 1928, the artists Pierre Daura and Louise Heron Blair married in Paris. Their social sphere included artists, writers, musicians, gallery owners and critics. Among their entourage was Uruguayan artist Joaquín Torres-García. The Torres and Daura families lived in the same apartment complex in a district known for its vibrant artistic life, and they grew close.
Louise painted several portraits of Torres-García’s teenage daughters, Olimpia and Ifigenia, while Pierre produced several engravings of them, a testament to the families’ friendship and affection.
Visitors to the museum can see not only how two different artists approached the same subjects, but also related materials. For example, in one painting, Olimpia Torres wears a mantilla, a traditional Spanish head covering draped over the head and shoulders and supported by a large, ornamental comb. Although mantillas come from religious veiling, they later symbolized Spanish women’s identity and status. Louise had bought the comb and shawl on a trip to Spain and also wore them in a self-portrait. The exhibition includes the actual comb and shawl alongside the portrait.