The Journey of a Painting: Pablo Picasso’s Three Musicians

What can a painting tell us about the life it has led? Experiencing art is primarily about standing in front of it, but what can the back of a painting reveal about its making and its journey through time? MoMA’s curatorial and conservation teams set out to answer these questions by closely examining Three Musicians, one of Pablo Picasso’s most notable Cubist works, in preparation for its display in Picasso in Fontainebleau.

In this video, we invite you behind the scenes as senior painting conservator Anny Aviram and curatorial assistant Alexandra Morrison share their findings and revelations about the over 100-year-old stretcher that backs Three Musicians. The stickers, markings, and inscriptions expose details about its history and global travels that challenge the idea of the “lone genius”: “The back of the painting really acts in a way like its passport. A work like this really shows you, even if it’s a single artist who produces the work, there are so many other people who are involved in that painting’s life.”