Egon Schiele, "Self-Portrait" (1911), watercolor, gouache, and graphite on paper, 20 1/4 x 13 3/4 in., (image bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982)

Egon Schiele, “Self-Portrait” (1911), watercolor, gouache, and graphite on paper, 20 1/4 x 13 3/4 in., (image bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982)

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this is the first time they will be exhibiting its nude works of Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, and Pablo Picasso for an “erotic and evocative” exhibition that also marks the centenary of the deaths of Klimt and Schiele. The exhibition is titled Obsession: Nudes by Klimt, Schiele, and Picasso and will go on display at the Met Breuer this week.

The works are a part of the Scofield Thayer Collection, a collection that consists primarily of paintings by artists of the school of Paris — Klimt, Schiele, and Picasso being among them. Though the exhibition features about 50 works, Thayer’s collection actually amounts to about 600 works that he acquired between 1921 and 1923 in London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna. In his will, he left his collection to the Met Museum, and this exhibition will include watercolors, drawings, and prints by the three artists.

Considering how popular each of these artists are by themselves, this is sure to be a summer blockbuster that will draw the crowds to that Marcel Breuer-designed art fortress on Madison Avenue.

When: Tuesday, July 3
Where: The Met Breuer (945 Madison Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan)

Deena ElGenaidi is a writer and editor living in Brooklyn. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers University-Camden in 2016, and her work has appeared in Longreads, Electric Literature,...