In response to:
Your Show of Shows from the July 17, 1980 issue
To the Editors:
May I clarify a point in John Richardson’s review of the Picasso Exhibition, “Your Show of Shows” [NYR, July 17]?
Mr. Richardson states correctly that the National Gallery’s large Family of Saltimbanques is absent from the exhibition, but your readers might like to know the reason the work remains in Washington. Chester Dale’s bequest to the Gallery prohibits lending any works, including the Family of Saltimbanques, anytime. Barring this legal restriction, we would have made every effort to lend this painting, and ten other Dale Picassos, to MOMA’s extraordinary show. Your readers will be glad to know that the National Gallery will present a small exhibition, “Picasso: The Saltimbanques,” around this picture and related works, from December 14, 1980 to March 15, 1981.
E.A. Carmean, Jr.
Curator of Twentieth-Century Art
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
