Rites of Spring - Olympic Offerings (Recto)

Marguerite Thompson Zorach was among the first painters to introduce European modernism to American audiences, most memorably at the 1913 Armory Show in New York City. Inspired by the non-naturalistic color and bold brushwork of the avant-garde Fauve (“Wild Beast”) painters the artist encountered while living in Paris, Rites of Spring—Olympic Offerings is a rare example of Zorach’s early experimentation with expressive applications of paint. Nude figures depicted in cool blues and caustic pinks proffer the season’s harvest to an unseen divine force, reflecting the artist’s interest in the “inner spirit of things.” Zorach’s husband and fellow modernist, William Zorach, later used the back of this canvas for his own painting.