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PICASSO

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PICASSO’S PROTEAN ARTISTRY REVEALED AT THE VMFA

PPicasso, Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris, showing at the Virginia Museum of Fine A!ts, celeb!ates the life and work of Pablo Picasso (1881"1972), the renowned painter, sculptor, d!a#sman, and potter whose innovative techniques and prolific works make him arguably an a!tist who redefined a!t in the 20th centu!$.%is exhibition of more than 170 pieces includes work

from eve!$ major a!tistic period of Pablo Picasso’s prolific eight-decade career. D!awn from the collection of the Musée National Picasso, Paris, the largest and most significant reposito!$ of Picasso’s work in the world, the exhibition allows viewers to t!ace Picasso’s life and the evolution of modern a!t in the 20th centu!$.%e exhibition of Picasso’s works is fu!ther enriched with

film, photos, and audio materials from his personal archive

prese!&ed at the Paris museum. %e variety of a!tistic works and supplemental materials provide a glimpse into Picasso’s thought processes, emotions, and ideas—whether they take shape in two or three dimensions.

From an early age, Picasso devoted his life to a!t. He first t!aveled to Paris in 1900 at age 19 and settled there in 1904. As a crucible for a!tistic movements and philosophical thought, Paris introduced Picasso to a rich asso!tment of a!tists, writers, and thinkers who influenced his work.

TRACING MODERNITY THROUGH PICASSO’S ART

Spanning most of the 20th centu!$ Picasso’s work reflects the changing nature of the times. In a centu!$ known for groundbreaking discoveries in physics, marred by political upheaval in Western society, and scarred by four brutal wars, Picasso’s vigorous and fearless style challenges viewers to find meaning and their own reality in his work.

Picasso contributed to many a!tistic movements and inspired others. He frequently shi#ed from one style to another, moving through various forms of expression to match his protean vision. He was constantly reinventing himself and drew inspi!ation from ancient a!t, African a!t, classicism, and surrealism.

Cubism a New Pa!adigm for the Pictorial Plane Around the same time Albe!t Einstein was breaking apa!t natu!al law and the order of a Newtonian universe with his theories of relativity, Picasso met Georges B!aque and the two a!tists invented a new visual language that came to be known as cubism, in which natu!al forms were analyzed and reduced to basic geometric shapes.

Picasso became aware of African a!t at the same time Western European nations were struggling with their colonies in African and Asia. Inspired by a visit to the ethnog!aphic museum at Palais du Trocadéro in 1907, Picasso revised his revolutiona!$ painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, so that the faces of the women closely resemble those of African tribal masks.

“I paint the way some people write their autobiog!aphy. %e paintings, finished or not, are the

pages from my dia!$, and as such they are valid. %e future will choose the pages it prefers.”

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In the 1930s, Picasso explored surrealism. Unlike the consciously analytical approach of cubism’s f!agmented objects and figures, surrealism found inspi!ation in fantasy and the unconscious and the theories of Sigmund Freud. While Picasso never became a full-fledged surrealist, he neve!theless probed the unconscious and sought to create new forms of expression through his paintings.

REFLECTIONS ON MECHANIZATION, AND TOTAL WAR

%e outbreak of war, first in Spain with the Spanish Civil War and later in F!ance and Germany with World War II, influenced Picasso’s work. Living in Paris during World War II and the Nazi occupation, he was unable to exhibit any of his a!t. While his notoriety and fame protected him from persecution during the occupation, his canvases become darker and more monochromatic. %e symbols in his painting convey ma!tyrdom, violence, death, and sometimes hope.

Mid-centu!$ and Beyond: Explo!ation and Innovation

With the darkness of war behind him, Picasso continued to explore new forms of expression through works in bronze, copper, and ce!amics. He moved to the town of Vallauris in the South of F!ance. In a yard next to his studio, he found sc!aps of metal and shards of potte!$ and used these “objets trouvés” as inspi!ation for his sculpture.

Between 1947"48, he produced thousands of ce!amic pots, vases, and plates. Using these pieces as a canvas, Picasso frequently fused two and three dimensions by exploiting the cu!&es of a vase to suggest a female form in his own individual style.

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PICASSO’S WOMEN: MODELS, MUSES, WIVES, AND MISTRESSES

In the exhibition, viewers can t!ace the vicissitudes of Picasso’s tumultuous personal life juxtaposed with the larger social issues of his times. As an a!tist he painted the female form more o#en than any other modern a!tist. Scholars, a!tists, historians, and critics have theorized for decades about his attitudes toward and depiction of women. Picasso wore his hea!t on his sleeve; frequently hea!tthrobs and hea!tbreaks alike took shape on canvas.

Many of the works in Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée Picasso, Paris display his passion and pathos for women, whether they are the Blue Period prostitutes, disto!ted cubist nudes, bold surrealist po!t!aits, or sensuous sketches.

%rough this exhibition, visitors will have the oppo!tunity to experience Picasso’s a!tist!$ and decide for themselves how this multi-talented individual expressed his feelings of love, loss, or longing. Po!t!aits of Picasso’s women_famous and infamous, known and unknown_mark many of this exhibition’s highlights.

Olga in an Armchair (1917) - In this po!t!ait, Picasso’s first wife, the Russian prima ballerina, Ol'a Khoklova, sits languidly staring directly at the viewer. %is more realistic po!t!ait marks the beginning of Picasso’s depa!ture from cubism and a return to a more conventional, classical style. Later, when his personal life and marriage to Ol'a soured, his depiction of the female form becomes violently f!actured and disto!ted.

Portrait of Dora Maar (1937) - Vib!ant colors and strong lines cha!acterize this famous po!t!ait of Picasso’s mistress, the surrealist photog!apher, and a!tist Do!a Maar. She influenced a new energetic visual style of bright colors and sharp angles. In this po!t!ait, her eyes face both inward and outward exhibiting the duality of self.

Jacqueline with Crossed Hands (1954) – In this po!t!ait Picasso t!ansforms the petite Jacqueline Rocque, his last wife, into a statuesque goddess who takes on the architectu!al quality of her surroundings. He applies a faceted cubist approach to her crouching body, which is compressed into a compact shape as though made from folded paper.

%e final years of Picasso’s life showed remarkable creativity and expression, as he continued to work prodigiously painting and experimenting in sculpture, ce!amics, and new media. At first seen as the incoherent !amblings of an aging man, the works have are now recognized as innovative and creative works by a master who pushed the boundaries of a!t into new forms of self-expression.

As an a!tist, Picasso defined his life’s centu!$ as he captured its struggles, successes, sensuality, and constant change. If 20th-centu!$ a!t had a b!and, it would be Picasso.

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Tickets: $20 (VMFA members free). Seniors, students with ID, adults groups of 10 or more and youth ages 7!17, 416. Children 6 and under free. Timed tickets are available in 30-minute intervals. For more information about special including tours, films, lectures and more go to www.VMFA.museum, or call the museum at 804.340.1400

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%e landmark exhibition Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria continues in VMFA’s Evans Cou!t through May 22. %ese ext!aordina!$ works created by a!tists from Ife and other pa!ts of Nigeria in the ninth through 19th centuries are, according to the New York Times “as gorgeous as sculpture gets, anytime, anywhere.”

A!tists of the Kingdom of Ife (in what is today southwestern Nigeria), created sculptures that were among the most beautiful and sophisticated works of a!t being produced anywhere in the world at the time. %e a!ts of Ife are notewo!thy for their visual power, iconic complexity and variability of form.

%e exhibition focuses on works from the 10th through 15th centuries, when Ife flourished as a cultu!al center. Works from other pa!ts of Nigeria include those from Igbo-Ukwu from as early as the ninth centu!$, from Benin—which surpassed Ife as a center from metal casting in the 16th centu!$—as well as 18th- and 19th-centu!$ stone and copper works from the Yoruba people, who inhabit Nigeria.

Visitors to the exhibition journey through the ancient kingdom of Ife and the surrounding cities of western Nigeria, guided through six di(erent sections that explore Wealth & Trade, Sacred Works in Stone, Finding Ife: A Century of Discovery, Dynasty & Divinity, Terracotta Images of Ife Society, and Ife & Beyond.

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PURCHASE A YOUR OWN MASTERPIECE

From a reproduction of Picasso’s Maquette for Richard J. Daley Center Monument to a photog!aphy book that features Picasso’s family and his dachshund, Lump, the buyers for the VMFA Shop have 'athered a wide !ange of items inspired by Picasso’s work and words. %ese items included vintage Picasso exhibition posters and lithog!aphs, the signature blue-and-white striped wool seaman shi!ts that Picasso wore and a full-color, 272-page exhibition catalogue.

%e shop boasts 3,500 square feet of floor space based on pieces from the museum’s collections. It features Fabergé items and VMFA-exclusive pieces created by Virginia

jewel!$ a!tisans.

MembershipBe more than a visitor. Become a member and

enjoy the benefits of the Virginia Museum of Fine A!ts. Membership benefits include free admission to ticketed exhibitions, discounts, previews, t!avel oppo!tunities, educational prog!ams, and more.

Members also enjoy the knowledge, that by becoming members they suppo!t the mission of enriching lives and stren'thening the Commonwealth.

(Gene!al Memberships are fully tax-deductible)

Student $10*Individual $50**** $40 for seniors, teachers and out-of-state residents

Dual $65Family $75

Reciprocal $125

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A JOURNEY THROUGH THE ANCIENT KINGDOM OF IFE

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OPENING SOON

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CIVIL WAR REDUX: Pinhole Photos of ReenactmentsMay 21–Sep 18

SCRAPS: British Sporting Drawings from the Paul Mellon CollectionJun 18–Sep 18

FABERGÉ REVEALED, Jul 9–Oct 2 – In conjunction with the redesign of the Fabergé galleries, this major exhibition includes VMFA’s entire collection as well as loans from other collections

XU BING: Tobacco Project, Sep 10–Nov 27 – This exhibition explores fundamental issues of human culture and tobacco as a medium of social exchange.

MUMMY: Secrets of the Tomb, Nov 19–Mar 11 - Comprised of more than 100 artifacts, this exhibition draws from the world-famous Egyptian collections of the British Museum in London.

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TAKE A BREAK AND BE AMUSEDAmuse Restaurant is a lively, contempo!a!$ fine dining restau!ant located on Galle!$ Level 3 of the new McGlothlin Wing, o(ering seating on a beautiful covered ter!ace overlooking the Robins Sculpture Garden and VMFA campus. An innovative lunch menu featuring regionally sourced Virginia produce is se!&ed from 11:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m., daily, tapas from 2:30 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. daily, and dinner se!&ice from 5:00 until 8:30 p.m. on %ursday and Friday evenings. Enjoy cocktails and small plates in the comfo!table lounge area, daily from 11:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., and until 9 p.m. on %ursday and Friday nights.