Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Tinterow, Gary, and Susan Alyson Stein, eds., with contributions by Magdalena Dabrowski, Lisa M. Messinger, Asher Ethan Miller, Marla Prather, Rebecca A. Rabinow, Sabine Rewald, Samantha Rippner, Gary Tinterow, Lucy Belloli, Shawn Digney-Peer, Isabelle Duvernois, Rachel Mustalish, Kendra Roth, and Christel Hollevoet-Force (2010)

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Description

This volume presents for the first time a comprehensive catalogue of the works by Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Comprising thirty-four paintings, fifty-eight drawings, a dozen sculptures and ceramic plaques, and almost four hundred prints, the Museum's collection reflects the full breadth of the artist's multisided genius as it asserted itself over the course of his long and influential career.

In his introduction, Gary Tinterow describes how the Metropolitan came to possess the particular works by Picasso in its collection, beginning with the arrival of Gertrude Stein's iconic portrait in 1947, the first work by Picasso to enter the Museum. Subsequent additions from the holdings of Alfred Stieglitz, Scofield Thayer, Florene M. Schoenborn, Klaus and Dolly Perls, and Jacques and Natasha Gelman, among many others, helped establish the Metropolitan as one of the worlds most important repositories of Picasso's art.

In meticulously researched catalogue entries, the authors place the Metropolitan's Picassos in art historical context and discuss the significance of each work within the artist's constantly evolving oeuvre, from the early Blue and Rose Period masterpieces and revolutionary innovations of Cubism to the elegant neoclassicism of the 1920s and the joyous invention of the late work. Technical notes from Museum conservators describe the results of analyses and treatments that have revealed early states as well as previously lost compositions under the surfaces of many of the paintings. In addition, extensive provenances, exhibition histories, and references expand our understanding of the diffusion of Picasso's work in Europe and America, and its impact on criticism and art history in the twentieth century. Picasso's vast body of graphic work, which ranks in creativity alongside that of Dürer, Rembrandt, and Goya, is examined in an essay by Samantha Rippner and accompanied by checklists of the Museum's prints and ceramic plaques. In all, this important and richly illustrated publication is a fascinating look at one of the most protean artists of the recent past, proof that even an artist as well known as Picasso still has much to reveal.

Table of contents

Sponsor's Statement
Director's Foreword
Acknowledgments
Contributors
Note to the Reader

Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Gary Tinterow

Catalogue

Picasso's Graphic Work
Samantha Rippner

Checklist of Prints
Checklist of Ceramic Plaques
Bibliography
Index

About the authors

Gary Tinterow is Engelhard Chairman; Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Susan Alyson Stein is Curator; Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Press reviews

Asia Intelligence Wire: The Economic Times

"... remarkable on every level: in the quality and importance of art, in the intelligence and originality of the epoch of thesis and themes, in the psychological and aesthetic implications of the Picasso story. It balances poignantly the visual and the verbal in artistic cadences rarely seen in an age of excesses."

The New York Times

"... highly important catalogue which provides a detailed history of each work in the show."

The New Republic

"... long after the show has closed this volume will stand as a remarkable guide to a glorious collection."

Choice Reviews Online

"Researchers examining the history of specific Picasso works in the Met's collection will find this book most useful, although this catalogue will also interest general readers."

The Burlington Magazine

"The catalogue's strength, its usefulness to Picasso scholars and its sheer length, lies in the depth and range of cross-departmental cooperation that brings in entries from eight curators, five conservators, five research scientists, and a further eight researchers."

Related Titles

Titles by thematic category (124)

European Art in the 20th Century

Titles by author (127)

Lucy Belloli

Magdalena Dabrowski

Shawn Digney-Peer

Isabelle Duvernois

Christel Hollevoet-Force

Lisa Mintz Messinger

Asher Ethan Miller

Rachel Mustalish

Marla Prather

Rebecca A. Rabinow

Sabine Rewald

Samantha Rippner

Kendra Roth

Susan Alyson Stein

Gary Tinterow

Related Content

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History (6)

Essays (5)

African Influences in Modern Art

Cubism

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)

School of Paris

Symbolism

Timelines (1)

France, 1900 A.D.–present

Exhibition

Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This landmark exhibition is the first to focus exclusively on works by Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973) in the Museum's collection. It features three hundred works, including the Museum's complete holdings of paintings, drawings, sculptures, and ceramics by Picasso—never before seen in their entirety—as well as a selection of the artist's prints. The Museum's collection reflects the full breadth of the artist's multi-sided genius as it asserted itself over the course of his long and influential career.

Notable for its remarkable constellation of early figure paintings, which include the commanding At the Lapin Agile (1905) and the iconic portrait of Gertrude Stein (1906), the Museum's collection also stands apart for its exceptional cache of drawings, which remain relatively little known, despite their importance and number. The key subjects that variously sustained Picasso's interest—the pensive harlequins of his Blue and Rose periods, the faceted figures and tabletop still lifes of his cubist years, the monumental heads and classicizing bathers of the 1920s, the raging bulls and dreaming nudes of the 1930s, and the rakish cavaliers and musketeers of his final yearsare amply represented by works ranging in date from a dashing self-portrait of 1900 (Self-Portrait "Yo") to the fanciful Standing Nude and Seated Musketeer painted nearly seventy years later.

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