April 27–August 15, 2010
Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a landmark exhibition of 300 works by Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973), will provide an unprecedented opportunity to see one of the most important collections in the world of the artist's work. On view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from April 27 through August 15, 2010, this is the first exhibition to focus exclusively on the remarkable array of works by Picasso in the Met's collection. The exhibition will reveal the Museum's complete holdings of the artist's paintings, drawings, sculptures, and ceramics—never before seen in their entirety—as well as a significant number of his prints.
The exhibition encompasses the key subjects for which Picasso is so well known: 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 musketeers of his final years. Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art will feature 34 paintings, 58 drawings, a dozen sculptures and ceramics, and an extensive selection of prints (some 200 from a total of 400), all acquired by the Museum over the past 60 years. Importantly, the exhibition includes many works on paper by Picasso that have rarely, if ever, been exhibited before at the Metropolitan.
The exhibition is made possible by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation.
The Metropolitan's collection reflects the full breadth of Picasso's multi-sided genius as it asserted itself over the course of his long and influential career. The works range in date from a dashing self-portrait of 1900 (Self-Portrait "Yo") by the 18-year-old Spaniard to the fanciful Standing Nude and Seated Musketeer (1968), created when the artist was 87.
Picasso's iconic portrait of Gertrude Stein from 1906—a bequest of the writer herself in 1946—was the first painting by Picasso to be acquired by the Metropolitan. Over the next six decades, the holdings were shaped by a succession of purchases and gifts from more than 25 donors, among them other pioneering champions of modernism, such as Alfred Stieglitz and Scofield Thayer, and such illustrious collectors as Florene M. Schoenborn, Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls, and Jacques and Natasha Gelman.
The collection is notable for its remarkable constellation of early figure paintings, which also include: Seated Harlequin (1901), from the beginning of his Blue period; At the Lapin Agile (1905), in which the artist depicts himself dressed as a melancholy harlequin; and a self-portrait from 1906 that reflects Picasso's encounters with African and Iberian sculpture. Among the many other celebrated paintings in the exhibition are Woman in White (1923), The Dreamer (1932), and Dora Maar in an Armchair (1939).
The Metropolitan's collection of Picasso's works also stands apart for its exceptional cache of drawings, which remain relatively little known, despite their importance and number. Examples of the numerous compelling drawings in the exhibition are: Standing Female Nude (1910), one of the key works shown in Picasso's first U.S. exhibition, at Alfred Stieglitz's 291 gallery in 1911; a 1915 portrait of legendary art dealer Ambroise Vollard; and Head of a Woman (1922), a powerful chalk drawing from his Neoclassical period of the early 1920s. In addition, the exhibition features an extraordinary group of some 200 prints, including: The Frugal Repast (1904); Blind Minotaur Led by a Girl through the Night (1934); and a number of color Linoleum cuts from the 1950s and 1960s, such as Portrait of a Woman, after Lucas Cranach II (1958) and Bacchanalia with Kid and Spectator (1959).
In preparation for this exhibition, all of Picasso's works in the collection have been studied closely, and many have been conserved to reveal the artist's intentions or to restore their physical integrity. The exhibition will disclose a number of exciting discoveries made during the research and conservation process. X-rays and infrared reflectography of several Picasso canvases, such as La Coiffure (1906), have revealed paintings underneath paintings, bringing to light new information about the artist's working process. As part of the exhibition, there will be video displays that incorporate the Museum's recent research photographs to illustrate how Picasso revised his compositions, styles, and themes while re-working specific paintings.
Furthermore, Picasso's large Rose-period painting The Actor (1904–05), which has undergone conservation after being damaged in the galleries in January, has been restored and is featured in this exhibition. This major work inaugurated Picasso's shift from the Blue-period world of tattered beggars and blind musicians to the Rose-period imagery of acrobats dressed in costumes from the commedia dell'arte. Picasso painted The Actor on the back of a previously used canvas, after covering the earlier composition with heavy paint. The picture on the reverse appears to have been a Symbolist landscape painted by another artist. The exhibition will provide more details on the history of this intriguing painting.
Complementing the presentation of the artist's works will be photographs of Picasso by Man Ray, Brassaï, Arnold Newman, David Douglas Duncan, and others, all drawn from the Museum's collection.
Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art continues the Museum's tradition of organizing major exhibitions that bring to light its impressive collection of works by a singular artist or period of particular importance, such as Goya in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1995); Toulouse-Lautrec in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1996); John Singer Sargent Beyond the Portrait Studio: Paintings, Drawings, and Watercolors from the Collection (2000); Gauguin in New York Collections: The Lure of the Exotic (2002); and The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2007–8) .
The exhibition is organized by Gary Tinterow, Engelhard Chairman, with Susan Alyson Stein, Curator, both of the Metropolitan's Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art.
The wall colors for the exhibition are provided by Farrow & Ball.
Tru Vue donated a portion of the Optium Acrylic Glazing® for the works of art.
Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art will be accompanied by the first comprehensive catalogue of the Metropolitan's collection of works by Picasso. This illuminating publication has been prepared by members of the Museum's curatorial and conservation staff under the direction of Gary Tinterow, who edited the catalogue and wrote the introduction. A Picasso scholar, Mr. Tinterow is known for his highly acclaimed exhibitions and publications Master Drawings by Picasso, The Essential Cubism, Juan Gris: A Retrospective, and Picasso Classico.
The catalogue provides insightful entries for nearly 100 works by Picasso, furnishing the latest technical and documentary findings, along with full records of the provenance, exhibition history, and references. The 360-page catalogue also features 600 illustrations; an overview of the history of the collection; and illustrated checklists of the ceramics and the entire collection of prints by Picasso, which number nearly 400. The catalogue is published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press and will be available in the Museum's bookshops ($60 hardcover, $35 paperback).
The catalogue is made possible by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation.
Educational programs will include a Sunday at the Met lecture and film program, programs for both English- and Spanish-speaking families, teen programs, gallery talks, and a teacher workshop. A three-part lecture series with Gary Tinterow on April 22, April 29, and May 6 will focus on multiple facets of Picasso's life and legacy (tickets required). In addition, on June 27, the Museum will offer a free day of programming that will feature a film screening, lectures, discussions on poetry, and a musical demonstration.
An audio tour, part of the Metropolitan's Audio Guide program, will be available for rental ($7, $6 for members, and $5 for children under 12). Featuring an introduction by Metropolitan Museum Director Thomas P. Campbell, the audio tour is led by Gary Tinterow and includes commentary by Diana Widmaier Picasso, granddaughter of Pablo Picasso, and John Richardson, art historian and Picasso biographer, in addition to several curators and a paintings conservator on the Museum's staff.
The Audio Guide is sponsored by Bloomberg.
The exhibition will be featured on the Museum's website at www.metmuseum.org.
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April 16, 2010
EDUCATION PROGRAMS
CONCERTS & LECTURES SUBSCRIPTION PROGRAMS
Lecture Series
Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum
of Art
Gary Tinterow, Engelhard Chairman, Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern,
and Contemporary Art
$60 for three lectures; single tickets $23
The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
The Early Years: Barcelona to Paris
Thursday, April 22, 11:00
Cubism and Classicism
Thursday, April 29, 11:00
The Late Years
Thursday, May 6, 11:00
This three-part lecture series surveys the
first exhibition at the Metropolitan dedicated exclusively to works by Pablo Picasso in the collection. The lectures examine the subjects that were central to Picasso throughout his career.
For subscription program tickets call
(212) 570-3949, Monday–Saturday, 9:30–5:00,
and Sunday, 12:00–5:00. You may also visit the Concerts & Lectures box office in the Museum's Great Hall, Tuesday–Thursday, 10:00–4:30,
Friday–Saturday, 10:00–7:00 and Sunday,
12:00–5:00, or go to www.metmuseum.org/tickets.
Assistive listening devices are available from the ushers.
SUNDAY AT THE MET
Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Sunday, June 27, 1:00–4:45
The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
Discover aspects of the landmark exhibition, devoted to works by Pablo Picasso in the Museum's collection. Talks explore Picasso as poet, companion, and painter. The afternoon concludes with a film.
Lectures
1:00
Picasso, Pablo Ruiz: Spanish Poet Who Dabbled in Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture
Pierre Joris, professor of English, University at Albany, State University of New York, and poet
1:45
An Encounter with Picasso
Françoise Gilot, artist and author
2:30
Picasso and America
Michael C. FitzGerald, professor of Fine Arts, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut
Film
3:30
The Mystery of Picasso (1955)
Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot.
French with English subtitles (75 min.)
Assistive listening devices are available from the ushers.
AUDIO GUIDE
The Audio Guide, introduced by Museum Director Thomas P. Campbell, is comprised of commentary by exhibition curator Gary Tinterow, Picasso's granddaughter Diana Widmaier Picasso, Picasso biographer John Richardson, and the following Museum staff: curators Sabine Rewald, Lisa M. Messinger, Marla Prather, Magdalena Dabrowski, and Samantha Rippner, and conservator Isabelle Duvernois.
The Audio Guide is available for daily rental at the Museum: $7.00 for the general public; $6.00 for Museum Members; $6.00 for groups of 14 or fewer; $5.00 for children under 12; $4.00 for groups of 15 or more.
The Audio Guide is sponsored by Bloomberg.
GALLERY TALKS
All gallery talks are given at 10:00 and meet at the exhibition entrance, Special Exhibition Galleries, second floor.
Tuesday, May 11
Lisa M. Messinger and Rachel Mustalish
Wednesday, May 12
Marci Kwon
Tuesday, May 18
Lisa M. Messinger and Rachel Mustalish
Friday, May 21
Asher E. Miller
Thursday, June 3
Lisa M. Messinger and Rachel Mustalish
Thursday, June 10
Asher E. Miller
Friday, June 18
Marci Kwon
Friday, June 25
Asher E. Miller
Thursday, July 8
Marci Kwon
Thursday, July 15
Marci Kwon
Friday, July 23
Marci Kwon
Tuesday, July 27
Marci Kwon
DOCUMENTARY FILMS
Picasso
Directed by Didier Baussy (1985). Overview of Picasso's life and work (80 min.).
Tuesday, May 4, 2:00
Thursday, May 6, 2:00
Tuesday, June 15, 2:00
Thursday, June 17, 2:00
Bonnie J. Sacerdote Lecture Hall,
Uris Center for Education
The Mystery of Picasso
Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot (1955). Documents Picasso in the studio as he creates twenty works for the film, ranging from ink drawings to oil murals. French with English subtitles (75 min.).
Thursday, July 15, 2:00
Thursday, July 29, 2:00
Bonnie J. Sacerdote Lecture Hall,
Uris Center for Education
PROGRAM FOR TEACHERS
Teacher Workshop: Picasso in
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Thursday, July 8, 10:00–1:00: $40
Instructors: Lisa M. Messinger and Stella
Paul
The artistic genius of Spanish-born artist
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) has influenced
the development of modern and contemporary art with unparalleled magnitude. Using a
wide range of media and creative styles, Picasso explored themes of social, political,
and intellectual relevance and probed interpersonal relationships, depicting both himself and many of the women in his life.
But above all he examined the nature of art itself. In conversation with a curator and Museum educator, visit and discuss the landmark exhibition. Examine key works and discuss possible teaching approaches.
For information and to register, go to www.metmuseum.org/events/teachers,
call (212) 570-3985, or email teachers@metmuseum.org.
TEEN PROGRAMS
Art Explore—Picasso!
Saturday, May 15, 10:00–12:00
Uris Center for Education
Instructor: Alice W. Schwarz
The exhibition creates a special opportunity
to explore his modern works in painting, ceramics, drawings, and prints! Join us in this gallery conversation and then create a colorful abstract face in the studio. For information,
call (212) 570-3961. For teens ages 11–14. Please note: Registration is closed for
this program.
Conversations with Art—Picasso
Friday, June 18, 5:00–6:30
Uris Center for Education
Instructor: Nelly Silagy Benedek
Join a Museum educator for an in-depth discussion about works of art. The class is designed to foster close looking and open dialogue. For information, call (212) 570-3961. For registration instructions, go to www.metmuseum.org/events/teens.
For teens ages 15–18.
TALLERES EDUCATIVOS PARA LA FAMILIA EN ESPAÑOL
El arte de Picasso
El sábado 24 de julio desde las 11:30 de la mañana hasta la 1:00 de la tarde
El Museo invita los niños entre cuatro y diez años de edad y sus familias a participar en nuestros talleres educativos. En las galerías charlaremos sobre diferentes temas, y los niños tendrán la oportunidad de aprender y divertirse haciendo dibujos y actividades didácticas.
Nos reuniremos en Carson Family Hall en
el Uris Center for Education. Para más información o reservar plaza, por favor llamen al (212) 650-2833 o envíen un correo electrónico al: primercontacto@metmuseum.org.
SERVICES FOR VISITORS
WITH DISABILITIES
Picture This!—Picasso in
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Thursday, May 13, 2:00–3:30
Uris Center for Education
This workshop for adults who are blind or partially sighted makes works of art accessible through detailed descriptions, touch, and other activities to awaken the senses. This program is free, but places are limited, so reservations are required. Please call (212) 650-2010 or email access@metmuseum.org.
The Museum is committed to serving all audiences. Please call (212) 650-2010 or email access@metmuseum.org about programs and services, including Sign Language–interpreted programs, Verbal Imaging Tours, the Touch Collection, and other programs.
The Audio Guide is free to visitors who are blind, partially sighted, or hard of hearing. Audio Guide players have volume controls
and headsets. Neck loops for hearing aids
with T-switches are available upon request. Regular and large-print Audio Guide scripts
are also available upon request.
NOLEN LIBRARY IN
THE RUTH AND HAROLD D. URIS CENTER FOR EDUCATION
Nolen Library has information about the Museum's collection and special exhibitions, and a Teacher Resource Center with a circulating collection for educators. There
is also a Children's Reading Room, a
specially designed space for families to
read together from books in the library's collection. For hours and further information please call (212) 570-3788 or visit www.metmuseum.org/education/er_lib.asp.
WEBSITE
For further information about our programs,
visit the Museum's website at www.metmuseum.org/events.
Press resources