Landscapes by Picasso will feature large in an “unprecedented exhibition” of the artist’s work, on display in Cincinnati this summer.
Picasso is well-known as a portrait artist. Though many would argue that his most famous work is too abstract to be considered portraiture, looking at his larger body there’s no arguing that Picasso knew the shapes and lights of the human form. His abstract work grew out of his attention to detail and form, and the relations shapes have to one another. When someone says “That’s a Picasso,” they are virtually always referring to a face.
But Picasso did not only paint bodies and still lifes. He also had a deep love for landscapes, and for the ways they used space and distance.
“It is an extraordinary thing to be able to show an artist as renowned as Pablo Picasso in a wholly new light,” says Peter Jonathan Bell, PhD, the museum’s curator of European paintings, sculpture and drawings, who is leading the exhibition’s presentation in Cincinnati. “His mastery of the human form and of still life is unquestioned. With the works assembled for this exhibition, we are finally able to appreciate how significant landscape was for Picasso throughout his life, and in turn how consequential Picasso was for landscape painting—how he was able to transform this venerable genre to meet his needs as an innovator and expressive interpreter, reshaping the world around him through his art.”
The exhibition, which will open on June 23 at the Cincinnati Art Museum, is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Picasso’s passing. It will feature paintings and sculptures loaned by over 25 private and public collections from the U.S. and Europe.
“Picasso used landscape throughout his life to establish himself in new surroundings and to push forward into new styles of painting and sculpture,” wrote the museum.
The exhibition, called “Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds,” will run until the end of October and feature a series of lectures, books, and art lessons as well.
Photo: Andrzej Lisowski Travel / Shutterstock