Picasso's Drawings, 1890–1921: Reinventing Tradition
October 4, 2011, through January 8, 2012

Works in the Exhibition

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In this early cubist work, a study for an oil painting, an emphasis on pictorial structure takes precedence over the requirements of representation. Picasso breaks up form into projecting and receding planes that knit together. A deep multicolor palette gives this work the tonal variety and lushness of a painting on paper.

Picasso's lover and muse Fernande Olivier may have posed for this drawing. Here, the artist carries further his evolving cubist vocabulary of tinted, translucent facets that fluctuate in space.

The curvilinear surfaces of objects are transposed into sleek planes and sharp angles on a table with its top tipped up toward the picture plane. In certain areas, Picasso left the paper untouched, suggesting a strong light source. Elsewhere, he used the tip of a stiff brush to paint lines, which suggest planes in some areas and in others appear as cross-hatchings
to distinguish shapes as well as shadows.

Picasso's household objects often made their way into his compositions. The sugar bowl and fan in this still life appear in several related drawings and paintings. Here Picasso's approach is characterized by a general faceting of form and surrounding space and use of different points of view.

In one of his most delicate, nearly abstract images, Picasso reduces the body to a fine scaffold of curves, angles, and shallow planes. The vertical orientation of the image and its placement in the center of the empty sheet offer clues to the subject.

The elements that make up the figure here cannot all be easily identified yet are clearly differentiated in terms of the application of ink and wash. Picasso added a second sheet at the bottom to extend the figure to the feet.

Here Picasso includes signs for the breasts and buttocks as cues to the interpretation of this drawing, pulling it back from pure abstraction. Energetic pen lines, which envelop the body, create a palpable sense of atmosphere.

From this network of sketchy lines emerges a strong upward curve indicating the crown of a head seen in three-quarter view. Two horizontal lines stand for the eyes, one shorter than the other to suggest the
turn of the head toward the left.

Picasso drew parts of a violin and used a piece of cutout newspaper pasted on to the surface of the sheet (papier collé) to refer to another part of the instrument, and drew the f-holes on top of it. The newspaper is turned so that the print is vertical, suggesting wood grain and echoing the fine parallel lines of shading used elsewhere in the drawing.

Musical instruments, particularly the violin and guitar, appeared frequently in Picasso's work at this time in various media. In this virtuoso tonal drawing, fragmented lines and planes appear to be suspended in a shallow relief-like space.

Cutout pieces of commercially produced wallpaper and blank colored drawing paper represent different parts of the foreground and background of this still life, working with and against the elements that are drawn by hand.

Taking Cézanne's depictions of card players and pipe smokers as his starting point, Picasso produced a series of drawings of men in rumpled jackets resting their heads in their hands. Throughout the series, as in these two examples, he alternated between cubist and naturalistic modes of representation.

An old Spanish friend passing through Avignon appears to have inspired this work. Realistic facial features are combined with a cubist treatment of the costume, and a guitar that simulates the look of papier collé is strummed by a gnarled hand.

Picasso used a photograph as the basis for this drawing of his dealer done in a refined classical manner that recalls Ingres's meticulous draftsmanship. Vollard gave Picasso his first public exhibition in Paris in 1901 and remained his supporter throughout many phases of his art.

Like the portrait of Ambroise Vollard, this work also presents a seated man in an interior. The flat, decorative, overlapping planes exemplify Picasso's later mode of cubism, derived in part from his work in papier collé.

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Major funding for the presentation in New York is provided by Bill and Donna Acquavella, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, and the late Melvin R. Seiden.

Additional support is generously provided by Walter and Vera Eberstadt, Agnes Gund, the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation, the Thaw Charitable Trust, Mr. and Mrs. Julio Mario Santo Domingo, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The exhibition is also supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

The accompanying catalogue has been underwritten by the Center for Spain in America and The Christian Humann Foundation.

* Reproduction, including downloading of Pablo Picasso works is prohibited by copyright laws and international conventions without the express written permission of Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.