The Cleveland Museum of Art Presents Picasso and Paper

Cleveland (July 11, 2019) — Pablo Picasso’s prolonged engagement with paper is the subject of the groundbreaking exhibition Picasso and Paper, organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in collaboration with the Musée national Picasso, Paris. Picasso and Paper will be on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art from May 24 to August 23, 2020, in the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Hall and Gallery.

Showcasing over 300 works spanning the artist’s entire career, the exhibition highlights the artist’s deep appreciation of the physical world and his desire to manipulate diverse materials. Picasso’s relentless exploration of working on and with paper is featured in the many assembled collages of cut-and-pasted papers, sculptures from pieces of torn and burnt paper, documentary photographs and manipulated photographs on paper, and an array of printmaking techniques on paper supports.

Among the highlights are Femmes à leur toilette of 1937–38, an extraordinary large collage (2.99 x 4.48 meters; 9 13/16 x 14 1/2 feet) of cut-and-pasted papers, which will be exhibited in the U.K. for the first time in 50 years; outstanding Cubist papiers collés; artist’s sketchbooks, including studies for Les Demoiselles d’Avignon; constructed paper guitars from the Cubist and Surrealist periods; and an array of works related to major paintings and sculptural projects.

The exhibition is organized chronologically in 10 sections, displayed in context with a limited number of related paintings and sculptures. For example, Picasso’s seminal masterpiece of his Blue period, the Cleveland Museum of Art’s La Vie (1903), will be presented with preparatory drawings and other works on paper exploring corresponding themes of poverty, despair and social alienation. In the Cubist section, Picasso’s bronze Head of a Woman (Fernande) of 1909 (Musée national Picasso, Paris) will be surrounded by a large group of associated drawings.

The exhibition is curated by William H. Robinson of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ann Dumas of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and Emilia Philippot of the Musée national Picasso, Paris. A scholarly publication accompanies the exhibition.

Picasso and Paper  

Supporting Sponsor

Dr. Conrad and Patricia Simpfendorfer