Picasso and the Mysteries of Life: La Vie
- Press Release
Contact the Museum's Media Relations Team:
(216) 707-2261
marketingandcommunications@clevelandart.org
Exhibition offers unique chance to see one of Picasso's masterworks in an intimate setting
For more information, please contact:
Saeko Yamamoto, 216-707-6898, syamamoto@clevelandart.org
Caroline Guscott, 216-707-2261, cguscott@clevelandart.org
CLEVELAND (December 13, 2012) – The Cleveland Museum of Art presents Picasso and the Mysteries of Life: La Vie, the inaugural exhibition in the museum’s new Focus Gallery. Picasso and the Mysteries of Life is the first exhibition to offer an intensive exploration of La Vie, a signature work in the museum’s collection that is considered Picasso’s culminating masterwork of the Blue Period. The exhibition includes related works on loan from the Museu Picasso in Barcelona, the most important repository of the artist’s early work, as well as works by Francisco Goya, Albrecht Dürer and Auguste Rodin drawn from the museum’s world renowned collections. New sights are provided into the meanings of this complex, enigmatic masterpiece and its pivotal role in the artistic development of the young Spanish artist. The exhibition will be on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art through April 21, 2013.
Visitors to the exhibition will also have an opportunity to investigate the painting in-depth through x-radiographs, infrared reflectographs and other scientific examination methods displayed on iPads, revealing how Picasso dramatically altered the composition.
The exhibition is accompanied by a 163-page book by William H. Robinson, curator of modern European art. Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art in association with D Giles Limited, London, the book uses La Vie as a catalyst to shed light on a Picasso’s creative process, as well as vital issues in modernist culture of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The exhibition is organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art with the collaboration of the Museu Picasso, Barcelona.