Picasso and the Mysteries of Life is the first exhibition devoted to an intensive exploration of La Vie, the artist's culminating masterwork of the Blue Period and a signature work in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The exhibition is accompanied by new scientific studies of Picasso's working methods and a groundbreaking book that uses the painting as the touchstone for examining an array of issues vital to modernist culture of the 19th and 20th centuries. By placing the painting in previously unconsidered historical contexts, the exhibition and book shed new light on the creative processes of the 20th century's most important and influential artist.