For Immediate Release
April 21, 2017
[Digital images available upon request]
PICASSO’S PRINTS AND PAINTINGS ON VIEW IN NEW EXHIBITION OPENING
AT THE CLARK ART INSTITUTE ON JUNE 4
Picasso: Encounters looks at artist’s experimentation and collaboration in printmaking
Williamstown, Massachusetts—Picasso: Encounters, on view at the Clark Art
Institute June 4–August 27, investigates how Pablo Picasso’s (1881–1973) creative
collaborations fueled and strengthened his art, challenging the notion of Picasso as
an artist alone with his craft. The exhibition addresses his full stylistic range, the
narrative themes that drove his creative process, the often-neglected issue of the
collaboration inherent in print production, and the muses that inspired him, including
Fernande Olivier, Olga Khokhlova, Marie-Thérèse Walter, Dora Maar, Françoise
Gilot, and Jacqueline Roque. Organized by the Clark with the exceptional support of
the Musée national Picasso–Paris, Picasso: Encounters is comprised of thirty-five
large-scale prints from private and public collections and three paintings including his
seminal Self-Portrait (end of 1901) and the renowned Portrait of Dora Maar (1937),
both on loan from the Musée national Picasso–Paris.
“We are delighted to bring these exceptional works to Williamstown to share them
with our visitors this summer,” said Olivier Meslay, Felda and Dena Hardymon
Director of the Clark. “This exhibition gives us a different look at Picasso and
provides the opportunity to study the remarkable achievements accomplished as he
worked with different printmakers. Their craftsmanship and his artistry forged new
paths that clearly expanded Picasso’s view and broadened his horizons. We are
particularly grateful to the Musée national Picasso–Paris for the extraordinary loans
they have made to this show –– we are thrilled to be able to bring these incredible
paintings to the Clark.”
The exhibition begins with a painting from Picasso’s Blue Period (1901–1904). SelfPortrait embodies the despair, isolation, and poverty that marked images created
during this period. Following this, visitors encounter The Frugal Repast (1904) which
was the artist’s first foray into large-scale printmaking, and was created at the end of
the Blue Period. Picasso was living with his lover Fernande Olivier in Montmartre, a
bohemian section of Paris, creating art that depicted individuals at the margins of
society, such as the poor. The impression shown in this exhibition ––one of only two
works by Picasso in the Clark’s permanent collection ––was printed by Eugène
Delâtre (1864–1938), an artist and printer known to add his own creative touches to
other artists’ prints. Delâtre’s hand is evident in this printing in the inky areas of tone
on the plate, which gave texture and depth absent in later printings. Picasso did not
utilize Delâtre when the publisher Ambroise Vollard (1866–1939) re-issued the print,
perhaps indicating his displeasure with the printer’s interpretation.
While still living in Montmartre, Picasso worked with the French artist Georges
Braque to co-invent Cubism. Picasso created a handful of Cubist prints, the most
important being Still-Life with Bottle of Marc (1912). The composition includes
fragments of a bottle, as well as drinking glasses and cards. The playing cards at the
bottom half of the print, including the ace of hearts, have been said to signify
Picasso’s new lover, Eva Gouel. The print was commissioned by the German dealer
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, probably as a way to market Picasso to a wider audience
through the dissemination of prints.
“The Clark is fortunate to have received many generous loans from museums and
private collections for this exhibition, which contain the artist’s most important graphic
achievements throughout his career, serving as both a survey of his work and a
window into the artist’s immensely varied production,” said Jay A. Clarke, Manton
Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs. “Looking at the artist’s work through
the lens of collaboration allows us to consider Picasso from a fresh perspective.
More often than not, Picasso is approached as a maestro, the conductor of his
universe—but he did not create in a vacuum. He worked closely with printers who
pulled the images off his copper plates, the publishers who commissioned and sold
his prints, and the many muses who played important roles in the atmosphere of the
studio or in the homes they shared. When we give agency to those around him—his
supporters, dealers, publishers, children, and lovers—it makes his creative enterprise
even more complex, layered, and alive.”
Following World War I, Picasso became involved in theater design. It was through
this interest that he met his first wife, the Russian dancer Olga Khokhlova, who
performed in the corps of the Ballets Russes. The couple moved to a fashionable
neighborhood in Paris where they began to entertain and mingle with the elite, a
changed atmosphere from Picasso’s earlier bohemian circles. The artist’s upward
mobility, both in the art market and in the sophisticated lifestyle he shared with
Khokhlova, began to appear in his art. The drypoint Portrait of Olga in a Fur Collar
(1923) depicts Olga dressed in the height of fashion, serenely turning her head to the
side.
Marie-Thérèse Walter and The Minotaur
In 1927, Picasso met one of the most iconic muses of his artistic career, MarieThérèse Walter. Walter would become both an erotic and visual preoccupation for
Picasso during an immensely productive time in his life. Her youth and classical
beauty are evident in Visage (Face of Marie-Thérèse) (1928), which was created for
a monograph on the artist by the Parisian collector and critic André Level.
The numerous manifestations of Walter in other Picasso prints of the 1930s are less
portrait-like than Visage; she frequently appears as a thematic inspiration. During this
time, Picasso’s imagery focused on classical mythology and bullfighting. In The
Vollard Suite, printed by Picasso’s frequent collaborator Roger Lacourière (1892–
1966), male minotaurs, fauns, and bulls enact creative or sexual fantasies with the
objects of their desire—female mythical creatures or humans. In Minotauromachia
(1935), the minotaur charges at a horse carrying a likeness of Marie-Thérèse Walter.
Above the scene, two female spectators who resemble Walter peer out from the
arched window of a tower with a dove perched on the sill. A young girl below them
holds a candle. Her innocence, demonstrated by the purity of light, blinds the
minotaur and halts him in his quest.
Dora Maar and The Weeping Woman
After Walter gave birth to their daughter Maya, and while Picasso was still married to
but separated from Khokhlova, he began a relationship with the Surrealist
photographer Dora Maar. Picasso’s new muse began to appear frequently in his
work, including the iconic painting Portrait of Dora Maar (1937), on loan to the
exhibition from the Musée national Picasso–Paris. The physiological elements in the
painting, including sharp fingernails and coiffed black hair, also appear in one of
Picasso’s most powerful graphic statements, the large-scale print The Weeping
Woman, I (1937).
Picasso undertook a series of drawings, paintings, and prints depicting the subject of
the “weeping woman.” In the large-scale print, which was printed by Lacourière, as in
the two smaller manifestations of the subject—The Weeping Woman, III (1937) and
The Weeping Woman, IV (1937), printed by Jacques Frélaut (1913–1997)—the
figure is distorted in a silent shriek of pain. The woman, who resembles Dora Maar,
raises a scissor-like hand to wipe away the spiked tears that incise the overlapping
planes of her contorted face.
Françoise Gilot and Jacqueline Roque
In the 1940s Picasso became involved in politics, creating works including The Dove
(1949) for anti-war causes such as the First International Peace Conference. By this
time, his relationship with Maar had deteriorated and another muse, Françoise Gilot,
had taken her place. The pair had two children, Claude and Paloma. In Paloma and
Her Doll on Black Background (1952) Picasso exercised a stylistic restraint reserved
for his offspring whom, according to Gilot, he spent hours drawing and painting.
Two of Picasso’s last printed depictions of Gilot—Woman at the Window (1952) and
The Egyptian Woman (1953)—were large-scale tours de force, prints made with
Lacourière using a newly invented process known as sugar-lift aquatint. The
immediacy of the process, which allowed tonal areas to be directly painted on a
plate, appealed to the impatient Picasso.
The final muse in Picasso’s life was his second wife and companion of twenty years,
Jacqueline Roque. He met Roque in the summer of 1952 while she was working at
the Madoura pottery works, during the same time that his relationship with Gilot was
falling apart. Roque was a constant presence in his life and in his artistic production.
Her dark hair, almond-shaped eyes, and aquiline nose are seen in the grisaille
painting Jacqueline Knitting (1954), which reveals her Mediterranean beauty.
Jacqueline is depicted knitting, with her hands, body, hair, knitting needles, and yarn
broken into crystalline forms. Her large hooded eye, high cheekbone, and nose are
rendered in a more naturalistic manner.
Engaging with Old Masters
In the 1950s and 1960s Picasso frequently looked to the work of artists who
preceded him. His interpretations of Lucas Cranach, Rembrandt van Rijn, Eugène
Delacroix, and others number in the thousands. These creative copies, or as Picasso
called them, his “dialogues,” were made in many media: paintings, prints, drawings,
and sculpture. Picasso: Encounters includes several examples of linoleum cuts
created in collaboration with printer Hidalgo Arnéra (1922–2007).
Picasso found the process of using different linoleum blocks for each color
cumbersome, so he collaborated with Arnéra to adopt a process known as the
reduction linocut. In this process Picasso successively cut more and more away from
one or two linoleum blocks. Arnéra printed proofs of each color for Picasso to
approve, and the printer then created the final image. This reduction method required
an extraordinary feat of visualization. Picasso had to picture the final image with
precision, as each step was definitive and could not be changed or reworked later.
Picasso: Encounters includes a series of four unpublished linocut trial proofs
modeled after Édouard Manet’s 1863 painting, Luncheon on the Grass, offering a
unique perspective on the artist’s and printer’s process. The four proofs on view were
eventually combined to create the final linocut, which is also shown in the exhibition.
Picasso: Encounters is organized by the Clark Art Institute, with the exceptional
support of the Musée national Picasso–Paris. Additional support for the exhibition is
provided by Margaret and Richard Kronenberg and Marilyn and Ron Walter. A 136page, fully illustrated catalogue containing essays by exhibition curator Jay A. Clarke
and Picasso expert Marilyn is distributed by the Clark and Yale University Press.
ABOUT THE CLARK
The Clark Art Institute, located in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, is one of
a small number of institutions globally that is both an art museum and a center for
research, critical discussion, and higher education in the visual arts. Opened in 1955,
the Clark houses exceptional European and American paintings and sculpture,
extensive collections of master prints and drawings, English silver, and early
photography. Acting as convener through its Research and Academic Program, the
Clark gathers an international community of scholars to participate in a lively program
of conferences, colloquia, and workshops on topics of vital importance to the visual
arts. The Clark library, consisting of more than 270,000 volumes, is one of the
nation’s premier art history libraries. The Clark also houses and co-sponsors the
Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art.
The Clark is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Galleries
are open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm. Admission is $20; free yearround for Clark members, children 18 and younger, and students with valid ID. For
more information, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 2303.
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