Past Exhibition New Release: 1996
"Picasso: The Early Years, 1892-1906" Opens at National Gallery of Art, Washington March 30 - July 27, 1997 Travels to Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Fall 1997
Washington, DC, December 6, 1996 -- Nowhere has the early genius of the twentieth century's most prolific and influential artist been more clearly realized than in the extraordinary exhibition Picasso: The Early Years, 1892-1906, which will premiere at the National Gallery of Art, March 30 through July 27, 1997. It will then travel to its only other venue, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, September 10, 1997, through January 4, 1998.
This is the most comprehensive survey ever assembled of works created by Picasso between the ages of eleven and twenty- five, including his famous Blue and Rose periods, prior to the advent of cubism. The master's early work is distinguished by a remarkable range of styles and techniques.
Bell Atlantic is proud to sponsor this great exhibition in Washington. The exhibition in Boston is made possible through the generous support of NYNEX.
Organized by the National Gallery of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the show will contain approximately 150 paintings, drawings, pastels, prints, and sculpture, including works that have never before been exhibited in the United States.
"Picasso: The Early Years, 1892-1906 examines a short period in Picasso's career characterized by innovation, brilliant draftsmanship, and a virtuosic succession of styles, ending with works of great monumentality," said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery. "It would be impossible for the Gallery to mount important exhibitions of such depth and breadth without corporate sponsors like Bell Atlantic."
"Pablo Picasso revolutionized twentieth-century art, experimenting, innovating, and striking out in new directions," said Raymond W. Smith, chairman and chief executive officer of Bell Atlantic. "Through this exhibition and the outreach programs that bring it to schools, to the Internet, and to a public with a demonstrated passion for great art, Bell Atlantic is proud to continue its long tradition of making information -- inspired and inspiring images included -- available to the people we serve." This is the fourth exhibition at the National Gallery sponsored by Bell Atlantic since 1987.
"This extraordinary assemblage of works tracing Picasso's development is unprecedented," said Malcolm Rogers, director, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "This exhibition reveals not only the beginnings of Picasso's early genius, but also the origins of the modernist movement in European art. We are extremely grateful to NYNEX for making this exhibition possible in Boston."
"NYNEX is very pleased to join the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in bringing this exhibition to the people of Boston and New England," said Donald B. Reed, president and group executive of NYNEX. "Our commitment to increasing public access to the arts and creating cultural and educational opportunities is an important element of our overall corporate philanthropy program. We are particularly pleased that the exhibition includes an initiative encouraging Boston public school students to visit the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston to learn more about this modern master."
Pablo Ruiz Picasso, born in Málaga, Spain, on October 25, 1881, began to draw and paint around the age of seven and was registered in the School of Fine Arts in La Coruña in 1892. His real artistic training began in Barcelona three years later, a city to which he often returned after sojourns to Madrid and Paris, until he took up permanent residence in Paris in 1904.
The exhibition begins with Picasso's academic studies of plaster casts and nudes and early portraits, such as Girl with Bare Feet (1895) from the Musée Picasso, Paris. His subsequent introduction to post-impressionist and symbolist painting is shown in such works as Spanish Couple before an Inn (1900) from the Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art and Moulin de la Galette (1900) from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
Works from the artist's Blue period, named for the monochromatic palette he used to represent figures largely drawn from the socio-economic underclass in Barcelona and Paris, include the paintings Two Women at a Bar (1902) from the Hiroshima Museum of Art, Crouching Woman (1902) from the Art Gallery of Ontario, and La Vie (1903) from The Cleveland Museum of Art, as well as the 1904 etching The Frugal Repast.
Distinguished by a palette of roseate hues, works in the show from Picasso's Rose period include the paintings Family of Saltimbanques* (1905) from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Harlequin's Family with an Ape (1905) from the Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Sweden.
By 1906, inspired by a trip to the Spanish Pyrenees, Picasso imbued his figures with a monumentality that can be traced to the reductive proportions of ancient and medieval Iberian sculpture. This is illustrated in such paintings as Woman with Loaves (1906) from the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Nude on Red Background (1906) from the Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris. The exhibition ends with this phase of Picasso's work, as his subsequent interests foreshadow a new epoch in the artist's career.
The curators of the exhibition are: from the National Gallery of Art, Mark Rosenthal, former curator, and Jeffrey Weiss, associate curator, twentieth-century art, who will be the coordinating curator for the exhibition in Washington; and from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, George Shackelford, curator, and Robert Boardingham, assistant curator, European paintings, who will be the cooordinating curator for the exhibition in Boston. The advisory committee includes John Richardson, author of A Life of Picasso: The Early Years, 1881-1906 and A Life of Picasso 1907-1917: The Painter of Modern Life, parts of a four-volume series on the life of Picasso, and Picasso specialist Jean Sutherland Boggs.
A 400-page fully illustrated catalogue will be published by the National Gallery of Art in paperback and by Yale University Press in hardback. It contains ten essays by Picasso scholars, arranged chronologically with color plates of early works by the artist, as well as an extensive chronology of Picasso's early life from 1881 to 1906. The scholarly editor is Marilyn McCully, an art historian based in London, who is a collaborative author with John Richardson on his series on the life of Picasso.
The National Gallery of Art, Washington, is located at Fourth Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W., in the nation's capital and is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission to the Gallery is free; same-day passes will be available as needed for the Picasso exhibition. For more information, call (202) 737-4215 or the TDD, weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at (202) 842-6176.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is located at 465 Huntington Avenue and is open Monday and Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Picasso tickets (which include general museum admission) are $15 for adults, $13 for seniors and students, and $5 for children, six to seventeen years. Children five and under are admitted free of charge. Tickets will be available in late spring, and can be purchased in person at the MFA box office or at Ticketmaster outlets nationwide. To charge tickets by telephone, please call (617) or (508) PICASSO or your local Ticketmaster outlet. For more information call (617) 267-9300.
* - Family of Saltimbanques was presented to the National Gallery of Art by Chester Dale and by the terms of his bequest may not be lent.
Passes Required on Weekends and Holidays for "Picasso:
The early Years, 1892-1906" at the national Gallery of Art, Washington
March 30 - July 27, 1997
Advance Passes Issued Beginning March 16, 1997
WASHINGTON, DC, January 29, 1997 -- Passes will be required on weekends and federal holidays only (Saturdays and Sundays, as well as May 26 and July 4) for admittance to Picasso: The Early Years, 1892-1906. The exhibition opens just prior to the Cherry Blossom Festival, at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, March 30 through July 27, 1997. This extraordinary new exhibition reveals the early genius of the twentieth century's most prolific and influential artist, Pablo Picasso.
Advance Passes
Advance passes can be obtained free of charge beginning March 16, 1997,
at the East Building Pass Desk at Fourth Street and Constitution Avenue,
N.W., during public hours (Monday-Saturday, 10-5, and Sunday, 11-6). There
will be a limit of six passes per person. Advance passes also may be obtained
as of March 16 at all TicketMaster locations, including Hecht's stores,
for a service charge of $2.00 per pass, and through TicketMaster PhoneCharge
for a $2.75 service fee per pass, and a $1.25 handling fee per order by
calling one of the following numbers:
If calling from one of the areas listed below, phone
Washington, DC 202-432-SEAT
Baltimore, MD 410-481-SEAT
Northern Virginia 703-573-SEAT
If calling in the U.S. from outside the above areas, phone 1-800-551-SEAT
Same-day Passes
Same-day passes on weekends and holidays may be obtained free of charge,
on a first-come, first-served basis at the East Building Pass Desk during
public hours. There will be a limit of six passes per person.
Exhibition Information
The show of 150 paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture is the most
comprehensive survey ever assembled of works created by Picasso between
the ages of eleven and twenty-five, and includes works from his famous
Blue and Rose periods, prior to the advent of cubism.
Bell Atlantic is proud to sponsor this great exhibition in Washington.
The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
For information about passes or the exhibition, call (202) 842-6713. For adult group tours, call (202) 842-6247; for school group tours, call (202) 842-6249.
Picasso Electronic Fieldtrip a First for National Gallery of Art
WASHINGTON, DC, May 15, 1997 -- Hundreds of students in the Maryland-DC area will get a behind-the-scenes look at the popular exhibition Picasso: The Early Years, 1892-1906 in an innovative electronic fieldtrip -- the first of its kind at the National Gallery of Art -- on Thursday, May 22. Working closely with the Gallery's education, curatorial, and conservation staff, Maryland Public Television (MPT) is organizing and producing the electronic fieldtrip. The program is funded by a grant from Bell Atlantic, which also made possible the Picasso exhibition. The production will be broadcast live at 9 a.m. on MPT/Channels 22, 28, 31, 36, 62, and 67 and WETA/Channel 26.
On May 22, middle and high school students will begin their electronic journey with an interactive visit to the Picasso exhibition, where they will explore paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, many of them created by Picasso when he was their own age. Students from Mt. Hebron High School (Ellicott City, MD) and Towson High School (Towson, MD) will be at remote distance learning sites. Students from Jefferson Junior High School (Washington, DC) will be on site at the National Gallery of Art. Each classroom will be linked by fiber-optic full-motion video, allowing the students to see, hear, and respond in real time.
During the 60-minute program, students will plumb the depths of Picasso's early life and works through a combination of pre-taped sessions that include a visit to the Gallery's conservation lab to discover the "hidden" images underneath several of the paintings in the show with comments by Jeffrey Weiss, curator of the exhibition. These sessions will be interwoven with live conversations and "questions and answers" with Gallery educators and art historians Linda Downs, Wilford Scott, and Anne Henderson, along with painting conservator Ann Hoenigswald, all of whom will be on site in the exhibition galleries during the live program. The program host, Baltimore-area actor and narrator Margaret Linton, will bring the Gallery experts and students together to reveal key works in Picasso's brilliant young career and explore themes leading to his groundbreaking development of cubism.
In addition to the distance learning sites, students in classrooms throughout the region will be able to watch the program on television and ask questions via fax, telephone and the Internet. Students can further their knowledge by visiting the National Gallery's Web site at http://www.nga.gov or MPT's home page at http://www.mpt.org. MPT is also supplying an in-depth teacher's guide to classrooms in the region. A 30-minute edited version of the interactive program will be broadcast on MPT on Thursday, June 26 at 7:30 p.m. and Wednesday, July 2 at 7:30 p.m.
General Information
The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden are at all times
free to the public. They are located on the National Mall between 3rd
and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, and are open Monday through
Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00
p.m. The Gallery is closed on December 25 and January 1. For information
call (202) 737-4215 or the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD)
at (202) 842-6176, or visit the Gallery's Web site at www.nga.gov.
Visitors will be asked to present all carried items for inspection upon
entering the East and West Buildings. Checkrooms are free of charge and
located at each entrance. Luggage and other oversized bags must be presented
at the 4th Street entrances to the East or West Building to permit x-ray
screening and must be deposited in the checkrooms at those entrances.
For the safety of visitors and the works of art, nothing may be carried
into the Gallery on a visitor's back. Any bag or other items that cannot
be carried reasonably and safely in some other manner must be left in
the checkrooms. Items larger than 17 x 26 inches cannot be accepted by
the Gallery or its checkrooms.
For additional press information please call or send inquiries to:
Press Office
National Gallery of Art
2000B South Club Drive
Landover, MD 20785
phone: (202) 842-6353 e-mail: pressinfo@nga.gov
Deborah Ziska
Chief of Press and Public Information
(202) 842-6353
ds-ziska@nga.gov
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