Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso
The Cubist Portraits of Fernande Olivier
Ort: East Building, Mezzanine

Between spring and fall 1909, Picasso produced more than 60 portraits of his companion, Fernande Olivier, in a variety of formats and mediums. In its intense devotion to a single subject, the series is virtually unprecedented in the history of portraiture. Powerful and melancholic, these portraits are among the most compelling in the history of modern art. This exhibition brings together some 50 of the related works, revealing Picasso's exploration of cubism and his radical reformulation of human physiognomy.
The National Gallery of Art recently acquired an early bronze cast of Head of a Woman (Fernande), the culmination of the Fernande series. An icon of early modernism, it is the first example of Picasso's work in sculpture that reflects serious formal experimentation. In addition to the portraits themselves, the exhibition will include eight photographs taken by the artist that show various paintings and drawings from the series arranged in changing configurations on his studio wall. By seizing a single extended moment in the development of cubism and presenting it comprehensively, this exhibition and the accompanying catalogue will allow us to examine Picasso's working process in rare depth.
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weitere Stationen: Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, February 15, 2004 - May 9, 2004