Pablo Picasso(SPA)

Pablo Picasso (SPA) PICASSO’S WOMEN GIPPSLAND INTERNATIONALS 1

INVITATION OPENING Friday 14 February 6.00pm To be opened by Rex Irwin Director, Olsen Irwin Gallery, Sydney

EXHIBITION 1 February to 6 April 2014

GUEST CURATOR Brett Stone Olsen Irwin Gallery, Sydney

PICASSO’S WOMEN explores the work of the twentieth century’s greatest artist, Pablo Picasso (1881—1972) through his relationships with the women who shared his life.

This fascinating exhibition—exclusive to Gippsland Art Gallery—explores how Picasso’s wives, daughters, mistresses and his mother influenced his work. The exhibition features works on paper from every stage of Picasso’s long career, including the Blue and Rose periods, through to Cubism and late works.

Port of Sale Civic Centre 68-70 Foster Street Sale Victoria 3850 T +61 3 5142 3372 www.gippslandartgallery.com facebook.com/gippslandartgallery OPEN Monday to Friday 10.00am to 5.00pm Saturday & Sunday 12.00pm to 4.00pm For public holiday hours visit our website FREE ENTRY

Gippsland Art Gallery is proudly owned and operated by Wellington Shire Council with support from the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria

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PICASSO’S WOMEN

“Mademoiselle, you’ve got an interesting face. I’d like to paint your portrait. I am Picasso”.

Simon Gregg Curator, Gippsland Art Gallery

And so Picasso introduced himself to Marie-Thérèse Walter in 1927, the woman who would become his muse, his mistress, and mother to his daughter Maya, born in 1935. At the time of Maya’s birth Picasso was still married to his first wife, Olga Koklova, who had been his wife since 1918, and who was the mother of his first child, Paul, born in 1921. The passions of Spanish-born Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) might be summed up as ‘art and women’.

While he would spend much of his life separating the two, they would necessarily overlap and intermingle. For Picasso art was something to exist independently of life, as a universe unto itself. He said ‘I cannot bear people who talk about Beauty. What is Beauty? In painting you have to talk about problems! Paintings are nothing but research and experiment’. Nevertheless the women who were part of his life—two wives, two daughters, and no fewer than six long-term companions—form a substantial subject within his corpus of work. In most cases the women were presented with

very little resemblance to nature, but there were instances when something of Picasso’s true feelings came to the surface; his infatuation with his latest lover, his respectful love for a wife, or his fatherly affection for a young daughter. As André Breton, mentor of the Surrealists put it, ‘Picasso was the only person who ever went beyond the principles of new artistic methods; his temperament did not allow him to guard them from the vehement bouts of passion in his life’. PICASSO’S WOMEN explores the relationships that informed Picasso’s life and art through a

Pablo Picasso: Picasso’s Women

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Images above

1 February to 6 April 2014

Les deux Femmes nues 1945 Lithograph on paper; 26.5 x 36cm

1. Paloma et sa poupée, fond noir [Paloma and her Doll, Black Background] 1952 Lithograph on paper; 70 x 55cm

Curated by Brett Stone and Simon Gregg Gippsland Art Gallery Director: Anton Vardy Curator: Simon Gregg

All works from private collections Courtesy Olsen Irwin Gallery, Sydney Dimensions given are plate sizes

2. Le Repas Frugal [The Frugal Repast] 1904 Etching on paper; 46.3 x 37.7cm

wide range of works on paper. He once said that a painting could only ever be imitative, whereas a line drawing could never be. The works here confirm Picasso’s masterful use of the line, in describing with brilliant economy and feeling the female form, from his early Blue Period (The Frugal Repast, 1904), to Analytic Cubism (Mademoiselle Léonie, 1910), through to his Classical phase (Minotaur aveugle guide par une fillette, 1934) and Surrealism (Paloma and her Doll, 1952). Picasso’s astounding virtuosity is on display throughout, confirming his art genius status.

3. Mademoiselle Léonie 1910 Etching on paper; 29 x 14.1cm 4. Minotaur aveugle guide par une fillette [Blind Minotaur led by a little girl] 1934 Intaglio etching on paper 23.9 x 30cm