Picasso: The Line

The Menil Collection presents Picasso: The Line.  Sep 15, 2016 – Jan 8, 2017.

Famous for pioneering Cubism in the early 1900s, Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) was one of the most innovative and prolific artists of the 20th century. Picasso was a master across disciplines and one of the most accomplished draftsman in modern art. He pursued drawing assiduously throughout his career, and while his drawings have previously been the focus of important exhibitions, Picasso: The Line explores the distinctiveness of Picasso’s line drawings and considers the essential position that these works hold within the artist’s oeuvre.

Settling in Paris in 1904, Picasso established himself as a prominent participant in avant-garde circles of that city, absorbing, transforming, and originating some of the most influential ideas of his time. By focusing on his use of line—“linealism” as described by the guest curator Carmen Giménez—the exhibition conveys Picasso’s attempts to resolve the three dimensions of form through linear means, thus relinquishing perspective.

Picasso: The Line includes drawings from the most important periods of the artist’s long career; it gathers 70 of his works on paper that span a wide range of mediums, from pen or pencil to charcoal and collage. The exhibition presents work from public and private collections in the United States and Europe, several of which have never been exhibited in the United States and others seldom-seen from the Menil Collection’s holdings.

A beautifully printed, fully-illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition and examines in depth Picasso’s use of this fundamental element of drawing as well as his role in the Menil Collection.

Picasso: The Line is curated by Carmen Giménez, guest curator and founding director of the Museo Picasso Málaga, and managed by Clare Elliott, associate curator at the Menil. The Menil is the organizer and sole venue for Picasso: The Line.

Bank of America is the Lead Corporate Sponsor for Picasso: The Line.

This exhibition is generously supported by Madame Bérengère Primat; The Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation; Janie C. Lee and David B. Warren; Susan Vaughan Foundation; Richard and Susan Anderson; Mike and Diane Cannon; Schlumberger Limited; Skadden, Arps; Bloomberg Philanthropies; Clare Casademont and Michael Metz; Janet and Paul Hobby; John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation; Linda and George Kelly; Anne and David Kirkland; Franci Neely; Susanne and William E. Pritchard III; Leslie and Shannon Sasser; Anne and Bill Stewart; Marcy Taub Wessel, Henry J. N. Taub II, and the Taub Foundation; and the City of Houston.

Pictured: Violin on a Table (Violon sur un table), 1912, Watercolor, charcoal and paper on cardboard.