Picasso: Themes and Variations

March 28–September 6, 2010

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Featuring approximately one hundred works, this exhibition explores Pablo Picasso’s creative process through the medium of printmaking, tracing his evolving artistic vision over succeeding decades of experimentation in etching, lithography, and linoleum cut. Thematic groupings of works illustrate how Picasso’s imagery underwent a constant process of metamorphosis, and how printmaking inspired new directions by allowing him to build and document his compositions in various stages. One series of lithographs shows Picasso progressing, step by step, from a realistic depiction of a bull to one that is completely abstracted in simple, schematic lines. Other series reveal changing interpretations of the women close to Picasso as they become the subject of his art and a catalytic force behind his creativity. Additional themes—from the artist in the studio to the mythical Minotaur—appear in complex and inventive narrative series, demonstrating the artist’s extraordinary capacity for using visual art as a form of storytelling. The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue

In conjunction with this exhibition, MoMA will launch a major online project featuring its collection of over one thousand etchings, lithographs, and linoleum cuts by Picasso, allowing this extraordinary group of works to reach a global audience. Digital images of these prints will be available online and, in many cases, will be accompanied by interpretive texts.

Organized by Deborah Wye, The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Chief Curator of Prints and Illustrated Books.