The Cincinnati Art Museum will celebrate Pablo Picasso’s legacy with a first-of-its-kind exhibition, to explore his prolific engagement with landscape over his 75-year career. “Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds” features paintings and sculptures by the artist from some 25 public and private collections across the United States and Europe. This exhibition is organized by the American Federation of Arts with guest curator Laurence Madeline and the support of the Musée National Picasso-Paris.
The exhibit will be on display from June 23-Oct. 15.
Picasso (1881–1973) used landscape throughout his life to establish himself in new surroundings and to push forward into new styles of painting and sculpture. The exhibition, featuring more than 40 paintings, is the first project to explore the breadth of the artist’s lifelong work within the landscape tradition. It traces the elemental role of place, environment and interface between humanity and the natural world in Picasso’s art. Through representations of landscape, Picasso advanced dialogues with key artists of previous centuries, from Nicolas Poussin to Paul Cézanne, embedding himself within the European painting tradition, while insisting on a status apart.
The Cincinnati Art Museum will be the second venue to host the exhibition. It previously appeared at The Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“It is an extraordinary thing to be able to show an artist as renowned as Pablo Picasso in a wholly new light,” says Peter Jonathan Bell, Ph.D., the museum’s curator of European paintings, sculpture and drawings, who is leading the exhibition’s presentation in Cincinnati. “His mastery of the human form and of still life is unquestioned. With the works assembled for this exhibition, we are finally able to appreciate how significant landscape was for Picasso throughout his life, and in turn how consequential Picasso was for landscape painting — how he was able to transform this venerable genre to meet his needs as an innovator and expressive interpreter, reshaping the world around him through his art.”
“Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds” is part of “Picasso Celebration 1973–2023,” linking over 50 exhibitions and events at renowned cultural institutions across Europe and North America to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the artist’s death.
The accompanying catalog is edited by Laurence Madeline with essays by Peter Jonathan Bell and philosopher Jacques Rancière. The publication celebrates the depth of Picasso’s exploration of landscape subjects along with his expansive approach to the genre. It will be available soon for purchase from the museum shop, in person and online.
Tickets are $18, with discounted rates for students, children and seniors, and can be purchased onsite and online. Admission is free for members. The exhibition is free for non-members every Thursday evening from 5–8 p.m. as well as its opening weekend, June 23–25.
Photography is permitted, but no flash.